The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-06-08
OUR SILVER DOLLAR.
It is One Hundred Years Old Since
Its Birth.

Jefferson and Hamilton were It's Par
ents-The Numerous Changes i'm De-
sisn-Oragin of Its Odd Weight of
371 Ia Grains Fine.
The standard silver dollar of the United
States is now one hundred years old. 1t
was born, by Act of Congress, April 2,
1872. Like Nan, in the famous old farce
of the " Good-for Nothing" our famous
silver coin had two fathers" But, IN
like Nan, whose progenitors were of the
humblest, it can boast of being the joint
conception of two Of the most distin-
guished men in history-no less, in fact,
than Thomas Jefferson and Alexander
Hamilton. ~
In this distinguished dual paternity OF
the standard dollar the fact becomes OBJ
vious that there were " no politics " in
the matter of its conception, however
much parties may have quarrelled about
it since, changing sides even in their
hostility. Thus, for instance, Hamiltons
followers were accused of scheming to
drive out gold in order to su bstitute
silver as the sole metallic currency (Which
was, practically, the effect of the policy,
however innocent his intentions), while
the partisans of Jefferson and jackson
were at first what we should now pro-
nounce the most radical of "gold bugs"
AS most of us know, the standard silver
dollar contains exactly 371A grains, Troy,
of pure metal. Created just a century
ago, this has been its constant proportion
of pure silver, however much the quantity
of alloy may have varied, so that its gross
weight hasranged from 4121s to AIS grains.
How came this odd amount of metal to be
selected for coin? Hereby hangs quite a
tale.
The old Spanish milled dollar of Colo
NAL days had been made the unit of value
by act of Congress as early as the Revolu-
tlor hen the Continental currency was
ma payable therein. During the Con-
federation the need of distinct metallic
currency was soon perceived, and numer-
GUS propositions were made for the estab-
lishment of one.
The young nation was poor and inex-
perienced, and the great question was
agitated with more or less vigor until the
Confederation had been succeed ed by the
Union and Washington had been inaugu-
rated president. At length, under the
more immediate management of Hamil-
ton and Jefferson, the project took q
definite form. Both these statesmen re-
garded it as probable that in its essay
with metallic currency the new nation
would be more successful with silver than
with gold. A child has to creep before it
can walk.
How, therefore, should the silver dollar
OF the United States be constftuted2
Properly it should conform to the average
dollar OF current business, and such was
the declared opinion and agreement of
its advocates. This unit, as we have seen,
was the Spanish dollar, but the Spanish
dollar was practically a variable and un-
certain quantity. In the whim of the
many rulers OF Spain and governors of
her colonies its coined weight varied by
an extreme of nearly eighty grains, with
the tendency to make the later coins of
greater weight in order to attract gold,
for which Spain was anxious to exchange
her overWeening abundance of silver.
The coins, too, were worn and many of
them mutilated.