The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-07-27
OUR COINAGE LAWS
GOLD AND SILVER AS MONEY.
History Of It's Use in the United States
trom 1880 to 1881.

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 1rst session of the
first Congress decreed that the fees and
duties payable to the Federal Govern
mcnt should be received in gold and sill.
yer coin only; the gold coins of France,
Spain, Portugal and England and all
other gold coins Of equal fneness at 80
cents for every pennyweight; the Mext.
can dollar at 100 cents; the coins OF
France at Ill cents; and all other silver
coins OF equal fineness at Ill cents per
ounce. This act was passed July 30,
1850. At this time there was no United
States mint and the gold and sill
yer money used was almost IL not
entirely the coinage OF foreign countries.
In addition, there were the old coptinen-
tai notes greatly deprecated. Thos II.
Benton claimed that the act OF 1850
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
with power to issue paper notes which
were legal tender AT that time we
had gold currency which was circu.
lating 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 ilmits-that Is, II
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-
tlon
The making OF the United States bank
notes, legal tender for all amounts and
the effects OF the bill TO establish a mint
gave the notes an undue advantage over
gold which drove IL out OF circulation and
substituted for IL notes and silver. The
latter commodity from it's inconvenience
OF transportation favored the circulation
OF bank notes. In fixing the standard OF
coinage for the new mint IL 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. l1b2,
provided that every ID pounds weight of
pure silver should be equal in value in all
payments with one pound of pure gold
This was an undervaluation OF the latter
metal, and the eventual result was To
drive IL out OF circulation. IL being cX-
ported to countries where II was
more highly valued. From 1903
to 1884 there were issued .,
262,7l7 different pieces of gold coin,
mostly half eagles with few eagles and
quarter eagles OF the value OF Sll, ,S02,-
500. All of them in ls34 were out of CIR
Culation, most of them having been
shipped abroad as soon as coined.
During the same period about s3o,.
mostly half dollars. There were
also some quarter dollars. dimes
and half dimes. Less than l,500,0 900 of
ill I,Il I,.Nt
period ana these were all made prior to
1906 IL may he remarked that no gold
eagles were coined during this period
after 1904. The bank notes, therefore,
practically held the field for amounts
above 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.
eign export but by being boarded up, cx-
cept the few silver dollars which, like the
gold coin, went abroad as soon as coined.
The Bank of the United States, 1891.
1911 supplied most of the credit or paper
money, but its dissolution in the latter
year occasioned an enormous increase in
that kind OF money, which was OF every
degree OF unsoundness. Specie pay.
ments were generally suspended In 1914,
The latter part of the war OF 1872 had
been conducted almost entirely on
treasury notes instead of long loans OF
bonds. Secretary Dallas in 1915 said IL
was impossible TO estimate tue 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
funds in one part no longer afforded evi.
dence OF 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 denomnator OF value. All
things were measured by the
primitive unit days labor. As
a measure of relief from currency dim.
cultics Congress chartered the Second
Bank OF the United States In 1915 with
the night TO establish branches and
privilege OF issue, and revived for
three years an act making GER
tain foreign coins legal tender.
Again bank note circulation with
foreign coins as basis was accepted as
our national currency. In his report in
1870 Secretary of the Treasury Craw-
ford stated that small notes circulated in
a majority of the States 10 the exclusion
OF silver, which latter was not abundant
anywhere except in Philadelphia, the
ward says this period has been called the
silver period by the historian of bimetal-
ism in the United States, but il is much
more distinctly the period of bank notes
and OF foreign coins, Indeed II can hard.
ly be said to have been period OF Ameri.
can coinage
The nrst important change IN the laws
relating 10 our coinage, says Prof. Wood.
ford, was made In 1894. Its purpose was
10 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-
sion OF the law and determined its char
acter. The act approved June 24, 1894,
provided that the weight OF gold coins
thereafter issued was to be about GA per
cent less than under the law of l792. The
object of the trainers OF the act of 1894
was to restore the gold coinage TO circu-
lation, and they professed TO desire
20 keep silver in circulation also. The
persons interested in the issue of bank