3. The half eagle, or $5 piece. This elegant coin has undergone the same vicissitudes as the eagle. Its coinage was authorized by the same Act of April 2, 1792. Its weight was 435 grains and its fineness 9161. By the Act of June 28, 1834, its weight was reduced to 129 grains and its fineness to 899.225. By the act of January 16, 1857, its fineness was slightly raised to the uniform standard of 900. Its weight and fineness have thus remained to our time.

4. The quarter eagle, or $2.50 piece. This fine coin belongs to the same family with the eagle and half eagle. Its coinage was authorized, its weight and fineness correspondingly altered by the same Acts. The statute of 1792 made its weight 67.5 grains and its fineness 9161. Its weight was reduced to 64.5 grains and its fineness to 800.225 by the Act of 1834. The Act of 1837 raised its fineness to 900.

5. The dollar. This pretty little gold piece was created by the Act of March 3, 1849, the same Act that authorized the coinage of the double eagle. It has remained unchanged. Its weight is 25.8 grains and its fineness 900.

6. Three-dollar piece. An act of February 21, 1853, established this irregular coin. Its weight, 77-4 grains, and its fineness, 900, are of the normal standard, and have not been changed by subsequent Acts

In gold coin the alloy was at first a compound of silver and copper. It was forbidden by statute that the alloy should be more than half silver. It is now nearly all copper, owing to advances in the art of assaying and improved methods in coinage.

There are four coining mints, located at Philadelphia, Pa.; San Francisco, Cal.; Carson City, Nev.; and New Orleans, La., the last one being put in operation on January 20, 1879. The largest proportion of assaying and refining is done at New York City; Helena, Montana; Boise City, Idaho; and Denver, Colorado.

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The Philadelphia Mint is capable of turning out about $1,500,000 in coined money a month; the San Francisco Mint $1,000,000, the Carson City Mint $500,000, and the. New Orleans Mint about 500,000 pieces of various denominations. Under the law of February 28, 1878, which required that between 2,000,000 and 4,000,000 of the new (" Bland") dollars should be turned out by the mints every month, the coining facilities of the government were severely tested to produce this particular silver coin, and maintain the usual supply of gold and subsidiary coins. Silver is sent from the assay offices to the mints pure, or 999 fine, which is about as pure as silver can be. It is sent in large bars, and, when received at the mint, is melted and alloyed with copper. Coin silver is 900 fine.

The first silver coins were struck in 1794 (authorized in 1792), at the Philadelphia Mint, and consisted of 1,758 dollars and 10,600 half dollars, and a few half dimes (5 cents), more for curiosities than use. In the succeeding year the issue was 203,033 dollars, 323,038 half dollars, no quarters, no dimes, and 86,416 half dimes. In 1796 the mint coined only 72,920 dollars and 3,918 half dollars, with 2,948 quarters. In 1797 the number of dollars issued was 2,776, and the mint records state that there were no half dollars and only 252 quarters, Dollars only were coined in 1798. In 1796 the head of Liberty

was changed, and a new head, inferior in point of comeliness, substituted. This also had flowing locks, but these were bounc by a broad fillet, and hence the name "fillet dollars." In 1798 there were no halves nor quarters, and there were none in 1799, nor again in 1800. But in the following year the half dollars were commenced again, being of the fillet series, with the heraldic eagle on the reverse.

1804 is the annus mirabilis of the American silver coins. According to the records, 19,570 dollars were issued, 156,519 halves, and 6,738 quarters. There are but two dollars of 1804 known to exist, and these are said to have been struck surreptitiously from the original die at the Philadelphia mint in 1827. The value of these two to numismaticians is enormous; as high as $1,000 has been refused for one of them.

