| £ | s. | d. | qrs. | Dollars. | £ | s. | d. | qrs. | Dollars. | ||
| Addition. | 8 | 13 | 11 | 1-2 | =38.65 | Subtraction. | 8 | 13 | 11 | 1-2 | =38.65 |
| 4 | 12 | 8 | 3-4 | =20.61 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 3-4 | =20.61 | ||
| 13 | 6 | 8 | 1-4 | =59.26 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3-4 | =18.04 | ||
| Multiplication by 8. | Division by 8. | ||||||||||
| £ | s. | d. | qrs. | Dollars. | £ | s. | d. | qrs. | Dollars. | ||
| 8 | 13 | 11 | 1-2 | =38.65 | 8 | 13 | 11 | 1-2 | =8 ) 38.65 | ||
| 20 | 8 | 20 | 4.83 | ||||||||
| 173 | $309.20 | 173 | |||||||||
| 12 | 12 | ||||||||||
| 2087 | 2087 | ||||||||||
| 4 | 4 | ||||||||||
| 8350 | 8)8350 | ||||||||||
| 8 | 4)1043 | ||||||||||
| 4)66,800 | 12) 260 | 3-4 | |||||||||
| 12)16 700 | 20) 21 | 8 | 3-4 | ||||||||
| 20) 1391 | 8 | £1 | 1 | 8 | 3-4 | ||||||
| £69 | 11 | 8 | |||||||||
A bare inspection of the above operations will evince the labor which is occasioned by subdividing the Unit into 20ths, 240ths, and 960ths, as the English do, and as we have done; and the ease of subdivision in a decimal ratio. The same difference arises in making payment. An Englishman, to pay £8, 13s. 11d. 1-2 qrs., must find, by calculation, what combination of the coins of his country will pay this sum; but an American, having the same sum to pay, thus expressed $38.65, will know, by inspection only, that three golden pieces, eight units or dollars, six tenths, and five coppers, pay it precisely.
III. The third condition required is, that the Unit, its multiples, and subdivisions, coincide in value with some of the known coins so nearly, that the people may, by a quick reference in the mind, estimate their value. If this be not attended to, they will be very long in adopting the innovation, if ever they adopt it. Let us examine, in this point of view, each of the four coins proposed.
1. The golden piece will be 1-5 more than a half joe, and 1-15 more than a double guinea. It will be readily estimated, then, by reference to either of them; but more readily and accurately as equal to ten dollars.
2. The Unit, or Dollar, is a known coin, and the most familiar of all, to the minds of the people. It is already adopted from South to North; has identified our currency, and therefore happily offers itself as a Unit already introduced. Our public debt, our requisitions, and their appointments, have given it actual and long possession of the place of Unit. The course of our commerce, too, will bring us more of this than of any other foreign coin, and therefore renders it more worthy of attention. I know of no Unit which can be proposed in competition with the Dollar, but the Pound. But what is the Pound? 1547 grains of fine silver in Georgia; 1289 grains in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire; 1031 1-4 grains in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; 966 3-4 grains in North Carolina and New York. Which of these shall we adopt? To which State give that pre-eminence of which all are so jealous? And on which impose the difficulties of a new estimate of their corn, their cattle, and other commodities? Or shall we hang the pound sterling, as a common badge, about all their necks? This contains 1718 3-4 grains of pure silver. It is difficult to familiarize a new coin to the people; it is more difficult to familiarize them to a new coin with an old name. Happily, the dollar is familiar to them all, and is already as much referred to for a measure of value, as their respective provincial pounds.
3. The tenth will be precisely the Spanish bit, or half pistereen. This is a coin perfectly familiar to us all. When we shall make a new coin, then, equal in value to this, it will be of ready estimate with the people.
4. The hundredth, or copper, will differ little from the copper of the four Eastern States, which is 1-108 of a dollar; still less from the penny of New York and North Carolina, which is 1-96 of a dollar; and somewhat more from the penny or copper of Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, which is 1-90 of a dollar.
It will be about the medium between the old and the new coppers of these States, and will therefore soon be substituted for them both. In Virginia, coppers have never been in use. It will be as easy, therefore, to introduce them there of one value as of another. The copper coin proposed will be nearly equal to three-fourths of their penny, which is the same with the penny lawful of the Eastern States.
A great deal of small change is useful in a State, and tends to reduce the price of small articles. Perhaps it would not be amiss to coin three more pieces of silver, one of the value of five-tenths, or half a dollar, one of the value of two-tenths, which would be equal to the Spanish pistereen, and one of the value of five coppers, which would be equal to the Spanish half-bit. We should then have five silver coins, viz.:
- 1. The Unit or Dollar:
- 2. The half dollar or five-tenths:
- 3. The double tenth, equal to 2, or one-fifth of a dollar, or to the pistereen:
- 4. The tenth, equal to a Spanish bit:
- 5. The five copper piece, equal to .5, or one-twentieth of a dollar, or the half-bit.