The note issue privileges of a bank also affect its reserve requirements. Since, if not prohibited by law, notes may be issued in all denominations needed for hand-to-hand circulation within a nation, and since for all purposes except small change such notes are as convenient as any other form of currency, a bank with unrestricted issue privileges can supply all the demands of its customers for currency for domestic use, except those for small change, without resort to outside sources of supply. In this case, however, it needs to keep a reserve in order to meet demands for the redemption of notes. Such demands arise on account of the need of coin for small change or for shipment abroad or of means for meeting domestic clearing and other bank balances. The aggregate needed for the supply of such demands, however, is much less than would be required if the privilege of issuing notes did not exist. In the maintenance of reserves the chief reliance of commercial banks is the circulation of standard coin within a nation and the importation of such coin. The coin within the borders of a nation passes regularly into the vaults of banks by the process of deposit, and on account of the credit balances they carry with foreign institutions, the loans they are able to secure from them, the commercial paper they hold which is discountable in foreign markets, and the bonds and stocks sometimes in their possession which are salable there, they are able to import large quantities in case of need. Since the standard coin in existence in the world adjusts itself to the need for it in substantially the same manner that the supply of any other instrument or commodity adjusts itself to the demand, banks ordinarily have no difficulty in supplying their needs, and under extraordinary circumstances, though difficulties along this line sometimes arise, means of overcoming them are available which will be discussed in the proper place. If, as is the case in the United States, certain forms of government notes are available as bank reserves, these find their way into the banks' vaults by the process of deposit in the same manner as coin. The possession of such notes by a bank enables it, to the extent of their amount, to throw the responsibility for the supply of standard coin upon the government, and in the circulation of the country such notes take the place of an equivalent amount of standard coin. Whether or not a government ought to assume such a responsibility is a question which will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.