The first dollar pieces (1792) contained 416 grains of silver of 892.7 fineness, and this proportion was maintained until 1873, when the quantity of silver was reduced to 412.5 grains, and the fineness increased to 900. The fifty-cent pieces, from 1792 to 1837, contained 208 grains, 892.7 fineness, and the twenty-five cent pieces a proportionate amount; and both were subjected to a reduction in number of grains and increase in fineness in 1873. The ten-cent pieces contained 41.6 grains, of standard fineness, and now bear 38.58 grains under the new standard of fineness. From 1851 to 1853, the fivecent pieces were composed of 12.375 grains, 750 fine, and from 1853 to 1873, when their coinage was abolished, 11.52 grains, 900 fine. The old copper cents, authorized in 1792, contained 264 grains; the next year the amount was reduced to 208, and three years later to 168. As a purely copper token this coin was abolished shortly after the last reduction in the number of grains. The two-cent piece of April, 1864, contained 96 grains of copper, zinc, and tin, and was discontinued in 1873. The half-cent pieces were established in 1792, containing 132 grains'; this amount was reduced in 1793 to 104, and in 1796 to 84. None are coined now. An Act of March, 1875, authorized the coinage of a silver twenty-cent piece, containing 77.16 grains, 900 fine. This coin being but a trifle smaller than the twenty-five cent piece, led to such a general confusion of the two, that in 1878 its coinage was stopped. But few are now found in circulation. The one-cent piece of present use was authorized in 1857, and consisted of 72 grains of copper and nickel, and in 1864 this composition was changed to 48 grains of copper, zinc, and tin. Finally, the five and three cent nickel pieces were authorized in 1866 and 1865 respect ively; the latter has a comparatively small circulation.

The amount of standard silver dollars coined from February 28, 1878, to October 31, 1882, was $128,329 880, of which $93,006,382 remained in the Treasury, and $35,323,498 was placed in circulation. Of the $30,007,175 coined in the thir teen months preceding October 31, 1882, $2,950,072 wen into circulation, and $27,057, 103 remained in the Treas

ury.

The total value of the minor coin in the Treasury on September 1, 1882, was $504,515.29. The supply of five-cent nickel coins in the Treasury, which three years previous reached the sum of $1,184,252.95, had been exhausted, and their coinage was resumed by the mint. None of these coins are supplied by the Treasury, but the one-cent and five-cent

pieces are furnished in multiples of $20 by the Mint, which bears the expense of their transportation.

Savings Banks.-These are banks for receiving and taking charge of small sums, the savings of industry, and were instituted for the benefit of workmen and others, who were able to spare a little from their earnings. It is believed that Quaker thrift in Philadelphia, Pa., led to the inception of the idea, and that the first savings bank in the world was founded in that city in 1816. As the scheme grew in popularity throughout the United States, guardians of minor children, administrators of estates of deceased persons, and other holders of trust funds, found the savings banks very serviceable as places of deposit for money that had to be laid away for a specified period of time. Hence, the exigencies of business transactions forced an innovation upon the original plan. In the United States this use of savings banks is still maintained; but during the past fifteen years Safe Deposit and Trust Companies have been numerously established for the special purpose of holding funds, both in trust and in legal dispute, be sides securities of all kinds, jewelry, diamonds, and articles of like value. Thus a guardian, an administrator, or a society will invest money in Government, State, or City bonds, or, if permitted by the terms of trust, in real estate or stock of various corporations, and place the bond, certificate of stock, or other acknowledgment of the indebtedness, with a Safe Deposit or Trust Company, for safe-keeping. The savings banks are allowed by law to invest their money in first-class securities only, so as to prevent their officers from using the fund in the irregular pursuit of "wild cat" speculations.

The average rate of interest allowed by savings banks in the United States on deposits is four per cent.; it is frequently below that rate. Some of the larger banks will not permit individual deposits beyond a special amount at one time, while others decrease the rate of interest as the amount of deposits increases, claiming that their vast aggregates of deposits cannot be invested, under the law, in a manner that will warrant the maximum rate of interest after paying current expenses.

From Philadelphia the original conception or plan of the savings bank extended all over the United States, throughout the United Kingdom, France, and other countries. Several Acts of Parliament were successively passed between 1817 and 1828 for the regulation of savings banks in England; and in the year last mentioned the whole of these were consolidated in one statute (9 Geo. IV., chap. 92). This Act, together with another passed in 1833, conferring additional and important privileges on savings banks (3 Will. IV., chap. 14), constitutes the existing law relative to these establishments. In 1835 the Act was extended to Scotland.

