ABSTRACT
Though the qualities necessary to fit any commodity for being used as money are rarely united in any considerable perfection, there are two commodities which possess them in an eminent, and nearly an equal degree; the two precious metals: gold and silver. Some nations have accordingly attempted to compose their circulating medium of these two metals indiscriminately. The plan of a double standard is still occasionally brought forward by here and there a writer or orator as a great improvement in currency. The only precaution necessary is, not to put so high a valuation upon the silver, as to hold out a strong temptation to private coining. The advantage without the disadvantages of a double standard, seems to be best obtained by those nations with whom one only of the two metals is a legal tender, but the other also is coined, and allowed to pass for whatever value the market assigns to it.
