Evening star., 1935-11-17
Dollar, Tired of Old Styles,
ToAppear Soon in Ne,u Dress
History of Coinage in America, Replete
With Ups and Do,ons, Viii Add An
other Chapter on New Bills.
Ry the Associated Press.

| BY the Associated Press
After 157 years of rough travel. the
dollar will soon march in new dress,
adorned with seals, but still with the
familiar green back.
1t has had many ups and downs
since that Winter of 1892 when Con-
gress set out to clean up the mess
that had brought the Continental
money to the level of a by-word
which. even a century and half
later, fingers with a milder generation.
The word dollar, itself, came from
the old monetary unit. the thaler.
| still used in quite few sections of
the world. The thaler in turn was
short for the Joachimsthaler, so called
in the fifteenth century because it was
coin made of silver mined from the
Valley of Joachim in Bohemia.
The silver peso of Spain, at about
the time the term dollar was having
its origin. was called the pillar dollar
because it had inscribed upon it the
pillars of Hercules. 1t also was called
a piece of eight because it was worth
eight reals and not because the
phrase sounded romantic for pirate
fiction.
Essentially Silver Coin.
Throughout its history the dollar
has been essentially a silver coin,
despite that the gold dollar was once
made the legal unit of value. So when
the newly printed dollar bill goes out
to the markets from the Treasury, it
will be silver certificate. There are
no gold certificates. of any denomina-
ton. any mere since President Roose-
welt had them nailed up in the
Treasury.
Once upon time there were gold
coins as we'll as gold certificates. The
coins were called double eagles, eagles,
half eagles and quarter eagles. Be.
hind those tough beaks and wide
wings was enough gold to buy 20
silver dollars, or 10, or S, or 2la, ac-
cording to the size of the eagle.
A 81 gold piece was coined for a
time between 1849 and 1890 but it
was discontinued by law. BY the time
lump of gold had been whitfield
down to 25.8 grains it could go through
very small hole.
For while, too, silver coined in
got containing 378 grains of pure sill
yer and worth 81 was circulated. It
was called trade dollar and was de- |
signed purely for expectation to the
Orient. 1t got into circulation at home, |
however, and its coinage was forbid
den in 1887.
Now Used as Change.
Throughout the early days Of the |
Republic, in the absence of banking |
system, coins were in great demand. |
Travellers carried gold and silver with |
them instead of a check book. With
the growth of the banking system. |
however, coins were relegated to their
present status of small change except
for sections of the West where the
residents still like to jingle silver cart |
wheels
The creation of the dollar caused |
quite bit of trouble. The United
States monetary system had been
completely upset by the Revolution.
The Continental Congress, hard
pressed for money. had used whatever
fell easiest at hand. And everything |
it laid hand to had become so de-
preciated as to be almost valueless.
Even after the passage of the none
tary act in 1892, there was 60-year
period during which coins of other |
nations were accorded the legal ten
der privilege because of the scarcity
of metal money in this country.
Gold was given ratio Of 15-to-1
with silver. The sons of the Fathers
of the Republic soon found that their
dads had made a mistake in this re-
spect. Because gold had been under
valued as compared with silver, the
gold coins left the country as fast as
they were coined.
And, because the silver dollar OF
37lA grains was lighter than the
Spanish dollar and was very much like
that coin. brokers sent the American |
dollar to the West Indies where it was
passed for the heavier Spanish coin.
Mints Shut for 30 Years.
Congress 1Ound Cnat IL was SiInpiy |
coming dollars for the benefit of the |
brokers. So for 80 years-from 1906 to
1836-it closed down the mints rather
than operate them as an adjunct TO
brokerage houses.
In 1884 it set about readjust- |
ing the ratio between silver and
gold and arrived at Is to 1. It also
reduced the weight of various coins
to prevent their expectation.
Numerous other changes beset the
dollar along its path to its present |
status. 1t was altered by various
changes in the monetary policy. Six
teen to one was the first Bryan cam
paign battle cry. Eventually the
Roosevelt administration program was
launched. Some of the gold filling |
was extracted from the dollar in a
revaluation. A new silver purchase
policy was begun. The gold was
locked up in the Treasury and silver
became the great circulating coin; the
silver certificate the dollar bill.