1/21/2024 0 Comments Electrum coin blank![]() After three years of internal deliberation, the Act quietly passed, thus-among other things-demonetizing silver and putting the nation onto the gold standard. To many, the coin was seen as obsolete, an accounting novelty, and pointless in the wake of the gold discovered in California. ![]() The silver dollar situation, however, was one of the major concerns. There were several reasons for the passage of the Coinage Act, which resulted in a complete overhaul of a range of then-existing existing monetary laws. The Coinage Act of 1873 sought to rectify all of this, and more, but eventually turned into a political firestorm that lasted for decades. Individuals could still bring their uncoined silver or foreign coinage to the Mint to be made into United States dollars, but because there was more than a dollar’s worth of silver in a silver dollar it was more profitable to have it coined into smaller denominations or to sell it to jewelers or other tradespeople as bullion. ![]() In the United States, however, although the lower denominations saw circulation once again, Americans continued to hoard the silver dollar. The silver dollar, however, remained at its full weight in an attempt to not disrupt its use abroad, as it was still in heavy competition with the Mexican peso as a coin of international trade. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1853 to try and rectify this, which lowered the weights of the half dime, dime, quarter, and half dollar-decreasing their values to the point where they would reenter circulation. This amount-while seemingly small-caused enough of a disruption that silver coinage disappeared from circulation and was hoarded. The discovery of vast amounts of gold in California upset the ratio between gold and silver, to the point where silver coins traded at $1.04 for every gold dollar. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |