Publications and Research

Summer 2000

The Changing Face of Central Banking in the 1990s by Graydon Paulin Restructuring in the Canadian Economy: A Survey of Firms by Carolyn C. Kwan Approaches to Current Stock Market Valuations by Bob Hannah See also: Tables A1, A2, and Notes to the Tables

Cover: Early French Scale

Scales and weights, such as those that appear on our cover, were a common feature of financial transactions from ancient times until the middle of the nineteenth century. During this time, gold and silver coins were issued by numerous sources, resulting in a wide range of sizes and weights. Before designs were added to the edges of coins as a security measure, unscrupulous individuals would file away the edge of a coin and sell the excess precious metal. The coin would then be returned to circulation for its full face value. In addition, coins remained in circulation indefinitely, and years of handling would wear them down, reducing their weight and, thus, their value.

Scales established order in sales and purchases and ensured that individuals were not being cheated. They allowed merchants and money-lenders to determine whether the coins they were handling were indeed full weight. By placing a gold coin in one pan and a brass piece of standard weight, comparable to a new coin of the same type and denomination, in the other, differences could be detected and accounted for in transactions.

Many types of scales were used. Balances (from the Latin bilanx, meaning two pans) were the most common. They consisted of a pair of pans, usually made of brass, suspended from a central horizontal bar—called a beam—which, in turn, hung from a cord or a piece of metal held in the hand. The balance pictured here was probably made in France in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century. When not in use, it was stored in the wooden box, together with assorted brass weights. Governments often regulated the production of the brass weights to ensure that a consistent standard was maintained.

The pieces featured on our cover form part of the National Currency Collection, Bank of Canada.

Photography by James Zagon.