Savings banks established according to the provisions of these acts are entitled National Security Savings Banks, be cause the money deposited in them is paid into the Bank of England on account of government, whereby the nation becomes security for the amount of deposits-a security reckoned the best of all that could be given to the depositors. The interest given by government on the sums so deposited is £3 16s. old. per cent. per annum, whatever may be the fluctuations in the value of the public funds during the term of investment. This rate of interest being higher than what gov

ernment could otherwise borrow money for, it happens that the public are really losing money annually by their generosity. The rate of interest payable to the 'depositors is £3 8s. 54d. per cent. per annum.

Deposits of from one shilling to thirty pounds may be received by these banks; but no individual depositor is allowed to lodge more than thirty pounds in one year, or than £150 in whole. Charitable and provident institutions may lodge funds to the amount of £100 in a single year, or £300 in all; and friendly societies are permitted to deposit the whole of their funds, whatever may be their amount. Compound interest is given on the sums lodged, the interest being added to the principal at the end of each year in some banks, and at the end of each half-year in others, and interest afterwards allowed on the whole. Any depositor may receive, on demand, the money lodged by him, if it do not amount to a considerable sum; and even in that case it will be returned on a few days', or at most two or three weeks' notice. Practically, payment is always made on demand.

Several new features of taking care of small savings have been instituted that deserve mention in this connection. Let us glance first at the operations of the so-called creditors' loan societies of Germany, founded by Schulze-Delitzsch, and which practically discharge the function of banks for workingmen. In 1878 these numbered upwards of 1,800, and the balances reported by 929 show aggregate advances for the year amounting to $375,000,000-a sum which, distributed among the laboring population, should have afforded material relief in a time of financial stringency. The 929 reporting societies contain nearly half a million members, and the funds deposited in the year ending January 1, 1878, amounted to nearly $90,000,000. It appears that the total transactions for that twelvemonth exceeded those of 1876 by over $6,000,000, and the proportion of capital to deposits was about two per cent. better than in the year before. The aggregate capital of all the co-operative societies organized by Schulze-Delitzsch, and reporting to the central office (including those intended for production and consumption as well as credit) is $40,000,000.

Impressive testimony to the stability and usefulness of these workmen's banks is the success with which they have withstood the recent prostration of industry and commerce in the German Empire. Indeed, the system is so well accred. ited by experience that it has been introduced in other parts of Europe, and especially in Italy and Belgium, where co-oper ative credit banks have become numerous enough to form unions, and hold congresses.

The second of these novel schemes is the system of Penny Banks, introduced into England in 1857, the first being opened at Greenock, where five thousand depositors availed themselves of its advantages in the first year. From year to year penny banks have been on the increase, and from recent statistics it has been shown that at the present time progress is in every way satisfactory.

school-banks that the marvelous increase in the total amount deposited in savings banks generally is to be attributed. In France, the movement is of very recent origin; nevertheless, up to December, 1866, penny banks had been introduced into fifty-three out of eighty-two departments, 3,200 school banks were established, and no fewer than 230 000 scholars had deposited in excess of the total limit, and had transferred their accounts to ordinary savings banks.

In Belgium an admirable plan is adopted. Prizes are given by the government to elementary scholars for general proficiency, in the shape of a deposit book, with a small sum entered therein to the credit of the recipient. In this way good conduct is rewarded, and in addition a practical lesson in thrift is imparted. In the years 1873-5, 1,051 deposit books were distributed in this way.

Mr. Oulton, the chairman of the School Management Committee of the Liverpool School Board, advocates that a sav ings bank should be established in every school in the kingdom; not merely that the school building should be used for the purpose, as it very properly is already in many neighbor. hoods, but that the penny bank should be “ an element in the school routine, the text-book of thrift, the visible illustration in the object lesson of economy. Penny banks should be to the lesson on thrift what pen, ink and paper are to the lesson on writing--the necessary concomitant." He pointed, as an evidence of the utility of these banks, to the Liverpool Penny Savings Bank Association, formed to sustain and extend the system of penny banks in and around Liverpool, and to promote their efficiency and good management. In the report for the year ending November 20th, 1877, it was shown that in seventy-four banks organized by this association, there had been 295,800 transactions during the year, £14,931 11s. Iod. had been deposited, £9,401 12s. 5d. withdrawn, and £4,063 13s. transferred to the Liverpool Savings Bank in the depositors' own names. There was at the end of the year an aggregate balance of £4,844 9s. Id. due to 22,749 depositors.

