,0 
MONEY 
were in perpetual difficulties arising from the fact 
that the ratios which each of them prescribed between 
their gold coins and their silver coins always sooner 
or later led to one or the other metal being not 
supplied in sufficient quantities for the requirements 
of a convenient currency. 
With regard to copper coins the principle was acted 
on long before it was recognized or understood, and 
long before it was acted on with regard to silver. 
Money of small denomination was demanded, Govern- 
ment did not supply the need, and, as usual, private 
enterprise stepped in. The story in this country 
is roughly that tradesmen took to issuing metal 
“ tokens ”’ for small fractions of the unit of account 
such as pennies or farthings when the Government 
did not coin them, these tokens entitling the holder 
to goods of that value at the shop of the tradesman. 
They were not always retained for further purchases 
by the customer who received them in change, but 
got into circulation, i.e. they were generally accept- 
able, so that things could be bought with them from 
other people as well as from the tradesman who 
issued them, although the metal of which they were 
made was not and did not profess to be of appreciable 
value. Abuses of course soon made their appearance, 
and the business of providing these ‘‘ token coins ” 
was taken over by the Government. They were 
manufactured by or for the Government and given 
in exchange for larger money paid by people who 
wanted the small for purposes of their business. 
There was no * free” coinage. The metallic value 
of the coins was considerably less than that at which 
they circulated without the least difficulty, but some 
importance was attached to it, and no one seems to 
have understood that their value was given to them 
by the demand coupled with the limitation of supply 
enforced by their being sold to the public at the