[19] By the law of 1837 the alloy for both gold and silver coins was fixed at 1⁄10. The pure gold in the eagle, which by the Act of 1834 was fixed at 232 grs. (258 grs. gross for the piece), was thereby changed to 232.2 grs. At the same time the pure metal content of the silver dollar was maintained at 371 1⁄4 grs., the (gross) weight per piece being changed to 412 1⁄2 grs.
[20] See the case more fully established in Laughlin's Bimetallism in the United States, pp. 29, 57.
[21] Viz. of Philadelphia, New Orleans, Dahlonega, Charlotte, San Francisco, and Carson City.
[22] On the subject of the history of the Indian Currency System under the East India Co., in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, see a very interesting communication made in the pages of the Nineteenth Century by Mr. H.D. Macleod (Nineteenth Century, November 1894, p. 777). The question of the system established by the Order in Council of January 1841 (authorising officers in charge of public treasuries to freely receive gold coins struck in conformity with the provisions of Act xvii. of 1835, establishing the 15-rupee pieces), which continued till its rescinding in December 1852, is discussed in the evidence of Mr. T. Comber before the Royal Commission on Gold and Silver (Second Report of the Commission on Changes in the Relative Values of the Precious Metals, 1888, p. 27). For an excellent and succinct history of the Indian currency system from the end of the 18th century, see Robert Chalmers' History of Currency and the British Colonies, p. 336.
APPENDIX I
THE MONETARY SYSTEM OF FLORENCE DURING THE DAYS OF HER COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY AND INDEPENDENCE
Throughout the history of independent Florence her gold coin type is always the florin. In its first beginning her monetary system had relation to that of the restored Empire. The silver fiorino of which the first mention occurs was equivalent to 12 denari, as in the Charlemagne system. Presumably this would be equal to some hypothecated soldo, and the multiple of it a hypothecated fiorino d'oro, gold florin (= 20 soldi), would be equal to the lira or libra, or unit of weight. This will explain how it is possible to have mention of gold florins almost a century before the actual issuing of a real coin so named. Such mention occurs in the monetary ordinances and schedules of France as early as 1180. (See Preface, supra, p. [xiii], also De Saulcy, Documents, i. 115. Le Blanc was unable to explain this apparent contradiction of history.)
What the particular Florentine weight unit or lira (libbra) was, however, is uncertain. According to the