The ruler, pleased with this almost magical power of getting a revenue with little trouble, continued to issue coins until suddenly the heavier coins began to be exported or melted, and the value of the other money fell, to the mystification alike of the prince and of his people.

The reason is now perfectly plain: the number of coins was not kept within the proper limits and they went down to their bullion value.

The only way a further profit could be made in this way was to debase the coin again.

By successive steps the coinage came to consist almost entirely of cheaper alloy.
Sec.8.

#The gold-exchange standard.# In a number of silver-using countries and colonial dependencies near the end of the nineteenth century, the fluctuations of the value of silver in terms of gold was a constant source of difficulty in the payment of foreign obligations to gold standard countries.