HC Deb 13 June 1842 vol 63 cc1492-3
Mr. Childers

said, that of late very great inconvenience and loss had been sustained by the public, more especially by the humbler classes, in consequence of the proclamation respecting the depreciated gold coinage. Every day innumerable cases were occurring in which poor people, ill able to afford it, were subjected to a loss of one shilling in the pound, and even more. It was very true that similar proclamations had been issued before, but the last of these was twenty-one years ago. He did not mean to say that the proclamation lately issued might not be a very proper and necessary one; but he thought that some method should have been, and, at all events, should now be devised, for mitigating the consequent loss. He would suggest, with reference to the poorer classes, that something might be done by the medium of the savings'-banks towards letting them receive the full value of what money they had.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer

was very glad that the hon. Gentleman had mentioned the subject, as it gave him an opportunity to dispel, he hoped, an impression which generally prevailed, and which had been given circulation to by interested parties, that the value of the old sovereign was greatly below that of the more recent gold coinage. Of the large number of sovereigns that were paid into the Bank, which gave a fair criterion, the deficiency in weight varied from 1¼ to per cent.; so that the loss of 3d. in the sovereign would completely compensate for the deficiency of weight in the average of cases. Some might be a little more, some a little less valuable; but certainly threepence in the pound was the utmost average deterioration. He was, however, at the present moment in communication with the officers of the revenue, with the view of facilitating the exchange of light coin, so as to meet the wants more especially of the humbler classes; but he was anxious in the interval which must necessarily elapse before this arrangement could be brought into operation, to have it distinctly made known to the public, that the diminution of the value was not in any case such as to justify the demands which were made by interested persons on the holders of light sovereigns.