In some countries the cost of coinage is defrayed by the government; while in others, it is paid for by those who bring bullion to the mint to be coined, and the charge is called a seignorage. This charge is perfectly proper and just, there being no more reason why the government should render this service gratuitously than any other. It is further recommended by policy as well as justice. When the coinage is gratuitous, the coins being then of no more value than an equal weight of bullion, are as readily melted up by the manufacturer, or exported by the merchant, as the same amount of bullion, and the expense and loss from coinage are thus augmented. But when money is subjected to a seignorage, it being worth more in the country where it was coined than it is abroad, the loss on exporting it tends to prevent its exportation; and even when it is exported, the same circumstance will often occasion it to be returned to the country where it is most valuable.

There is another important diversity among nations as to money. Some make silver, others gold, and others again both metals, standards of value and legal tenders for debts. Without doubt each metal has its peculiar advantages as a currency. Silver is the best for small values, while gold is far more convenient for large payments. But the policy of having two standards of value does, in fact, often deprive a community of one of the two species of currency which it was intended to secure. When both gold and silver are made standards of value and legal tenders for debts, the law must determine their relative values. But the relative values of these metals, like those of all other commodities, is liable to change, and whenever, in these occasional fluctuations, the market value differs from the legal, the undervalued metal is sure of being that kind of specie which is sent abroad, and is also likely to be sent to the melting-pot of the manufacturer, until it disappears from circulation. Besides, when the undervalued metal is neither melted nor exported, it is likely to be either hoarded or to command a premium in the market, either of which supposes it to be not in general circulation.

When the mint was first established in 1791, the law estimated gold at fifteen times the value of silver. This being found to rate gold too high and silver too low, whenever money was to be sent hither, gold was preferred, while silver was preferred for export; the consequence was, an inadequate supply of silver, so that it generally commanded, for large sums, a premium of 5 per cent. Some years afterwards, gold gradually rose in price, so as to be worth more than fifteen times as much as silver, and then it commanded a premium - the eagles first coined readily selling for half a dollar more than their value by law. Congress subsequently raised the price of gold to sixteen times the value of silver, but the California mines have reduced its price; and, to replace the silver currency which had been previously banished from circulation by reason of its being valued too low, a new issue has been made of silver, with a degree of alloy sufficient to counterbalance the recent depreciation of gold. It seems to be a mistake to suppose, as the legislature probably did, that it is necessary to make both metals legal tenders to secure the circulation of both. They are so universally prized, that if they were coined into pieces of convenient size, either of them will be readily taken as money, whether made a legal tender or not. This fact has been more than once evinced in the United States, where foreign coins have always had a ready currency, though they have sometimes not been a legal tender, but also in bank notes, which have never been a legal tender in any State, but which constitute the principal currency in all of them. It then is not merely an absurdity in theory to have two standards whose relative values are always liable to change, but a policy that is practically injurious. Besides silver and gold, copper is generally coined for the payment of small sums, since even a silver coin of the value of a cent would be too small for use. In the United States the copper coins have undergone several changes. They now are rated so much beyond the value of the metal, that they yield a considerable profit to the government.

It is a yet more important proposition that the value of these metals is liable to change, when compared with that of other commodities. Whenever they are procured with more ease, and become more abundant, they must obey the universal law, and become proportionally cheaper. The discovery of America, where mines of unprecedented richness were found, was believed to have, in the course of time, lowered gold to one-third of its former price, and silver to one-fourth; and the recent discoveries of gold in Siberia, California, and Australia, have already produced a fall in the value of that metal, and are likely to produce a much greater. Such a fall is very important in its consequences. In all countries in which gold is a legalized currency, its depreciation lessens the real amount of debts, and is so far an injustice to creditors. It virtually reduces the amount of all national debts, and lessens all incomes derived from money, or from that which, like the shares of joint-stock companies, has only a monetary value.

If the whole amount of gold annually produced exceeds the amount annually consumed, it must necessarily decline in value, and it becomes desirable to know the extent of the depreciation.

The quantity of gold now annually drawn from the mines is estimated at two hundred millions of dollars; and, from present appearances, there is no reason to expect that the production will soon diminish. The annual consumption of this metal may be ranged under four principal heads: 1. Coming; 2. Manufactures and the arts; 3. Wear and tear; 4. Losses at sea. We will briefly notice each of them.

1. Coining. The quantity of gold used in this way has of late greatly increased. In consequence of the abundant supply derived from California and Australia, this metal enters more largely into the currency of those countries where the previous circulation had been principally of silver. This has been the case in France, where gold has taken the place of silver to the amount of several hundred millions of dollars. In the United States also, where silver was formerly the principal currency, gold has been extensively substituted, so as to have probably increased it from less than ten millions of dollars to more than two hundred millions.