1186 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V 
in the profits, and accordingly an arrangement was made 
by which they were to have a coinage system of their own, 
which should be special to Australia, and on which they 
should receive the profits, though the coinage is manufactured 
by the Imperial mint in London. This coinage has no 
validity outside the Commonwealth unless validity is given 
to it by local Act in any Colony, or by proclamation under 
the Coinage Act, 1870, as amended in 1891. 
Under the latter Act not only has the Crown a paramount 
power as to coinage throughout the Empire which has never 
yet been abridged by any Act, but the power is one which has 
been and still is regularly used in respect of the self-governing 
Dominions when required. Under the system in force there 
are subordinate mints at Melbourne since 1872, Sydney since 
1855, Perth since 1898, and at Ottawa since 1907, the staffs 
of which are under the control of the Imperial Government, 
and work in accordance with the rules laid down by that 
Government, though the cost of the mints is provided by 
the Colonial Governments concerned, who receive the profits 
of the coinages. The gold coins struck at those mints are 
valid tender wherever a British gold coin is valid tender? 
On the other hand, there is local legislation in Canada 
regarding local coinages, the acceptance of British gold 
current in the United Kingdom (s. 9), the rates and values 
of dollars and cents, and the acceptance of foreign coins 
such as the American coins. Again, the new silver coinage 
of the Commonwealth was provided for by a Commonwealth 
Act, No. 6 of 1909, and the same Act also deals with gold 
! See for the Orders in Council, Stat. R. and O. Rev., viii. 627-41 ; Stat. 
R. and O., 1894, p. 33; 1896, p. 13; 1900, p. 21; Quick and Garran, 
Constitution of Commonwealth, p. 574; Canada, Rev. Stat., 1908, c. 26; 
Order in Council, November 2, 1907. The distinctive silver coinage of. 
Canada is now normally struck at the Ottawa branch (9 & 10 Edw. VII. 
c. 14, 8. 5), but the Australian coinage is still struck in England (Cd. 5273, 
p. 161). The Treasury has undertaken to accept current British silver at 
the Australian mints to an amount not exceeding £100,000 a year, while 
it continues to redeem worn coins, and also under an Order in Council 
of March 18, 1908, to redeem worn gold coins on the principles of the 
Coinage Act, 1891.