field
for their operations. By giving the Treasurer the option of payment in
silver or gold, however, raids upon either metal can be met by paying
exclusively in the other until the proper equilibrium is restored. If a
real difficulty should still be found to exist in practice, a slight
mint charge would effectually put an end to it. In any event, natural
bimetallism is much less open to criticism on this score than the
existing system, or than that of the fixed ratio.

The pieces of silver with which redemptions are to be made are in no
sense to be regarded as money. They are distinctly merchandise,
possessing a commercial value precisely equivalent to the number of
money units received or surrendered therefor, and when the notes have
been redeemed, and the commercial equivalent has been given therefor,
the government's responsibility ends. The government assumes no
obligation to maintain silver bullion at a given ratio to gold, but it
does assume to make each unit of money the equal of 25.8 grains of gold.
In other words, the fluctuations in the value of silver are confined to
it in its bullion shape, and cannot enter into its form as money. The
idea that paper currency must be redeemed in gold, _as money_, or
silver, as money, is erroneous. It is redeemed in those metals because
they have value as _merchandise_. In domestic transactions this fact is
often lost sight of, but it becomes manifest in international exchanges
when the metallic money passes strictly on its merits as bullion, and
without regard to the stamp it bears. For these reasons the Treasury
should not be understood as guaranteeing the weight or fineness of the
metal, except in its immediate transactions, although to facilitate its
ready acceptance between reputable merchants, the affixing of the
government's seal upon the pieces would be a very proper practice.

Nor is there any mechanical difficulty in the way of the operation of
the plan. The silver could be fashioned into pieces of different sizes
graduated upon a decimal scale of grains, with the smallest piece
containing fifty grains, being somewhat larger than the current dime. By
limiting redemptions, then, to fifty dollars and multiples thereof, our
pieces will in every conceivable instance enable us to make the
exchange, or redemption, to the accuracy of a single grain on each
dollar, which is certainly sufficiently close for all practical
purposes.

In contrast to the national banking sys