re worthy of
attention. I know of no Unit which can be proposed in competition with
the Dollar, but the Pound. But what is the Pound? 1547 grains of fine
silver in Georgia; 1289 grains in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, and New Hampshire; 1031 grains in Maryland, Delaware,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; 966 grains in North Carolina and New York.
Which of these shall we adopt? To which State give that pre-eminence of
which all are so jealous? And on which impose the difficulties of a new
estimate of their corn, their cattle, and other commodities? Or shall we
hang the pound sterling, as a common badge, about all their necks? This
contains 1718 grains of pure silver. It is difficult to familiarize a
new coin to the people; it is more difficult to familiarize them to a
new coin with an old name. Happily, the Dollar is familiar to them all,
and is already as much referred to for a measure of value, as their
respective provincial pounds.

3. The tenth will be precisely the Spanish bit, or half pistereen. This
is a coin perfectly familiar to us all. When we shall make a new coin,
then, equal in value to this, it will be of ready estimate with the
people.

4. The hundredth, or copper, will differ little from the copper of the
four Eastern States, which is 1/108 of a dollar; still less from the
penny of New York and North Carolina, which is 1/96 of a dollar;
and somewhat more from the penny or copper of Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, and Maryland, which is 1/90 of a dollar. It will be about the
medium between the old and the new coppers of these States, and will
therefore soon be substituted for them both. In Virginia, coppers have
never been in use. It will be as easy, therefore, to introduce them
there of one value as of another. The copper coin proposed, will be
nearly equal to three fourths of their penny, which is the same with the
penny lawful of the Eastern States.

A great deal of small change is useful in a State, and tends to reduce
the price of small articles. Perhaps it would not be amiss to coin
three, more pieces of silver, one of the value of five tenths, or half
a dollar, one of the value of two tenths, which would be equal to the
Spanish pistereen, and one of the value of five coppers, which would be
equal to the Spanish half-bit. We should then have five silver coins,
viz.

1. The Unit or Dollar:

2. The half dollar or five tenths:

3. The double tenth, equal to 2/10, or one fifth o