al use keeps the
gold as a reserve, held in banks and storage vaults much of the time. If
it were in constant use, the continual rubbing together of the coins
would mean a no less steady, though slight, wearing away of their
surface. This is very noticeable in old silver coins, which are kept in
more constant circulation.

SILVER

The conditions in regard to silver are entirely different from those of
the other resources. The production of silver is not increasing, in
fact, the mining of silver alone is decreasing and the reason is not
because the supply is lessening, but because the price is too low to
make a larger working of the mines profitable, and the supply is kept
down to the level of the demand. A great number of silver mines have
been closed for the last few years. The production could be greatly
increased at any time to meet an increased demand.

The highest production was in 1902, but there have been only slight
changes since 1895; the production being a little less than 60,000,000
ounces, or about one-third of the world's supply--Mexico being the only
other great producer. In many countries with a small supply the output
is growing less each year on account of the low price, and the
difficulty of competing with the United States.

The states now producing the most silver are Colorado, Montana, and
Utah; each of these produces about one ounce out of every five ounces
mined. Most of the remainder was produced by Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and
California.

Although nearly 60,000,000 ounces were mined in 1907 only one and a half
million ounces were mined for the sake of the silver alone. The rest was
obtained as a by-product in the mining of gold, lead, copper and zinc,
or, as is often the case, it was distinctively silver ore, but could not
be profitably mined unless some other ore could be obtained at the same
time.

The richer regions seem to have been exhausted, and as the process of
extracting the ore is expensive the lower grade ores will probably be
held for several years till prices advance. A great silver region has
recently been opened in northern Canada. This contains immense
quantities of very rich ore, and will probably keep the price down for
many years.

So the care and conservation of silver is not an important issue for the
people of the present generation. As silver is now obtained largely as a
by-product, there is almost no waste.

The United States sends considerably more than half