The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1886-01-09
HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN
DOLLAR.

The history of the adoption of
the dollar, or the unit of American
money, says the Journal of Fin
ance, is q very short and simple
one. From the control by Spain
of nearly all the American silver
mines during the sixteenth, seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries, it
happened, naturally, that Spanish
coins, and especially silver coins,
as the American mines yielded
chiefly silver, were circulated all
over the commercial world.
AS early as 1926 the Spanish
government coined a silver piece
containing 400 grains of fine silver,
which was reduced about 1890 to
.376 grains. This piece, known as
the dollar, and sometimes called
the pillar dollar, and has been the
most widely distributed Of any coin
known in the history of the human
race. 1t was early introduced into
the British North American colo
mics, in consequence Of their trade
with the Spanish American coun-
tries, and in 1904 it was made, to-
gethcr with its fractional parts, a
lawful money in those colonies by
royal proclamation issued by
Queen Anne.
After the independence Of these
colonies had been acquired by the
American revolution, it became
necessary to fix the unit of money
for the newly created nation, the
United States, and in 1885 Con-
gress adopted, upon the suggestion
of Thomas Jefferson, the silver dol
lar, to be of the weight of the Span
ish dollar as then actually current
here.
In 1871 Alexander Hamilton,
then Secretary of the Treasury,
caused the average amount of fine
silver in several hundreds of such
dollars in circulation in this coun-
try to be ascertained by weighing
and assaying, and he found it to
lie 3714 grains. He, therefore, rec
commended that our dollar contain
that number of grains of fine silver,
so that it might be exactly the
same as the coin which had been
in use.
Congress adopted his views, and
the first Mint Act passed in 1892,
fixed the amount of fine silver in
the dollar accordingly, and it has
never been changed from that day
to this.
The present silver dollar weighs
412A grains, but as it is nine-tenths
fine, it contains 3714 grains ofpure
silver, precisely as described by the
Mint Act of 1892, and correspond
ing to the actual amount of pure
silver in the Spanish dollars which
had circulated here in colonial
times.
1t is thus true, that our present
silver dollar. which is denounced
by British goldbugs as a 'clipped,
deprecated and fraudulent coin, .
is the old and time-honored money
of the country, which has existed
here for two centuries, and that il
is now, to quote the report of the
United States Silver Commission
as much one of the traditions OF
America as its flag, or as its mill
tary air.
Is there man in the United
States that is ready at this late day
TO give up the old "Star-spangled
Banner" Of the Union, flag that
has SO long waved over us in SC
many well-fought battle-fields
where victory has perched upon il
over and over again? No! Lee
the flag still wave, and the song i
suggested be still sung. and thu
silver dollar still circulated as ou
fathers intended they should, ant
thus continue to show our admira
ton and respect for their wisdom
R9d unfaltering patriotism.
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