ny_
was next issued in 1070; the _groat_ in 1280; then came the _shilling_
in 1503; and the _crown_ made its appearance in 1607. The earliest
silver coin issued in France was the _livre_, which appeared in 800, of
the value of eighty cents. It steadily depreciated, until, in 1643, it
was worth only sixty cents; it then, fell rapidly, until the epoch of
the Revolution, when its value was only nineteen cents, and the _franc_
took its place. The _Henri_ was issued in 1012; the _teston_ appeared in
1499; and the _couronne_ followed in 1610. The first silver coin issued
in the American colonies was in 1652, by Massachusetts, in the shape of
_pine-tree shillings_; silver coins were also issued, at a later period,
by the colony of Maryland. Silver _half-dimes_ were issued by the United
States in 1792; dimes appeared in 1793; and _half-dollars_ in 1794.

Silver, in regard to coinage, has exchanged places with gold since 1848.
Since 1726, to the present time, the silver coinage of the French mint
has amounted to 7,500,000,000 francs, of which 4,000,000,000 has been
issued since 1850; since 1664 the silver coinage of the Russian mint has
amounted to 488,000,000 roubles, of which 188,000,000 has been issued
since 1850; since 1792 the silver coinage of the United States mint has
amounted to $325,968,571, of which $352,741,869 has been issued since
1850; since 1603, the silver coinage of the British mint has amounted to
L40,000,000, of which L16,000,000 has been issued since 1850. The silver
coinage of the United States, within the last decade, has amounted to
$271,954,638.

Silver, since the commencement of the present century, has trebled its
annual product, but its price has declined but twenty-two per cent. The
causes of the depreciation of silver may be thus briefly stated:

1. The increased production of the metal; it having increased from
$47,000,000 in 1848 to $114,000,000 at the present time.

2. "Council Drafts," or bills drawn by Great Britain upon India, have
proved a most potent cause in the decline in the value of silver. The
materials which the Indian railways, or the Indian governments require,
in order to conduct business, have to be largely imported from England,
and therefore, payments are largely liquidated in these bills, which now
average $60,000,000 per annum, while formerly they did not average
one-fifth of that sum. These bills supersede silver, and the effect is
the same as though the silver mines had be