The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1893-07-26
OUR COINAGE LAWS
GOLD AND SILVER AS MONEY.
History of Its Use in the United State'
From 1850 to 1863.


mentioned for money In the Constitution
of the United States. The trainers of
that document had witnessed the evil
effects of paper currency issued by the
Revolutionary Congress. The fifth
statute passed BY the first session of the
first Congress decreed that the fees and
duties payable to the Federal Govern
mcnt should he received In gold and sill
yer coin only; the gold coins of France,
Spain, Portugal and England and all
other gold coins of equal ilneness az 80
cents for every pcnnywcight; the Mexi.
can dollar at 100 cents; the coins OF
France at III cents: and all other silver
coins OF equal fineness at III cents per
ounce, This act was passed July 30,
1889 At this time there was no United
States mint and the gold and sill.
yer money used was almost II not
entirely the coinage OF foreign countries.
In addition there were the old continen.
tai notes greatly deprecated. Thos. II.
Benton claimed that the act of 1889
would have insured this country a gold
and silver currency but for what followed
two years later, viz, the plan of Alex
ander Hamilton for the support of the
public credit That plan involved the
establishment of a United States bank,
with power to Issue paper notes which
were legal tender, Az that time we
latng freely and fully throughout the
country. Gold, said Benton, is the an
tagonist of paper, and with fair play
would have kept the paper currency
within Just and proper limits-that is, 1t
would limit the number of small notes
because people would rather have small
gold pieces and confine the paper cur
rency chiefly to notes OF large denomina-
ton
The making OF the United States bank
notes, legal tender for all amounts and
the effects of the bill to establish mint
gave the notes an undue advantage over
gold which drove 1t out of circulation and
substituted for IL notes and silver. The
latter commodity from its Inconvenience
of transportation favored the circulation
OF bank notes, In fixing the standard OF
coinage for the new mint II was natural
that II an error in fixing the ratio be-
tween gold and silver occurred, IL should
he on the side of silver, although Gen
Hamilton disclaimcd any such Intention
and said he desired to retain both metals
In circulation. The act of April, 1T02,
provided that every 3 pounds weight OF
pure silver should be equal In value in all
payments with one pound of pure gold
This was an differentiation of the latter
metal, and the eventual result was to
drive II out of circulation, II being ex-
ported to countries where II was
more highly valued. From 1898
10 lS34 there were issued g,
262,117 different pieces of gold COIN
mostly half eagles with few eagles and
quarter eagles of the value of sli, ,s52,-
500. All of them in 1894 were out of cir
culation, most OF them having been
shipped abroad as soon az coined.
During the same period about 500,
mostly half dollars. There were
also some quarter dollars, dimes
and half dimes Less than 1,5OO, 900 of
silver dollars were coined during this
| period ana these were all made prior to
1S08. II may be remarked that no gold
eagles were coined during this period
after 1904 The bank notes, therefore,
practically held the field for amounts
above a half dollar as the foreign coin
had been prohibited from circulating
here with the exception of the Spanish
milled dollar which was also finally shut
out by its being undervalued. The silver
coinage of this country had also mostly
disappeared from circulation not by for
cign export but by being boarded up. ex-
cept the few silver dollars which, like the
gold coin, went abroad as soon as coined.
The Bank of the United States, 1901.
1871 supplied most of the credit or paper
money, but its dissolution in the latter
year occasoned an enormous increase in
| that kind of money, which was OF every
degree of unsoundness. Specie pay.
ments were gene rally suspended In 1914,
| The latter part of the war OF 1879 had
been conducted almost entirely on
| treasury notes instead of long loans or
| bonds. Secretary Dallas in 1915 said II
| was impossible to estimate the working
value of the income of the government, a
situation similar to that which led to the
| India councils recent action in suspend
| Ing silver coinage. The possession of
IL, ,,,. ~ InI .xv,
| dencc of a fiscal capacity to discharge a
| public debt In another part of the union.
| The differing values of the foreign coin
used established at least seven different
| standards of value in current money.
There was no standard, or com.
| mon denominator of value. All
things were measured by the
primitive unit-a days labor. As
a measure of relief from currency din.
culties Congress chartered the Second
Bank Of the United States in 1915 with
the right to establish branches and
three years an act making GER
tain foreign coins legal tender,
Again a bank note circulation with
| foreign coins as basis was accepted as
! our national currency In his report in
! 1890 Secretary of the Treasury Craw-
ford stated that small notes circulated in
a majority of the States to the exclusion
| of silver, which latter was not abundant
anywhere except in Philadelphia. the
seat Of the mint Prof Arthur b. Wood.
| ward says this period has been called the
silver period by the historian of bimetal-
ism in the United States but II is much
more distinctly the period of bank notes
and of foreign coins. Indeed 1t can hard.
| ly be said to have been period of Ameri-
can coinage
The rrst important change IN the laws
relating TO our coinage, says Prof. Wood
| ford, was made in 1874. Its purpose was
TO resuscitate the gold currency. Presi-
dent jackson had been successful in his
contest with the United States Bank,
which shortly thereafter ceased to exist,
| and this fact and the increasing import
| ance of gold mining in the Southern
states seems to have been the direct occa-
aion of the law and determined its char.
acter, The act approved June Cd, 1884
provided that the weight Of gold coins
thereafter issued was to be about 81 per
cent less than under the law of 1792. The
object of the trainers of the act of 1884
was to restore the gold coinage to circu-