Disadvantages of separate money

systems.

Our national decimal system.

CHAPTER XVIII

MONEY AND THE POST OFFICE

207. Our Currency System. A person who travels in Europe, spending but a short time in each country, is always annoyed because of the frequent changes in the money systems. For example, if he goes from Paris to Berlin, he finds that the German ticket agents and hotel keepers will not take French coins, and that he must go to a money changer's and obtain German coins for those of France. He must then learn to count money under an entirely new system.

If each state might decide what coins it should have, there would be as great confusion in the United States as in Europe. But the Constitution very wisely prescribes that Congress shall have the power to coin money in order that there may be a uniform currency throughout the United States. Fortunately for us, our national government adopted a decimal system which is easy to use, with the dollar as the "money unit." As the coins prescribed by Congress, with the paper money issued under its direction, form a national currency, each coin or bill has exactly the same value in one state that it has in every other.

208. United States Coins.

The more valuable coins are made of gold and silver, principally because of

coins and

the great value of small quantities of those metals, Important but also on account of their hardness and durability their manuwhich are increased by adding another metal as an facture. alloy, the proportions being nine parts of the precious metal to one part of the alloy. Any one who brings gold bullion to a mint of the United States can have it coined for him, but all silver coins are made by the government from silver which it has purchased. Cents and nickels are coined at the Philadelphia mint from materials furnished by a private company. When one man owes another a sum of money, the Legal tenlatter may accept any form of United States money or he may insist that the debt shall be paid in those kinds only which are "legal tender," that is, the forms of money which the government says every creditor shall receive for amounts due him. Only gold coins and the silver dollar are legal tender to an unlimited amount, the smaller coins being legal tender for the payment of very small debts only.

der.

of coin disks.

209. The Process of Making Coins. The different Preparation coins in use in the United States are coined at the mints operated by the government at Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver. The gold and silver is first refined so as to be absolutely pure, and is then mixed with exactly ten per cent of copper alloy for silver coins, and copper and silver alloy for gold coins. This mixture is molded into bars about a foot long, which are rolled repeatedly until they become strips of several feet in length and of the required thickness for the various coins. These strips are fed into a cutting machine which cuts out

Milling, stamping, and counting coins.

What greenbacks are.

the disks of sizes suitable for the different coins.
The disks are first placed in the milling machine in
order to raise the edges to prevent wear upon the
face of the completed coin, and are then taken to the
coining machine in which dies from above and below
are pressed against the disks at the same time. In
the counting room, the more valuable coins are
counted by weight, and those of less value are
counted by filling the grooves of boards which will
contain a certain number and no more. (See ap-
paratus at left of lower view opposite.) The greatest
care is taken to see that every important coin weighs
exactly what it should, and each disk is tested for
that purpose.
Those are discarded and remelted
which are under weight, and the heavy coins are
filed until the weight is correct.

210. Paper Money. The Greenbacks. There are three kinds of paper money in circulation: (1) the greenbacks, (2) national bank notes, and (3) gold and silver certificates. The greenbacks are simply notes issued by the United States government promising to pay the amount named on the face of the note. They were issued originally during the Civil War when the government was greatly in need of money. These notes were made a legal tender and were paid by the Treasury Department to individuals to whom the United States was in debt. As the greenbacks were of small denominations, people continued to use them long after the government promised to redeem them, and there are now over $300,000,000 worth of greenbacks in circulation.