As to the first, I answer, that these shillings are in so small a quantity, in proportion to the gold species, that they cannot be employed in _payments_. Now it has been said above, that _exchange_ (in trade) regulates the value of the pound sterling, and considers it as a determinate value, according to the combination of the intrinsic worth of all the several currencies, _in proportion as payments are made in one or the other_. Now (generally speaking) no commercial obligations are acquitted in silver. I do not understand by the word _payments_, a few pounds sterling sent from farmers in the country, perhaps in payments of their rents to their landlords; nor what falls into the public offices, in the payment of taxes. It is trade alone, and the payment of bills of exchange between different countries, which can ascertain the true value of that currency in which mercantile payments are made. Were these worn-out shillings in such plenty as to allow bills of exchange to be acquitted in them, I make no doubt but they would fall below the value of the 1⁄21 of new guineas; every one would be glad to dispose of them for guineas, at the rate of their currency; and guineas, then, would be as difficult to be got for silver, as silver is now to be had for guineas. This would bring the standard still lower than it is at present; that is, below the value of the gold: but as payments cannot be made in shillings, their currency cannot affect the standard. The second question is, Why they should be so difficult to obtain in change for guineas, which are above their value? I answer, that it is not the intrinsic worth of the light shillings which makes them valuable, and difficult to be got; but the utility they are of in small circulation, forces people to part with their guineas for a less valuable currency. These shillings I consider (now) as _marks_, not as material money, fitted to a standard. Every body knows the difference between _marks_ or _counters_, and _specie of intrinsic worth_. The copper coin of most nations is marks, and passes current, although it does not contain the intrinsic value of the denomination it carries; nor ought it to be a legal tender in payments above a certain sum. Such a regulation preserves its usefulness for small circulation, and prevents it, at the same time, from debasing the standard, and involving in confusion the _specific currency_ (as I may call the gold and silver coins) when properly proportioned, and of just weight.