When the United Provinces of the Netherlands and Belgium were united under a single sceptre, both countries had an immense variety of coins, for formerly nearly every province claimed a right of coining money. To meet the desire for a simple and single system, a monetary law was passed in 1816 under King William I. Its object was to arrive at a currency having the old florin, called the florin of 200_as_, as the unit. But at the same time a gold piece of 10 florins was allowed. The florin contained 9.63 grms. of silver and the 10-florin piece 6.056 grms. of gold. The ratio was therefore 15.873, whilst in France it was 15-1/2. Moreover, to respond to the desire of the inhabitants of Belgium, the franc was accepted in the public treasuries, but at too high a rate, viz. at 47-1/2 cents, whereas it was worth only 46.8 cents. The result was that the new 3-florin pieces on leaving the Brussels Mint went to the Lille Mint, to come back in the shape of 5-franc pieces. The law was languidly carried out. Gold pieces were principally coined, and in proportion as gold was coined it became more and more difficult to coin silver. In 1830 Belgium was separated from Holland, and it was not till 1844 that the recoining of the old money was seriously undertaken. The monetary law had been already altered in 1839. Side by side with the worn silver coins there were issued 5 or 10-florin gold pieces, which had been coined to the amount of 172-1/2 millions of florins. The worn and clipped silver coins not being available for international transactions, gold formed the basis of exchange. This was regulated not by the florin but by 1/10 of the 10-florin gold piece. All difficulties it was thought could be obviated by adopting a florin of exactly 10 grms. weight, corresponding to the decimal metric system, and .945 fine. As long as the gold coins remained in circulation, and they were of great use while the recoinage was going on, there was thus a bimetallism with a ratio of 1:15.504. From 1842-49 more than 85-1/4 millions of florins in nominal value were called in and were recoined in new silver pieces. The operation cost the State 8 millions of florins, 7 millions being the loss on the old coins. Before actually commencing the recoinage, the question of standard had been carefully considered. Silver was resolved on. For more than a century and a half the florin had been the unit of all transactions. As the recoinage advanced, further attention was devoted to the necessity of instituting the single standard. By the law of 26th September 1847, the system of single silver standard was adopted. In June 1850 the gold coins were called in. A total of 50 millions, not one-third of what had been coined, was offered by the public. It was sold in 1850-51 by the Government, which thereby lost rather more than 1 million. [Sidenote: HOLLAND IN 1872]