Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-08-15
Coinage Legislation-A Summary.
NUMBER TX.

~ ADIh A<A.
From the St. Louis Journal of Agriculture.
The constitution invested congress
with the power to .'coin money and
regulate the value thereof Accord
ingly, congress at its first session passed
an act April 2. 1892, establishing a
mint at the seat of government. The
Act authorized the coinage of gold. sill
yer and copper coins. The ratio OF
silver and gold was fixed at 10 to 1,
that is fifteen pounds of silver were
equal in value to one pound of gold
The si2re1 dollar was made the UNIT OF
VALUE. 1t was of the value of the
Spanish milled dollar, and contained
371t grains of pure silver. The eagle
contained 247! grains of pure gold.
All the coins of both metals were
coined on exactly the same terms, and
both were legal tender in i" all pay
ments achatsoerer," with no exceptions,
and no determinations for or against
either metal. These were the chief
provisions of the first general coinage
law, which in the main was unchanged
till 1884, a period of over forty years.
Between 1892 and 1884 several
amendatory acts were passed, such as
authorizing the coinage of copper, max
ing foreign coins legal tender, increas-
ing the number of mints, prohibiting
counterfeitiug, etc. But the ratio, the
standard and weight, and the rights OF
the two metals remained the same
from 1892 1884.
On June %, 1854, congress passed
an act decreasing the amount of pure
gold in the eagle from 247s grains to
232 grains, while the amount of silver
in the silver dollar remained the same.
This was an increase of ratio from 15
to l to about 16 to l. The act also
provided that all gold coins minted
prior to July 81, 1885. should be re-
ceived in payments at the ratio of 81
4-5 cents per pennyweight.
Congress on january 13. 1887. passed
general coinage law which repealed
all laws inconsistent with that act. By
this act the standard of weight was
changed so that the standard coins
were nine-tenths pure and one-tenth al
10y. The amount of pure gold in the
eagle remained at 232 grains. The
amount of pure silver in dollar re-
NAMED at 3714 grains, but the stand
ard dollar, as result of the change in
| the relative amount of alloy. was made
to consist of 4129 grains of standard
silver. Under this law botE metals
continued to have equal privileges at
the mints. and both were still endowed
with full legal tender quality. The
charges for mintage were equal to the
actual expense to the mint for coming.
Thus under the law of 1887, it will be
seen that the coinage of both silver and
gold were unlimited, but not absolute
ly free. The ratio was 16 to 1, both
were full legal tender, and both money
metals had equal rights in every re-
spect.
Several amendatory acts were passed
between the general coinage act of 1887
and the general coinage act of 1873
regulating the value of certain foreign
coins, authorizing the coinage of the
gold dollar and double eagle, March,
3, 1849; establishing branch mints; au
thorizing the coinage of minor coins;
requiring the Spanish and Mexican
coins to be recoined when received; al,
so in 1857, repeating former acts max
ing foreign coins legal tender. The
law of 1887 as regards ratio, standard
of fineness. legal tender quality of all
except the very small coins, remained
unchanged until 1873.
On February II, 1873, congress
passed an act revising and amending
the the laws relative to the mint and
assay offices. This act is known as the
demonstration act. When this was
passed the coinage of gold and silver
was unlimited at the ratio of 16 to l,
and silver was at per cent premium.
Both were full legal tender. The act
of 1873 substituted the gold dollar for
the silver as the unit Of vatue: the sill
yer dollar was dropped from the coin
age, and the trade dollar of 420 grains
was authorized. No one can give
reasonable excuse for increasing the
size of the silver dollar when the stand
ard dollar was already worth 103 cents.
In addition to this the legal tender
quality of silver was limited to amounts
of $500. 1t is not hard to see that
this was a great discrimination against
silver and in favor of gold; but this
was only one of series of discrimina-
tions against the white metal that has
resulted in beating down its CONNER
cial value or rather in bulling the price
of gold. This has been done by the
paid agents of the bankers ard bond
holders of the world who have COR