The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-10-16
A HUNDRED YEARS.
Centennial of the Silver Dollar
of Our Daddies.
1t Is Still Worth One Hundred
Cents.
FIRST COIN ISSUED
From the Philadelphia Mint Oc-
tober Is, ,1794,
Now Contains the Same Amount
Of Silver as Then.

DENVER, Oct 16-The Denver Rocky
Mountain News publishes the following
The silver dollar Of our daddies is enc
hundred years old today. Though often
traduced and vilIitied in the house Of its
friends. it bears its centennial honors
proudly, is worth one hundred cents, and
contains 371L grains of pure unalloyed
silver, as it did on the day that it was
sent forth into the young republic a
medium Of exchange. Besides. it is now,
as then, the money of the people It is not
too much to predict ou this anniversary
that the day is not far distant when the
people for whose use it was coined will
hail its restoration to the place designed
for it in the worlds currency
On July is, 1894, the Bank of Maryland
deposited at the Philadelphia mint
French coins OF the value of $SO,715 for
coinage into silver dollars under the act
Of 1855. The first lot of the finished coins
were delivered October 10. 1894
For more than eighty years these sill
yer dollars and all that came after them
were lawful money Of the land, accorded
equal esteem with the geld money Of the
country. The disgrace which, through
cunning and depravity, came in 1873 to
the coin created by those who formed
the republic is too we'll known to need
more thon passing reference at this
time.
As early as January, 1882. plan for
an American coinage was submitted to
congress by Robert Morris, the head Of
the finance department, the authorship
of which is, however. claimed for GOu-
verneur Morris In February following
congress approved the establishment of
mint, but no further action was taken
until 1885, when congress adopted the
plan Of national coinage presented by
Thomas jefferson.
The monetary unit Of this country prior
to July 8, 1888, was the English pound.
On that date the continental congress
established the dollar in its place, the
precise weight and value being fixed
August 8. 1856. which was about that of
the old Spanish CArolls pillar dollar.
April 2, 1892. a code OF law was enact
ed for the establishment and registration
of the mint. under which, with slight
amendments, the coinage was executed
for fOrLy-two years Gold, the eagle, was
to weigh 270 grains; silver, the dollar
of 100 cents, to weigh 416 grains. The
same act declared the dollar to be the
unit Of federal money, and directed that
all public accounts should be kept in
conformity to the decimal system Of
coins enumerated in the act
The old Spanish ''Carolus' dollar the
same as the Spanish mill dollar, was the
most famous coin of the time. 1t was
generally accepted by all civilized coun-
the dollar Of commerce. The mintage Of
those times was not as accurate, how
ever, as later, and there was some con
fusion as to the relative value of pre-
clous metals in coinage.
Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary
of the treasury, when the coinage act Of
1892 was passed. took 100 or more silver
dollars and had them assayed in order to
ascertain the amount of pure silver in
each These assays varied on account Of
the imperfect mintage facilities. The
average. however, WAS Bill grains of
pure silver. and that was fixed as the in
gredient Of the dollar, which, with the
alloy. made the weight Of the standard
silver dollar coined in 1894 416 grains.
The ratio with gold was 1913 grains sill
yer to one grain of gold.
This relative proportion remained until
1887. when a new coinage act was passed,
the weight of the gold dollar altered and
the ratio became / to 16 The amount of
the alloy in the silver dollar was now
duced so that it weighed 41215 grains,
but there still remained in it 3711 grains
Of pure silver.
I his was the condition Of affairs when
the coinage of silver was stopped by the
congressional act Of 1873, but the same
relative ratio was maintained by the
Bland law Of 1878 aud is in force today