Foreign gold coins, especially the pound sterling (par value 110 piastres) and the French 20-franc piece (par value 872 piastres) have free currency.
The monetary unit is the Peruvian pound (libra) which is uniform in weight and fineness with the British pound sterling.
The change from the double standard was effected without any noticeable disturbance in commercial affairs, but this was in part due to the precaution of making the British pound sterling legal tender in the republic and establishing the legal equivalent between gold and silver at 10 soles to the pound.
The length of the course as prescribed by law is two years, but it is usually extended to three or four years, and the instruction, though mainly theoretical, has regard to the special local industries; the fees, if any, may not exceed one pound sterling per annum.
During the first two years the bank remitted the greater part of its capital to Persia at the then prevailing exchange, and received for every pound sterling 32 t0 34 krans; but in consequence of the great fall in silver in I893 and 1894, the exchange rose to 50 krans per pound sterling and more, and the banks capital employed in Persia being reduced in value by more than one-thirdIO0 krans, which at the beginning represented 3 then being worth only 2 or lessthe original capital of one million sterling was reduced to 650,000 in December 1894.
