Arizona silver belt., 1890-01-18
Currency of the United sseteS.

rent in business. whether It 9id
 silver, or paper; but the tetmsis often
 confined to paper money as dIstln-
 guished from coined money t-ing
 the term in Its widest meauing, there
 pass current in the Uniied states coin
 issued from the United States hints
 comprising gold coin, standard .ilver
 dollars, subsidiary silver (halvss. 1nar-
 ters, and dimes), and what is taown
 as minor currency, nickels an pen
 nieS. The paper mo- Ssi enr-
 rent consists of legs.i jleE, !, \ <.
 tlonal bank notes. gold certisss s1 and
 silver certificates. Cola coin fsa fnll
 legal tender for all debts, public or
 private. Standard silver dollar are a
 full legal tender for all debts, public
 and private, exceHf where payment in
 some other form of money is stipu-
 latrd expressly in the contract. The
 silver cons of less denomination than
 Sl are legal tender to the amount of SlO for all debts and dues, public and
 private. The minor coins. nickels and
 cents, are a legal tender for any
 amount not exceeding twenty-five cents in one payment. Uni=cd States notes are a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, in the
 United States, except for dutles on imports and the interest on the public debt. National bank notes are not legal tender, but they are receivable at par for all debts and demands owing by tEe Governinent to any person within the United States, and they are also receivable for all taxes and other debts and demands due 10 the Govern ment. except duties on imports. They are also legally receivable by all Ma tional banks. Gold and silver certih- cltes. while not a legal tender between individual citizens. are receivable for taxes and debts to the Government, and for all debts due therefrom. The dollar Is the monetary unit, Gnd all of the various forms 1fcurrenry described represents one or more dollars or. dec ipal fractions of the dollar. The original coinage act of April ?, 1790, provided that the guId dollar should consist of 27 grains of standard gold; that IS. geld including alloy, the pure gold n the @e to kSl5aQo grams, tue alloy heinz ayxE ,ne whole, a proportion similar to that in the gold coin ef England inc silver dollar ov this act was to contain 416 grains of standard sIlver.- or 371J grains of pure silver, the alioy amounting to 448 rains. Under this act the coinage of both gold and silver al the mlntS of the United States was
 free; that is, any holder of gold gs >il
 yer hulllon might take either gold o;' silver !ullIon to the hints and have it coined into dollars of the standard weight and fineness. By the acts of June 28. 1884, and January IS, 1887, Congress reduced the amount of pure gold in the gold dollar from PA grams to 23 22-100 grains, leaving the amOnnt of pure silver in the silver dollar the same as before. The pro- portion of alloy in both cons was changed, making it in each case onc- tenth of the full weight of the coin, By the act of F. bruary 12. 1873, the colnage Of the silver dollar was discon- tinued, and from 1873 until 1878 no standard silver dollars were author ized by law. During that period the coinage of the trade dollar was author lzed for purposes O. exportatioll. but they were not intended to circulate in the United States. The set of Febru- ary, 1878, aulhorzed a restricted coin age of the standard silver dollar, pro- viding for the purchase of limited | of bullion monthly by the Secretary of the Treasury, and the coinage of such silver into dollars by | lhe hints on account of the Govern ment. The dollars so coined we,e made tuil legal tend-r<rlng the period from 1884 to 1878 very few sil- yer dollars were either coined or clr- culated in the United State,- and the gold dollar was the practical monetary unit uhon which all of the financial operations of lhe people and the Gov 'rnment were based. The issue of egal-tender notes was first authorized n 1862. and the faith of the Govern nent was pledged for their payment 'ither Tn bonds of the UnIted States Jearing interest in coin or Tn coin, bY lcts of various dates prior to 1878: md from 1873 to 1878 there was no other full legal-tender coin hut gold .oIn issued by the hints of the United States. Practically, up to the present ime, there has been no difference in he gold currency value of silver dol ars, gold dollars, geld certificates, >il- -pr certificates lnuaI-tPnder notes and