'But it does not follow that even a full-weight sovereign is more valuable, either in a mathematical or in a commercial sense, than twenty-five francs of gold coin, when it is conveyed to a country within the operation of the Monetary Convention of December, 1865. There the sovereign ceases to be coin, and is nothing more than bullion; and, as bullion, is subject to a seigniorage or mint-charge, when converted into coin. And as, in the countries in question, twenty-five francs twenty centimes of bullion are, on the average, equal to only twenty-five francs of coin, the sovereign is practically "valuable" only as twenty-five francs.'--_Royal Commission on International Coinage. Evidence of Mr. Hendriks_, p. 145. The reason for this must be that the British coinage is gratuitous. A sovereign may be regarded from two points of view--as a certain weight of gold of a known fineness, manufactured into a uniform shape by the officials of the mint, and as the current coin of the realm. At present no charge is made for the process of manufacture. The question to be decided is this, Is the coin, _plus_ the process of manufacture, worth more than the same weight of gold before that process is performed? It appears that it is even worth less in France. 'The French Mint publishes a tariff giving a schedule of the coinage of each country, the legal weight and fineness in the country of its mintage, and a comparative estimate of fineness, according to the French Mint tariff of purchase, stating the value of each coin per kilogramme and per single piece.' If the intrinsic value of the pure gold contained in the sovereign is considered, it is equal to 25·2079 at par; but the Mint tariff giving the price of purchase makes it only 25·12 at par, a deduction of about nine centimes on each sovereign. In estimating it thus,