New Silver Coinage to Replace Fractional Currency

Dr. Linderman, director of the United States mint, is of the opinion that it is practicable to place some of the new silver coin in circulation immediately, and continue the issue of it monthly throughout the year, in redemption of fractional paper. He has a store of $12,000,000 of dimes, 20-cent pieces, quarters and halves, and begins to be bothered for store-room. The difference in the intrinsic value of this silver coinage and gold is so great that the price of gold would have to go up to 117 before the silver coinage became exportable. At the present time, and since the new year, the greenback has been worth about 2 per cent more than silver, so that with gold steady there would be no object in hoarding the silver.

The government makes enough in coinage to pay the expense of the operation and the interest on the bonds issued in purchase of silver. Of the $40,000,000 of fractional currency outstanding, it is supposed that not over $30,000,000 is in circulation, and by the close of the year the new coinage would suffice to replace that amount. Dr. Linderman thinks the country will readily absorb double that amount of silver, and that there can be no better way of contracting the greenbacks, without contracting the whole currency.