One of the most pleasing features in connection with the movement is that so many of these banks avail themselves of the advantages offered by the Post Office Savings Bank as regards the gratuitous supply of books and information, and the investment of their funds with the government, thus obtaining a guaranty for their absolute security. This leads to a consideration of a third scheme. The report of the Postmaster General published in July, 1877, gives the following particulars. During 1876, authority was given for one hundred and seventy-two penny banks in various parts of the United Kingdom to invest their funds in the Post Office Savings Bank, and since that time the progress has been even more remarkable, one hundred and seventeen penny banks having been authorized during the quarter ending March 31st, 1877, exceeding by forty-one the number during the corresponding quarter in 1876. Of these two hundred and eighty-nine penny banks, eighteen were in board schools, twenty in Sunday schools, and thirty in other schools, one being in a Poor-law Unionschool, under the management of the master and chaplain of the workhouse. Farthing deposits are received from these pauper children, and as much as £4 18s. was invested on behalf of the penny bank between April and December, 1876.

In England, at the close of the year 1876, after sixteen years' operation, the Postal Savings Bank had realized a net profit of over $5,500,000.

Shortly after the confederation of the provinces of the Dominion, the Post Office Act of 1867 was adopted by Parliament, and the formation of the Post Office Savings Bank was provided for. On the following 1st of April, the system went into operation, and at the end of the first quarter eighty-one offices had been established throughout the Dominion. On June 30th, 1869, two hundred and thirteen offices had been opened, and that number has been increased gradually until on June 30th, 1877, there were two hundred and eighty-seven branches in existence.

At the close of the fiscal year 1877, there had been 324,662 deposits made, and they amounted in all to $16,504,252. Of that amount $1,725,300 had been invested in Dominion five per cent. stock; $12,998,334 had been withdrawn, and the balance, standing to the credit of open accounts, and drawing interest, was $2,639,937. During the nine years and three months in which the bank had been doing business 90,416 accounts had been opened, 66,342 closed, and on June 30, 1877, 24,074 were open. The average amount of each account open was $109.60. Interest to the amount of $859,319 had been allowed depositors. Each deposit averaged about $50, and the withdrawals $75. The average cost of each transactionviz. of each deposit or withdrawal-was less than twenty-three cents, and the total expense of management, including salaries, compensation to Postmasters, inspection, printing, stationery, and other items, was $117,563.78, or an average of about $11,000 per annum.

Every post office, being a money-order office, is open for the purpose of the savings bank, during the money-order office hours. Deposits may be made in amounts of $1 or any number of dollars (cents not being received), provided the deposits made in any one year ending June 30 do not exceed $300, and provided the total amount standing in such depositor's name on the books of the Postmaster General does not exceed $1,000 exclusive of interest. This provision is made to prevent the system from clashing with the general banking business of the country. The privilege of purchasing Dominion five per cent. stock is allowed the depositor, so that if he desires to still use the Post Office Savings Bank after he has accumulated $1,000, he can have that amount, or any portion of it not less than $100, transferred to Dominion stock, redeemable on three months' notice, at the office of the Receiver General at Ottawa, or at those of his deputies at Halifax, St. John, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg or Victoria. Such stock is not transferable, and no one depositor is allowed to be the holder of more than $1,000 worth. It will thus be seen that the sav ings banks cannot be used for more than $2,000 by any one person.

Every individual on making a first deposit is required to give his name, occupation, and residence, and to sign a declaration that he is not directly or indirectly entitled to any sum or sums standing in his own name, or in that of any other person on the books of the Post Office Savings Bank, and consenting to his deposits being governed by the regula tions of the bank. A provision of the declaration is that if

any portion of it is not true, the depositor shall forfeit all the right and title to his deposit. Interest calculated yearly at the rate of four per cent. per annum is allowed on deposits, and is computed from the first of the calendar month next fol. lowing the deposit up to the first of the month in which moneys are withdrawn. On the 30th of June, every year, interest is calculated on the amount to the depositors' credit, and is added to and becomes part of the principal money.

