the silver, always depreciating, we will at last, in the course of time, make the dollar much less in value than it now is, and thus imitate the dishonesty of those European sovereigns, who at various times have defrauded their subjects by the adulteration of the coin, and covered their names with indelible disgrace. 13. The mode proposed of effecting the change would disturb the currency immensely. The new dollar, though much lighter than the present one, would be a legal tender. The old silver coins, instead of their present premium of 2 or 3 per cent, would be worth 7 per cent more than the new. They would be withdrawn from circulation much more rapidly than now. The mint, already overworked with the coinage of California gold, could not, for a long time, supply the vacancy in the circulation. The distribution of the new coin into the channels of trade being always a slow process, involving the outlay of capital by the merchant, would require time, trouble, and expense; small change would thus be scarcer than ever. 14. The banks would stop immediately paying their demands in silver; they would redeem their bills in gold, and use their silver to buy up the new dollars as they would issue from the mint. The old coin being worth 7 per cent more than the new, would not circulate as a currency, and a bank whose specie should be mainly in silver, would make large gains by its sale as bullion. 15. An alteration in the gold coin would produce less disturbance. Most of it is held by the banks, and it could be exchanged more readily by them, because in large quantities. Its place can be supplied temporarily by paper, because, being of larger denominations, this exchange would be less objectionable than the substitution of paper for silver. 16. The nominal loss caused by the recoinage of the gold could be made up by a charge of one-half of 1 per cent at the mint for the coinage of bullion. This charge is proposed by Mr. Hunter to pay the expenses of the mint. It is a proper charge, because the government is under no more obligations to prepare the raw gold of the mines for the market by assaying it and stamping it, than it is to prepare the iron, or the zinc, or the copper, by smelting and purifying it. 17. A charge of one-half of 1 per cent for coinage would, in the course of five or six years, repay all the expense of increasing the weight of the gold pieces now in circulation. The gold in the currency is not over forty or fifty millions. An increase of 24 or 3 per cent in its weight would be fully met in the course of five or six years by per cent on the coinage of fifty millions per year of native gold. No loss would thus fall on the Treasury. 18. This change would involve but little if any loss to the gold digger, because the grains of gold he may have would be fully as valuable in the markets of the world as before, and would buy just as much silk, cotton, coffee and tea, and other articles of consumption, as before. 19. Let Congress, then, direct the mint to issue no more gold eagles of 258 grains, but to increase their weight to 266 grains of the present fineness. Let them charge per cent for the coinage of bullion, and use this fund to increase the weight of the gold eagles that may be received into the Treasury. After the 1st of January, 1855, or sooner, when probably more than one-half of the gold pieces now in the country would either be recoined or exported, let the present coins of 258 grains be no longer a legal tender, except in sums of less than one hundred, and except to the government, allowing, however, government the privilege of paying them out to all persons when the amount to be paid should exceed one hundred dollars. After the 1st of January, 1858, the old pieces no longer to be a tender except to the government, and that by weight and not by count, 258 grains to the ten dollars. The charge of per cent to continue till abolished by law. 20. The ratio between gold and silver would then be very nearly 15.5 to 1. The pure gold in an eagle would be 239.4 grains. The silver in ten dollars is 3712.5. The ratio is 15.5075, almost identical with the ratio in France and Holland. 