Of the two precious metals, only one can be the standard of value. In a gold-standard country, as England has been since 1816, the golden sovereign of lawful weight is the standard of value. As the price of silver, like that of every other commodity, varies with demand and supply, it would be futile to attempt to make silver coins correspond in actual metal value to gold coins; especially as, since the great fall in the price of silver from its demonetisation in many countries and its large production, silver coins are really tokens; tokens of value, but still tokens, not legal tender above a certain amount. A shilling melted down is only worth fivepence or less; while sovereigns melted down can be exchanged, at a trifling charge, for their weight in minted gold.
In silver-standard countries it is gold which varies in price. Thus in India, where for centuries the standard of value has been the silver rupee now weighing 180 grains and worth fifty years ago a little over two shillings, gold coins of the same weight called ‘mohurs’ were current at market price, about 16 rupees more or less. Sovereigns were worth about 10 rupees in 1860; they would exchange now for double that price did not the Government of India, by restricting silver coinage and other legitimate devices, keep the gold price of the rupee at about 1s. 4d., so that 15 rupees will buy a sovereign for transactions with England and other gold-standard countries.
Gold was coined in ancient Rome. The gold solidus or aureus of Constantine was 1/72 of an As or mint-pound; so that it weighed 70·14 grains. It was called ‘solidus,’ entire, as distinguished from the semissis and tremissis, its half and third. The original French sol, or shilling, was an ‘entire’ of 12 deniers; hence the £ s. d. we use were once the current signs, in France and elsewhere, for libræ, solidi, denarii.
There were some gold coins of the early Saxon kings. Under the early Norman kings foreign gold coins were current, but the first regular gold coinage was that of Edward III; his Noble of fine gold, 1/50 of a Tower pound, weighed 108 grains, the weight of two golden florins of Florence or of two ducats or zechins of Venice. He afterwards coined nobles at the rate of 42 to the mint-pound; these weighed 119 grains, and, as they were of 23-7/8 carats fine, contained almost exactly the same weight of pure gold as the modern sovereign of 123-1/4 grains. Their value was about half a marc or 80 sterlings of full weight, and as the proper weight of silver in English coins was then three times that at present, the 6s. 8d. equivalence of the noble then is that of the sovereign now.
The weight of gold coins mattered little in practice; they were always weighed, and represented an amount of sterling varying according to the state of the money-market and to the condition of the silver coinage.
Edward IV’s noble was called a Rial; and the Angel, 2/3 of its weight or about 80 grains, was also coined. Henry VII coined a double Rial of half a Troy ounce. Under Henry VIII this was called a Sovereign.
The fineness of gold coins, originally of 23 carats 3-1/2 grains = 994·7 gold in 1000, was reduced to 22 carats under Henry VIII and, after some variations, this standard = 916·6 gold in 1000 was finally adopted.[[36]]
Sovereigns or Unites were coined under James I at 172 grains, under Charles I at 141 grains. Their value in silver varied of course according to market-rates for gold. Coined under Charles II at 130 grains they were henceforth called Guineas, varying in value from 30 to 20 shillings. Repeated attempts to fix their value by law utterly failed. In the eighteenth century it was generally above the 21s. standard at which the guinea is still reckoned as a polite coin. In 1816, on the adoption of a gold standard, the name of Sovereign was revived for the coin which is its basis.
The sovereign weighs 123·274 grains, of which 113·006 are pure gold. It is light if it weighs less than 122-1/2 grains, that is if it has lost more than 1-1/2d. in value. Its life of current weight is about 20 years in ordinary circumstances of circulation.
The mint value of gold is £3 17s. 10-1/2d. an ounce Troy; that is 2·1212 pence a grain pure, or 1·7676 penny at the standard fineness of 22 carats = 916·6 in 1000.