Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1893 — MAY RESUME SILVER. [ARTICLE]

MAY RESUME SILVER.

Said to Be Probable that India Will Return to Free Coinage* Private cablegrams from London received in New York contained the important information that the Indian Council or Herschell Monetary Commission appointed by the British Government to readjust Indian finances, had receded from the position it took when it closed the mints of India to the free coinage of silver and was selling council bills below the rate fixed at the time this action was taken. Later cablegrams from London confirmed the report and said that the council had sold 20 lacs or 2,000,000 rupees at 151 pence. The ratio fixed by the council a few weeks ago was 16 to 1; that is. the commission decided that 1 rupee was worth 16 pence, or 32 cents in our money. The sales were at a discount of H cents per rupee of 32 cents fixed valuation. The advices accompanying the announcement of the Council's action were very meager, and the exact significance of the decline in the price of rupee paper could not be definitely determined by any of the bankers seen in Wall street. It was thought by some that it might mean a return to free coinage at the Indian mints, and the theory was advanced that the present decline in the value of the rupee, which is the silver monev of India, might be for the purpose of stimulating trade, which has been at a standstill smce the Indian Council attempted to fix an inflexible ratio between gold and silver.