Marble Hill press., 1891-06-18
4 Silver SoiH Of TOO Cents.
From Gtlssom's "PeopIe's Dollar.'
Z. What is a dollar!


From Grissom's Peoples Dollar"
! Z. What is a dollar!
! A. A dollar is a silver coin.
| Q. Does not the word mean Il
golk coin, also!
A. No, There is, or was a
small GOLD dollar; bu! the word
dollar means a silver coin. It
was first made in Germany. and
called thaler pronounced tol
lar(. Il SIMILAR piece was after
wards made in Spain, and it is
from this Spanish piece we get
our dollar mark-S-whice rep.
resents The Pillars of Hercules
twined with the figure S. The
Mexicans had, and still have a
similar pieee. AL these were
and are silver coins, and our
United States dollar 10 an imi.
tation Of them
Z. Are there act gold dollars
in existence.
A. Very few. They were not
coined till IS49, and they were
never popular, being small and
thin, easily lost, and when lost,
hard to find. In fact, they were
so i'll sslited to the people and
TO business men, that in 1889,
the Director Of the Mint, Ed
ward; O. Leech, recommended
that the coinage of them be dis
continued; and the following
year, 1890, Congress passed an
act prohibiting the coinage of
them, and directing that those
already in existence be with
drawn from circulation.
.. Did they have any circu-
lahon among the peopleA
a. Very little. But few per
sens sssn saw ons, and the. Di-
rector Of the Mint stated that
they were used exclusively for
ornament.
Q. Then, it seems that dol
lar means a silver coin only.
A. 1t does--and, in fact,
Webster's Dictionary defines it
as ''siiver coin Of the value of
one hundred cents"
Q. lo we not have paper dol.
lars, greenbaeks, national bank
notes, and othes kinds alsog
A. There ars no paper dol.
lars; they are one dollar bills, or
one dollar notes. If you exam
inc them you will find that they
"promise to pay" one dollar, or
five Dollars, or ten Dollars; but
if you look at the face of a Sill
yer Dollar, you will see that it
is stamped "One Dollar" It is
net a promise; it is the thing
itself.
q You, say the dollar is a
silver coin of the value. of one
hundred cents. But the East
ern journals and magazines,
and Eastern Bankers and states
men have for years been assert.
ing that our dollar has become
depreeiated in value, and is no
longer an honest dollar, since it
is worth only rs or so cents.
A. Yes: this assertion is con.
tinually repeated; but it is un-
true. Our dollaE was worth 100
cents, when it was first coined,
9S' years ago:it has been worth
100 cents every day, and every
hour, from that day 10 this; it
is worth 100 cents now; and one
of these dollars struck from the
mint will be worth 100 cents as
as long as the United States
government lasts.
O L. it ever worth more than
100 centsl
A. 1t is not. 1t coinage or
lawful value always remains the
same--iust 100 cents, no more,
no less.
@. What do our eastern
countrymen mean by saying
the dollar is worth only eighty
centsl
A. 1t is only another way Of
saying that gold TO- worth 10 per
cent. rnoss than silver in the
markets-thas the gold in
the gold coin is worth at The
rate Of 1870 cents to the dollar,
the gold in a $40 piece being
worth $i2, and 80 on.
Q, Then, If silver were com.
pletely osmonetiged, and gold
made the only hard money in
the country, 9O,per cent would
~ sdoDdr ~ or dtDle. aalb o
dsbt VI 41g0 would be increased
p lA2A and . dsbs' q eleoo 70
~ -
A. Yea that would be the
practical slssk
, ~ yYonlt pos III be . grsat
po ~ 1ll who ove debtsi
,|'| vln1std,
= & ~ ssiahlinhod J