divided
into 100 cents, and is worth itself 4_s._ 2_d._ Thus each cent
represents one halfpenny; twenty-five cents, roughly one shilling;
and the English sovereign is generally worth $4.85, generally
written $4^85, and read four dollars eighty-five cents. This decimal
system is most convenient for all calculations. I may give one
example. Suppose the exchange to be as above, L1 = $4.85, and I want
to send the equivalent of L210 to America; I simply multiply 485 by
210 and divide the product by 100; practically cut off the two last
figures in the said product. Thus--

485 x 210=101850.

The two last figures, the five and the cypher, are cut off, and they
indicate the cents, the figures reading $1018^50, which is the true
amount I shall get at the above rate of exchange.

Again, in casting up columns of English money figures, we have to
divide the total of the pence by 12, the total of the shillings by
20, and only set down the remainder, carrying over the quotient. With
the American currency the dollars are set down in one column, the
cents in another, but the whole are added up together, then the two
right-hand figures of the product struck off. These are the cents,
all the rest are dollars. There are other ways in which this decimal
system is convenient, but I have exemplified it sufficiently. Shall
_we_ ever have as good a system?

The silver coins are ten cents, quarter, half, and whole dollars. The
gold, five, ten, and twenty dollars, which are roughly worth a little
over one, two, and four pounds sterling. The last is a very handsome
gold piece, a trifle smaller in diameter than an English crown, but,
I think, thicker. The bank-notes, called "Bills," begin at fifty
cents, and run up to one thousand dollars. There may be higher, but I
have not seen them. There is nothing to be said in their favour. They
are of many patterns and devices, and most of them dilapidated and
dreadfully dirty; so dirty that they stick to one another, and so
greasy and discoloured by usage that I always fancied they gave off
an unpleasant odour. They are not nice things to put in your pocket!
I speak of those of moderate value, say 100 dollars. I believe those
of higher denominations, not so much in use, are better. Accustomed
to our clean and crisp notes, I was surprised that the go-ahead
Americans had such paper money, for bad as it is in some parts of
the continent, I have never seen such offensive notes as the
American. I believe