When the subject was taken up after the Franco-German War, the determination to adopt a gold coinage was only gradually arrived at. In the original plan, as drafted soon after the conclusion of peace, the new gold coinage proposed was intended not to be tenderable, for the meantime, in private commerce. Such a provision roused all the opposition of the mercantile community, and in consequence of the agitation the scheme, as finally submitted to the Reichstag, was for a gold monometallic system. The law passed on the 4th December 1871, and the great operation of recoinage and conversion was immediately entered upon. It was greatly favoured by the ratio existing at the moment, and by the metallic condition of the world. The ratio taken as the basis of the computation was the French 15.5, accepted because of its long and present wide employment. The previous silver standard thalers were taken as equivalent to 3 marks. 30 thaler = 90 mark = 1 pound fine silver. 90 × 15.5 = 1395 marks. The gold piece of 10 marks was therefore coined at a tale of 139-1/2 to the pound of fine gold. Propositions were made to the Reichstag that the 20-franc piece should be made equivalent to the English sovereign, or to the 25-franc piece, giving respectively a ratio of 15.17 or 15.31, but at the moment the price of silver in the London market ruled between 60-7/8 and 60-3/4 pence per ounce, i.e. at a mercantile ratio of 15.49-15.52. It was this fact which decided the adoption of the French ratio. The chief Acts which have accomplished the reform are of dates 5th December 1871 and 9th July 1873, the first declaring the monetary system and the latter the law of tender. The unit of the system is the mark, which is the 1/1255.5 part of a pound of gold of 500 grammes at 9/10 fine, and is coined into pieces of 20 and 10 marks. The gold crown is a 10-mark piece, is 9/10 fine, and struck at a tale of 139-1/2 pieces to the German pound; charge for coinage, 3 marks per pound of fine gold. The pound of fine silver is struck into 100 marks, 9/10 fine. The total amount of silver coin not to exceed 10 marks per head of population. No individual need accept more than 20 marks of imperial silver coin in payments. They are accepted in any amount by the Empire and by the Federal States.