HC Deb 16 April 1896 vol 39 cc1065-6

I now turn to the general financial condition of the country. In the first place I should like to say a word upon the question of our coinage. Whether we bimetallists, or whether we be bimetallists, I should think that we are all agreed that our standard coin ought to be of the proper fineness and weight. ["Hear, hear!"] In 1888 my right hon. Friend the present First Lord of Admiralty set apart a considerable fund for the restoration of the gold coinage to its proper weight, which had then fallen, as the Committee are aware, into a very bad state. In April of that year an inspection was made of all gold coins which were received upon a certain day in, I think, some 300 post offices in the country. A similar inspection was made in May last, and I think it will be interesting to the Committee if I inform them of the comparative results of the two inspections. In 1888 it was discovered, out of the gold coins that were tested, that the percentage of light sovereigns—excluding in each case decimal fractions—was 15 per cent. In 1895 that percentage had been reduced to 11 per cent. ["Hear, hear!"] In 1888 the percentage of light half-sovereigns was 70 per cent.; in 1895 that percentage had been reduced to 17 per cent. ["Hear, hear!"] The proportion of full weight sovereigns in the first year was 54, in the second 88; and of the full-weight half-sovereigns 29½ in the first year, and 82½in the second year. The mean weight of the sovereign and the half-sovereign had been increased by an amount which could only be conveyed in decimal fractions, but I will say that it is calculated by the authorities that we have added a penny to the mean value of the sovereign, and l½d. to the mean value of the half-sovereign. The deficiency in value on an estimated coinage of £90,000,000 was calculated in 1888 at £817,675; in 1895 it was calculated at £303,791. Parliament provided about £700,000 for the work of restoring the coinage, on an estimate that all the pre-Victorian coins and £43,000,000 of Victorian coinage would require to be withdrawn, and I believe we have nearly reached a point at which the regular elimination of light gold coins at the present rate will fully compensate for the deterioration which must be always taking place. This year the cost is calculated to be about £31,000, and that will be provided for out of an unexpended balance, on March 31, of £43,675, and there is still the sum of £250,000, authorised by the Coinage Act of 1893, which has not yet been appropriated. I hope the Committee will consider that this is a satisfactory account of the progress that has been made for the restoration of our coinage. ["Hear, hear!"]