Postmasters of savings-bank offices add the deposits made with them daily to their money-order funds, and likewise pay

savings-bank checks issued on their offices out of money-order funds, and embody in their accounts to the money-order branch a recapitulation of their savings-bank transactions, enclosing as vouchers for payments on savings bank account the checks paid during the period to which the account relates. The balance of the business is adjusted between the moneyorder and the savings-bank branches, the excess of deposits over withdrawals being paid over by the money-order branch to the Receiver General, on account of the Post Office Saving. Bank.

BANKING.

HE term bank, in reference to commerce, signifies a place of deposit of money, and is derived from the Italian banco, a seat or bench, because the early custodians and dealers in money in Italy were accustomed to sit on benches in the market places of the principal towns. During the middle ages, in which commerce was but little developed, there could be no field open for banking as a business; but on the revival of business in the 12th century, and when the cities of Italy engrossed nearly all the trade of Europe, the necessity arose again for the employment of bankers. The successful manufacturing efforts of the Florentines brought them into commercial dealings with different countries in Europe, and thence arose the establishment of banks as private concerns. The earliest public bank established in modern Europe was that of Venice, which was founded in 1157. About the year 1350, the cloth merchants of Barcelona, then a wealthy body, added the business of banking to their other commercial pursuits; being authorized so to do by an ordinance of the King of Aragon, which contained the important stipulation that they should be restricted from acting as bankers until they should have given sufficient security for the liquidation of their engagements. In 1401, a bank was opened by the functionaries of the city, which was both a bank of deposit and of circulation, the first of the kind ever established in Europe.

The BANK OF GENOA was planned and partially organized in 1345, but was not brought into operation until 1407, when the numorous loans which the Republic had contracted with its citizens were consolidated, and formed the nominal capital stock of the bank. As security for its capital in the hands of the Republic, this bank, which was given the name of the Chamber of St. George, received in pledge the island of Corsica and several other dependencies of Genoa. Since 1800, when the French, besieged in Genoa, appropriated its treas. ure to the payment of their troops, the bank has had little than a nominal existence.

The banks of note next established, of which records remain, were opened in Holland and in Hamburg. The most celebrated of these was the BANK OF AMSTERDAM, established

in 1609, simply as a bank of deposit, under the guaranty of the city. The credit given in the bank for foreign coin and the worn coin of the country, was called bank-money, to distinguish it from current money of the place; and as the regulations directed that all bills drawn upon or negotiated at Amsterdam, of the value of 600 guilders and upwards, must be paid in bank-money, every merchant was obliged to keep an account with the bank, in order to make his ordinary pay. ments. The BANK OF HAMBURG was established in 1619, on the model of that of Amsterdam originally. Deposits are received only in bullion, and a charge is made for their safekeeping. It advances money on jewels up to three-fourths of their value. The city is responsible for all deposits, which may be sold at auction if they remain eighteen months without payment of charges. If the value is not claimed within three years, the property in the deposits is lost, and passes to the poor fund of the city.

Next in point of date among these establishments is the BANK OF ENGLAND, which was opened in 1694. It was originally chartered for ten years, and the charter has since been prolonged, by various renewals, till August 1, 1879, and, from that date, subject to a year's notice. The Bank of England is, and always has been, the government bank, transacting for it all the banking business of the nation, receiving the produce of the taxes, loans, etc., and paying the interest of the public debt, the drafts of the Treasury, and other public departments, transferring stock, etc. For this service the bank receives, exclusive of the use of the balances of the public money in its hands, about £95,000 a year. Down to 1797 the bank always had paid its notes on demand. But in 1796 and the early part of 1797, owing to rumors of a French invasion, there was a run made on the bank, and it was feared that a suspension was inevitable. In February, 1797, Mr. Pitt, apprehensive that he might not be able to obtain sufficient specie for foreign payments, in consequence of the low state of the bank reserve, procured the issue of an order in council, requiring the bank to suspend specie payments. The suspension lasted till 1819, and is known to writers on finance as "the period of the bank restriction." The bank's notes, however, continued to circulate, and a