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262 DECIMAL COINAGE.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* 'Mif" " When Tlie Reform Bill Was In A...
tiling more than Ms reckoning *; when he gives change he must give a farthing more . With a shillingexcept when a half-shilling
, conies among the change , he must get or give a half-penny more than his reckoning ; but when a half-shilling is there , a farthing .
"With a florin , when no shilling or half-shilling is in the change , he must get or give a penny .
Many persons will help themselves by this process for a short time . But they will soon find out that the division of the florin into
ten cents is easy enough . In their minds , they will associate the cent with 2 \ d . very nearly ; so that ten of the cents fall only a penny
below ten times 2 \ d . of our money . That is , the cent is less than the half of a farthing below our present 2 _^ d .
It is hardly possible to lay down all the ways in which people will adjust their own minds to the additional ** halfpenny in a shilling ,
during the few days in which they feel the change . We should recommend our readers , if the House of Commons should force the
government into the change , to spend a couple of hours as follows : I . Learn the multiplication table for four , a little better than it
is usually known , up to _foiir times twelve is forty-eight . A great many people cannot remember all the twelve cases as quick as they
can be put . II . Look at various numbers of three figures , 271 , 398 , etc ., and
_^ make familiar the notion of separate collections , each treated as a whole : thus 271 is a 2 and a 7 and a 1 ; that is 2 hundreds 7 tens ,
and 1 unit . , Many will find it one of their difficulties to grasp , this idea , so as to see in 271 , thus written , big silver , little silver , and
copper ; 2 florins , 7 cents , 1 mil . They will want all the form and dignity of 2 fl . let . 1 ml . This may do very well for pounds , shillings ,
and 11 . 1 pence 7 s . 6 _^ , d which . is small are by such comparison grand diificulties . But 2 that JI . let _tjie . l ml machinery . is worked in
so cheaply into 271 mils , that , /? , ct . ml . are almost all the trouble . In the days of war taxeswe remember hearing a tobacconist
dis-, miss a little girl , who wanted her purchase wrapped up , with " We can't afford paper for a quarter of an ounce of pigtail . _" Neither can
we afford such envelopes as fl . ct . ml . for sums which are shifted from one coin to another at sight .
III . To convert old money into new . We have nothing to do with pounds , which remain pounds . Make the rest shillings and
farthings : thus , 17 s . 9 id . is 17 s . 38 / . Then say a florin for each pair of shillings 5 cents for the odd shilling , a cent for each 10
farthings , and a , mil for each remaining farthing : hut add 1 mil if a sixpence be in the odd money . Thus in 1 Is . 3 8 / 1 we have
8 florins , 5 cents ., 3 cents , 9 mils . 8 fl . 8 c . 9 m . 889 mils . =
The difference between 17 s , 9 _^ d . and 889 mils , is but a fraction of a mil , such as may be thrown out of account for the short time
• shilling * Remember , hut by that a sli this ght depreciation phrase is justified of the , penny not b . y an augmentation , of the
262 Decimal Coinage.
262 DECIMAL COINAGE .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1858, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121858/page/46/
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