2249. DOLLAR, Adaptedness for Unit.—[continued].
The Unit, or Dollar, is
a known coin, and the most familiar of all,
to the minds of the people. It is already
adopted from South to North; has identified
our currency, and therefore happily offers
itself as a Unit already introduced. Our
public debt, our requisitions, and their appointments,
have given it actual and long
possession of the place of Unit. The course
of our commerce, too, will bring us more of
this than of any other foreign coin, and,
therefore, renders it more 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 1-4 grains in
Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New
Jersey; 966 3-4 grains in North Carolina and
New York. Which of these shall we adopt?
To which State give that preeminence 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 3-4 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 are their respective provincial
pounds.—
Notes on a Money Unit. Washington ed. i, 165.
Ford ed., iii, 448.
(1784)
