Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1875 — Cheap Money. [ARTICLE]

Cheap Money.

The people of the United States have to in» little to make it and of being worth BEES destruction, a sum which properly belongs to the accountWf'the cost. The loss on coin by abrasion is a known and de-* terminate quantity,. and it is very small indeed. It takes an average of eighteen years of ordinary use for an English sovereign to wear down to the point where the mint rejects it for light weight, and even then it has lost but a fractional per. centage of its value. When we boast of the convenience and cheapness and ease of handling our fractional currency, let us remember that between coin and paper there is a vast difference in this item of absolute loss. If a man loses a coin somebody will probably 'find ft. The loss of the rags we use for small change ia more likely to be beneficial only to the Government that is relieved or the duty of redeeming it The first issue of fractional currency amounted to $20,215,635. Of this sum, on the Ist of August after more than ten years’ effort on the part of Government to call in and redeem this,.“money,” there remained outstanding $4,329,265. This has practically hot been reduced in five years, and it will never be reduced to $4,000,000—50 that the people have absolutely lost 20 per cent or the value of this entire issue. Of the second issue, at least $2,500,000 will never be redeemed, being 10 per cent, of the whole. In all, some $310,000,000 of fractional currency has been issued' by the Government—to say nothing of flie cords of counterfeit “ scrip” which the desire for cheap money has ? evoked—and., ft is safe to say that at least $10,000,000, or more than 8 per cent., has been, up to this time, destroyed, worn out 'Or irretrievably lost. This is a heavy-sum for the people to pay in thirteen years for “ abrasion” of small change only. The loss by destruction of legal-tenders his been. fer greater. The Government has been drawing in all it could get hold of, of the earlier issues, ever since 1869. The" first year $67,000,000 came in; $107,000,000 in 1871 • $58,000,000 in 1872;540,- - in 1874. The amount still outstanding at the close of the fiscal year 1878-74,.was over $58,000,000. We cannot be greatly out of the way in estimating that one-third at least of this amount will never be presented for re-demption-r-in other words, that on the issues of Government money between 1862 and 1869 there has been an absolute loss to the people of about $20,000,000, besides the incalculable relative loss by the depreciation of paper money. Ana on subsequent issues tiie loss will be great enough to make the total on all Government paper money up to the time of redemption, if we should come to specie payments in 1879, little if any short of $50,000,000. This is one of the penalties of cheap money. ft may be said, of course, that any kind of paper currency is subjected to the same danger of destruction. The danger is similar, but by no means so great, under specie payments as under the inconvertible system. Bank bills payable in coin cannot be kept long in circulation. They afe frequently replaced with fresh, notes. The average life” of a note on a Scotch bank is about ten days, and although it may be reissued it is never issued after it begins to be defaced. At the present rate of redemption of National Bank notes in this Country the whole issue would go through the Treasury on an average once in about seventy-five weeks, or a year and a half. It is certain that redeemable bank notes do not cause so great a loss as we suffer with our greenbacks, National Bank notes and fractional currency. To save the large percentage on paper money worn out and lost before it can be redeemed is, therefore ajtpod and an wrtiter.