Barron's needs to look at Russia which was using a decimal system in the early 1700's before Jefferson was even born. The ruble was 100 kopecks and they had a 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 kopeck and one ruble coins. They also had some other denomination during the 1700's such as a quarter and half kopeck, a 2, 3, 15, and 20 kopeck but so did we during the 1800's except for the quarter cent and 15 cent. The odd denominations didn't stop our system from being decimal so I guess it didn't stop the Russian system from being decimal either. In both cases it was a unit (Ruble or dollar) made up of 100 smaller units (kopecks or cents)
