Sovereigns are legal tender so long as they are not diminished by wear below the weight of one hundred and twenty-two and a half grains, and in the case of half-sovereigns, 61. 1250 grains. Any individual to whom a coin weighing less than these respective amounts is tendered, is bound by law to deface it and hand it back to the individual who tenders it, and who has to bear the loss. At one time pocket balances adjusted to detect this difference were widely used; the provision has however been almost a dead letter, owing both to the difficulty of detection and to the absence of any penalty in the Act for a breach of this clause.

Until quite recent years, the State always fixed the onus of paying for the wear of the coinage upon the public, but it was unable to keep it in a proper condition of repair. The Bank of England always charged for light gold tendered to them, and as a consequence other bankers sorted out the heavy coins by means of a weighing machine, and returned the lighter ones into circulation.

Gresham's law of course was in operation, and the gold coinage got into such a bad condition that Jevons estimated, in 1869, that 31 1/2 per cent. of the sovereigns and 50 per cent. of the half sovereigns were below the legal limit in weight. About 1884 the bankers of the kingdom took the matter up, and eventually the Government so far receded from the position it had always maintained, that in 1889 a new Coinage Act was passed, providing for the calling in of pre-Victorian gold coins at the expense of the State. Exception was made in the case of coins which appeared to have been illegally or unfairly tampered with, the evidence of such ill-usage being the loss in weight of more than four grains. Such coins would be bought as bullion, but all other pre-Victorian sovereigns and half-soverigns were to be exchanged by the Mint, through the Bank of England, at their full nominal value. By a Royal Proclamation, pre-Victorian gold coins were declared to be no longer current after February 28th, 1891. In 1891 this Act was extended to all the gold coin in circulation, the evidence of ill-usage being altered to three grains loss in weight.

These two Acts mark the abandonment of the traditional view that the loss by wear of the coinage must be borne by the last holder. Whatever may be the general opinion as to the justness or unjust-ness of this tradition, it had undoubtedly failed in practice, and the State has by passing these Acts definitely assumed the responsibility for keeping the gold coinage in repair. The effect on the currency has been excellent, and there is now small cause for discontent at the condition of our gold coins.

The condition of the silver coinage is of course of less importance, because it consists of token coins only, which are not required to circulate outside the kingdom, and which do not in any way owe their value to the value of the metal contained in them. Nevertheless some of the coins were a few years ago so worn that the inscription and impression were quite illegible. The duty of the State to bear the cost of replacing such coins is however plainer than in the case of the gold coins, because owing to the fall in the price of silver bullion, there is a handsome profit to the Mint upon the coinage of silver. The market price of silver is about 2s. 3d. an ounce, and this is coined into five and a-half shillings. Allowing for the expenses of the Mint, this leaves a profit of more than 100 per cent., so that there is every obligation thrown upon the State to keep the silver coinage in a proper state of repair. Accordingly, during the last ten years or so the Mint have advised the banks through the Bank of England that they will accept small quantities of badly worn silver at its nominal value, and the result is that our silver coinage, though far from perfect, has considerably improved during recent years.

Schedule to the Coinage Act of 1891.