Abrasion

General Overview

The abrasion or loss by wear and tear of the coins in use is an important factor in the cost of a metallic circulation. This differs between one country and another according to the hardness of the coin which results from the description of ALLOY employed, to the surface of the coin exposed to wear in proportion to its bulk, to the greater or less employment of coin in circulation. At the present time the wear of the principal gold coin of the British empire (Sovereign) is very considerable. The investigation set on foot by Jevons in 1868 shows that the sovereign in ordinary use loses on an average -043 of a grain annually. In other words, the wear and tear of an English sovereign appears to be at the rate of parts, or something less than onetenth of a penny per annum (J. B. Martin, “Media of Exchange,” Journal of Statistical Society, 1884, p. 489).

The standard weight is 123.274 grains, and the lowest weight of legal currency 122.5 grains, so that the sovereign loses the •774 grains, which reduces it below legal tender, on an average in about 15.7 years. In the case of the the difference between standard weight and the lowest current weight is -512 grains ; and as the yearly loss of the half-sovereign averages -069 grains, these coins are reduced below legal tender weight generally in the short period of seven and a half years. The wear of the English coinage cannot, however, be taken as the criterion of the wear of all coinages everywhere, as varying rapidity of circulation, use of small paper representatives of money, etc., cause great differences between one country and another. The estimates of the actual amount differ very greatly from each other ; one made by JACOB, which includes the wear both of gold and silver coins, is of “one part in three hundred and sixty annually” (Jacob on the Precious Metals, voL ii. p. 186).

[For detailed information see An Historical Inquiry into the Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals, W. Jacob, London, 1831 (2 vols.) —”Paper on the Condition of the Gold Coinage of the United Kingdom,” W. S. Jevons, Journal of the Statistical Society of London, reprinted with much similar information in Jevons’s Investigations in Currency and Finance.—See also paper by John B. Martin, “Our Gold Coinage,” Journal of the Institute of Bankers, June 18S2.—Paper by R. H. Inglis Palgrave, “The Deficiency in Weight of our Gold Coinage, with a Proposal for its Reform,” March 1883 ; “The Gold Coinage,” December 1884 (both in Journal, Institute of Bankers).—Reports of Deputy Master of Mint, particularly those for 1883, 1884, 1885, and passim,—and Evidence and Reports Royal Commission on Recent Changes in the Relative Values of the Precious Metals, which includes a translation of A. Soetbeer’s Materials for the Illustration and Criticism of the Economic Relations of the Precious Metals, and of the CurrencyQuestion.— Evidence and Reports Royal Commission on Depression of Trade and Industry, 1886.]
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Resources

Notes

1. Robert Harry Inglis, Sir, Dictionary of Political Economy

See Also

Further Reading