Bimetalism

the use of two metals for money. Gold and silver have been companions in all antiquity. In Genesis we learn that Abram was rich in cattle and in silver and gold. The Greek Euripides declares that "silver and gold are not the only coin; virtue, too, passes current all over the world." "Silver and gold have I none," runs the biblical quotation.

Gold has ever been regarded as the more precious metal. "Speech is silver, silence is golden," say the Germans. The silver coin must be the larger to have an equal value. If the silver dollar be too large, the payer will hold it and pay out gold. If the silver dollar be too small the payer will hold his gold and pay out silver.

At various times in the history of the United States, gold has disappeared from circulation, being hoarded or sold as bullion; and again silver has disappeared. Even though the proportionate weight of silver and gold coins be fixed by law, the discovery of new supplies of one or the other disturbs the balance. It is as difficult to fix the number of ounces of silver worth an ounce of gold as to say beforehand how many pounds of oats are to be worth a bushel of wheat.

To prevent the retirement of either gold or silver from circulation, and a consequent shrinkage in the amount of coin available for the transaction of business, the bimetalists favor a scientific ratio of values fixed by international agreement. If this standard should be fixed at sixteen to one, for instance, they would urge the government to coin all the gold and silver offered, making the silver of any denomination sixteen times as heavy as the gold coin of equal face value. The opposing view is that some one metal should be used as a standard.

Most nations of the world now adopt a single standard, coining gold freely and using other metals for coins of small value. Gold is kept in circulation by making the other coins exchangeable for gold at the national treasury. Mexico is one of the nations to adopt a gold standard recently. See Money; Mint; Gresham