Act V. Authorizing a loan for securing a supply of gold for the coinage of gold coins of the crown standard, and specify

[Act III provides that, on contracts stipulating for payment in gold florins of the Austrian standard, gold coins of the crown standard shall be legal tender, 100 crowns being reckoned as equal to 42 gold florins. Gold crown coins are to be received on the same terms in payment of import duties.]

[Act IV adds the following clause to the statutes of the Austro-Hungarian Bank:

"It shall be the duty of the bank to redeem in bank notes, at its main offices in Vienna and Budapest, lawful gold coins at their face value and gold bars at the mint rate of the crown standard.

"The bank shall have the right to cause gold bars to be assayed and separated, at the expense of the person presenting them, by agents of its appointment; and it may deduct the seigniorage charged, fixed, and published by the Government."]

With the consent of the two Houses of the Reichsrath, I enact:

ARTICLE 1. The minister of finance is authorized to contract a loan by issuing 4-per-cent bonds, with interest payable in gold, of the form described in the act of March 18, 1876, the total issue of bonds to be such as to secure a net amount of gold of 182,456,000 of Austrian gold florins.

ART. 2. The gold so secured shall be coined at once into gold crowns of the crown standard.

ART. 3. These gold coins shall be deposited for safe keeping in the state central treasury, or in the Austro-Hungarian Bank as a special deposit to the credit of the treasury department.

ART. 4. The coins deposited under the provisions of the preceding article shall be disposed of only by legislative enactment.

ART. 5. The commission of the Reichsrath for the supervision of the public debt shall exercise control over the execution of the provisions of Articles 3 and 4.

For this purpose it shall check the delivery of these gold coins [ubt die Gegensperre über den Erlag].

The commission shall present, as often as it sees fit, but at least once a year, a report to the Reichsrath in regard to the administration of its control.

ART. 6. The minister of finance shall introduce at the proper time a bill providing for the settlement of the debt, limited to a maximum of a hundred millions of florins, Austrian standard, and existing in the form of partial mortgage assignments or of circulating notes representing such assignments.

ART. 7. This act shall go into effect on the date of its publication. It shall be executed by the minister of finance.