APPENDIX IT 
11% 
forthcoming to an amount which kept their value down 
to par. 
The gold coin could not be so deficient in amount as 
to rise appreciably above the rate of 113 grains of fine 
gold because the obligation of the Bank just mentioned 
to give notes for bullion meant also that sovereigns 
could be obtained at that rate, since the notes could 
be presented at once and payment claimed in sovereigns. 
In practice of course the Bank gave neither notes nor 
sovereigns for gold bullion, but credited persons pre- 
senting bullion with pounds in its books, and allowed 
them to draw on these pounds as they chose. It met 
their eventual demands or the demands of those to 
whom they transferred their claims either with additional 
notes issued against the gold brought in or with 
sovereigns coined out of it, thus in either case increas- 
ing the currency and tending to reduce its value. Sellers 
of bullion might, if they liked, have taken their bullion 
direct to the Mint and had it turned into coin at the 
rate of £3 17s. 101d. per ounce standard, but the delay 
deterred them, so that this right had fallen into desuetude 
and the Bank alone was in the habit of getting gold 
coined. Thus the convertibility of bullion into notes 
not only ‘‘ automatically *’ kept up the supply of notes, 
but also in practice ‘automatically ”” kept up the 
supply of gold coin so as to prevent it rising in value 
above the rate of 113 grains to £1. 
During the war the people gave up their gold coins 
in exchange for the Currency notes for £1 and 10s. 
issued by the Treasury (often called at first *‘ Bradburies 
because signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, Sir 
John Bradbury), and the banks (other than the Bank 
of England) during the war and afterwards gave up 
their reserves of gold coin to the Bank of England and 
took bank-nptes in exchange. The bank-notes continued 
legally redeemable in gold coin at the bank, and the 
new Currency notes were so too, but this convertibility 
was rendered useless because it was from the first 
impossible to export gold and it was soon made unlawful 
either to melt or to export gold coin and even to export 
gold bullion. Additional bank-notes were only issued