Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 1
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
1. The golden piece will be 1/5 more than a half joe and 1/15 more than
a double guinea. It will be readily estimated, then, by reference to
either of them; but more readily and accurately as equal to ten dollars.
2. The Unit, or Dollar, is a known coin, and the most familiar of all to
the minds of the people. It is already adopted from South to North; has
identified our currency, and therefore happily offers itself as a
Unit already introduced. Our public debt, our requisitions, and their
apportionments, have given it actual and long possession of the place of
Unit. The course of our commerce, too, will bring us more of this than
of any other foreign coin, and therefore renders it more worthy of
attention. I know of no Unit which can be proposed in competition with
the Dollar, but the Pound. But what is the Pound? 1547 grains of fine
silver in Georgia; 1289 grains in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, and New Hampshire; 1031 grains in Maryland, Delaware,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; 966 grains in North Carolina and New York.
Which of these shall we adopt? To which State give that pre-eminence of
which all are so jealous? And on which impose the difficulties of a new
estimate of their corn, their cattle, and other commodities? Or shall we
hang the pound sterling, as a common badge, about all their necks? This
contains 1718 grains of pure silver. It is difficult to familiarize a
new coin to the people; it is more difficult to familiarize them to a
new coin with an old name. Happily, the Dollar is familiar to them all,
and is already as much referred to for a measure of value, as their
respective provincial pounds.
3. The tenth will be precisely the Spanish bit, or half pistereen. This
is a coin perfectly familiar to us all. When we shall make a new coin,
then, equal in value to this, it will be of ready estimate with the
people.
4. The hundredth, or copper, will differ little from the copper of the
four Eastern States, which is 1/108 of a dollar; still less from the
penny of New York and North Carolina, which is 1/96 of a dollar;
and somewhat more from the penny or copper of Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, and Maryland, which is 1/90 of a dollar. It will be about the
medium between the old and the new coppers of these States, and will
therefore soon be substituted for them both. In Virginia, coppers have
never been in use. It will be as easy, therefore, to introduce them
there of one value as of another. The copper coin proposed, will be
nearly equal to three fourths of their penny, which is the same with the
penny lawful of the Eastern States.
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