21. This change would seem to be preferable to the one proposed by Mr. Hunter, in its justice and good faith to creditors, in its preserving the usual standard of value invariable; in its making no greater change than the bullion market indicates to be necessary; in its causing less disturbance in the currency; in its imposing less labor on the mint; in its repairing an error we made in 1834, and in its reducing our gold coin to the standard of France and Holland, rather than to the standard of England, where silver is used as a token, and not as a legal currency. PRICE OF SILVER COINS IN NEW YORK AND LONDON IN 1851. TABLE SHOWING THE PRICE OF SILVER COINS IN NEW YORK AND LONDON, MONTHLY, DURING THE YEAR 1851, AND UP TO THIS TIME. THE-THREE CENT COINS OF THE UNITED STATES. The Treasurer of the Mint gives notice that he is prepared to exchange three-cent pieces for gold, to all applicants therefore. He will also deliver the same, at the expense of the Mint, to any parties requiring them, at a distance, and who may be conveniently accessible on the line of the expresses. The coins being in parcels of $30, $60, and $150. The applications should be for either of those sums, or multiple thereof; and payment in advance will be required in every case. CONDITION OF THE BANKS OF PENNSYLVANIA, NOVEMBER, 1851. We are indebted to E. BANKS, Esq., Auditor General of Pennsylvania, for an official copy of his report, transmitting returns of the Banks and Savings Institutions of that commonwealth, which show their respective conditions on their first discount days, in the months of February, May, August, and November, 1851. The returns of the Banks are made to the Auditor General, agreeably to law. From this report we give a condensed summary of the leading features of the various Banks of Pennsylvania, in the month of November, 1851. We have omitted in the two following tables a few of the less important items, but they are embraced in the general summary which we have subjoined :-* • Cents are omitted for convenience--it does not, however, vary the adding up materially.-ED. MER. MAG. TABULAR STATEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF THE VARIOUS BANKS OF PENNSYLVANIA, NOVEMBER, 1852. notes. $640,332 $282,895 $196,352 $90,624 $121,642 Stocks. $20,150 $4,292,803 Philadelphia Bank 2,141,788 413,341 70,498 272,492 66,500 2,000 25,360 3,482,048 Bank of North America. 1,002,905 517,526 138,932 272,209 45,932 628,508 71,325 3,686,945 Commercial Bank of Pennsylvania. 1,648,705 213,239 67,207 153,748 55,647 1,500 108,556 2,338,144 Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Philadelphia 2,528,089 426,882 125,621 511,465 66,519 13,053 151,785 4,193,307 Girard Bank 1,462,256 449,384 1,116,771 511,471 3,539,883 Southwark Bank. 707,104 256,678 11,852 1,249 15,000 20,250 1,116,639 Bank of Commerce... 600,261 235,732 19,458 11,000 974,003 Mechanics' Bank of Philadelphia.. 1,653,058 412,949 72,657 43,565 14,620 23,867 2,256,594 Western Bank of Philadelphia.. 1,132,276 205,983 104,319 161,624 25,000 15,960 958 1,654,637 Bank of the Northern Liberties 840,515 174,350 76,497 198,799 15,213 212,914 1,532,989 Bank of Penn Township 752,994 265,187 48,157 20,002 5,300 6,247 1,135,917 Manufacturers' & Mechanics' Bank of the N. L.. 661,415 169,056 45,466 26,852 1,583 7,909 948,936 Kensington Bank.. 641,134 101,972 12,702 50,351 11,764 ..... 85,064 977,587 Tradesmens' Bank of Philadelphia. 323,393 161,718 5,911 17,857 10,366 1,048 521,481 Bank of Germantown. 366,929 36,214 19,991 ...... 36,481 7,745 3,520 500,316 Bank of Delaware County 300,460 59,750 26,817 2,509 4,000 63,145 459,039 Bank of Chester County. 555,117 104,350 72,604 9,933 28,250 42,936 27,380 852,031 Farmers' Bank of Bucks County 170,651 13,777 10,885 9,494 8,061 ...... 7,605 Doylestown Bank of Bucks County.. 145,795 33,916 17,531 8,148 300 762 Easton Bank... 753,286 93,226 11,738 26,255 6,786 50,609 Miners' Bank of Pottsville. 444,349 30,483 130,585 23,222 52,643 55,629 23,675 18,285 240,074 211,401 1,100,826 778,920 Farmers' Bank of Schuylkill County. 207,303 15,716 58,658 10,590 713 .... 292,972 Bank of Montgomery County.. 649,154 72,900 7,625 3,133 9,433 84,506 2,830 855,591 Lebanon Bank.. Farmers' Bank of Reading 618,217 68,967 26,672 18,727 34,174 1,269 123,210 896,289 Lancaster Bank. 913,211 107,726 26,840 42,956 13,140 29,155 67,510 1,262,663 Lancaster County Bank. 452,729 75,284 4,483 22,328 8,503 25,088 588,874 |