In 1879 the subsidiary silver was made redeemable, in mul- tiplesof $20,inlawful money, and made legaltender insumsnot exceeding$10.
In 1890 the Sherman SilverActdirected the Secretary ofthe Treasurytobuyinthemarketsilverbullionaggregating4,000,000 ounces, or as much thereof as was offeredat less than the mint
price, and to issue for it treasury notes of the United States.
Thesenotes weremaderedeemableincoin bytheTreasuryonde-
mand and were reissuable and full legal tender. This act,which repealed theActof 1878, contains thefamousparityclause,which pledged the United States Treasurer tomaintain the twometals on a parity with each other at the legal ratio. No method was prescribed for the accomplishment of this pledge by the Secre- tary. Provision was also made for the coinage of part of this bulHon. Afterthree years'operationandthecoinageof$187,000,- 000, thiscompulsory purchaseclausewas repealed.^
Insummary,theamountofsilver dollars coinedundertheAct
of—
April 2, 1792,was $ 8.0 millions
February28, 1878, " $378.1 millions July 14, 1890, " 187.0
March 3, 1891, " 5.0 " 570.2
Total $578.3 "
3Purchases of Silver Under the Act of 1890
FiscalYears
Amountof Silver Purchased (Ouncesin millions)
Cost, or Amount
ofTreasury NotesIssued (In millions)
AveragePrice perFineOunce
SilverDollars Coined fromBullion
ofActof1890 (In millions)
1891 1892 1^93 1894
48.3 S4-3 54.0 II.
9
$ so.s 5I.I 45ằ,S 8.7
$1.0451 .9402 .8430 .7312
$27.2 3-4 S.3 0.0
Total 168.6 Ii55.9 1 .9244 $36.1
Ifand whenthis silveriscoined intostandardsilver dollars,the seignioragewillequal (168.6 X480-^371M)—1SS.9 =$62millions.
Gold StandardAct
Thesilvermovement cameto a crisisin the election of 1896, andin 1900was finally settledby what hascometo beknown as the Gold Standard Act. This actfixed the gold dollar, weighing 25.8 grains of standard gold, nine-tenths fine, as the standard unit of value, andprovided that "all forms of moneyissued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a parity of value wdth this standard," and that "it shall be the duty of the SecretaryoftheTreasurytomaintain suchparity. " The manner
ofkeeping goldandsilveratpar isnotdefined, but theprobable operation of theTreasury wouldbeto stand readyto redeemone with the other.
The Pittman Act
In 19 18 the adverse balance of trade between the United States and India, in the face of the necessity of conserving and fortifying our gold reserves duringthe war, ledto thepassage of the PittmanAct,which authorized the Treasur>-to reducesilver dollars, in numbernot to exceed $35o,ooo,cx>o, to bulhon and to sellitataminimumpriceofSi perfineounce. Atthesametime the Secretary was authorized to enter into contracts with pro- ducers of silver, to buy silver at the price of Si per fine ounce for the purposeof restoringthe bulHontakenfrom the Treasury and sold to exporters to India.
The object of the sales andpurchases arrangement was tem- porarily to provide silver in large quantities for immediate use.
The hoardofsilverin theTreasury wasthusseizedupontosettle the adverse trade balance and conserve the gold supply against shipment to the East. As most of the silver dollars were being circulated by silver certificates, thereductiftnofsilverdollarsto bullion forced the recall of an equivalent amount of certificates.
Toprovide against thereductionof thecurrency in thismanner, the federal reserve banks were enabled to issue federal reserve
bank notes secured by treasury certificates ofindebtedness and
HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL COINAGE -'o
one-year treasurynotes. Thesefederalreservebanknoteswillbe retired later, according to the plan, by the issue of silver certifi- catesas silveris repurchasedbytheTreasury.
The Secretary of the Treasuryin executing the Pittman Act decidedthat,in ordertoprovidefor the variousitemsofexpense involved in the operations of withdrawing silver dollars and recoining new bullion, it was necessary to fix the price of silver soldbytheTreasuryat $i.015perfineounce. Silverexportations were subjected to licenses, and any silver for which more than
$1,015had beenpaid bytheapplicantwasdenied exportlicense.
These restrictions onsilverexportswere removed in May, 1919.
In the interim271 ,000,000silverdollarswere meltedand soldat
$1,015perounce, althoughthemarketprice ofsilverrangedmuch
higher. Inthespring of 1920 themarketpriceof silverfellbelow
$1 per ounce, and on May 17 theSecretaryof theTreasurygave standingordersto theDirectoroftheMint,underthemandatory provisions of thePittmanAct, topurchase,at$1 perounce,silver
—the production of mines and reduction plants located in the UnitedStates— uptoanaggregateamountof 207,000,000 ounces.
Thiswillestablishaminimumpriceof$1 perounceforAmerican
silver for some time to come, butthe priceof foreignsilvermay
fall below that figure. In February, 1921, was resumed the coinage of silver dollars, of which none had been minted since 1905.
OtherCoinage Laws
The Act of 1906 provided for the redemption of copper and nickel coins in lawfulmoney, whenpresentedin sumsofnotless
than$20. Whentheyarepresentedforredemptioninsuch quan- tity as to indicate that theyare redundant, the Treasury orders their coinage temporarily to be stopped. Numerous othercoin- age laws of minor importance have been enacted, but theabove constitute the fundamental history of our coinage. Coinageis
sometimesheld toinclude the making of gold and silver bars.
BullionBars
Goldbars are carriedbythebanksfortheconvenienceoftheir customersin thecityor elsewhere, andareshippeduponrequest.
Goldbullion asheldinbanksbears theofficialstampoftheUnited StatesMintorassayoffice. This stamp,likethatonthecoins,is
thegovernmentattest oftheweightandpurityof thebars. Besides the officialseal, weight, value, and fineness, allbars are stamped with the bar and lot number. They are weighed to the one- hundredthpartofan ounce,andarecomputed by the fineness at
$20.671834625 perounceforpuregold. Smallgold bars aremade
with values rangingfrom$105 to$600; these areusedexclusively fordomestic purposesandarenotexported. Thebarsinacertain
New Yorkbank'svaultsonacertain date,forexample,rangedin weight and value from 5.14 ounces and $106.19 value, to 525.6 ounces and $10,849.61 value. The larger bars are used almost exclusively for shipment abroad andthesmaller ones forreserve and industrial purposes.
Certain bar charges, as given in the following table, are imposed by the government to cover the cost of making;
these varywith the finenessand size of the bar. Barcharges as below are imposed when bars are sold or when a depositor re- quests, directly or indirectly, special sized bars in payment of a depositof bullion. Gold barsmaybesoldonlywhenofstandard fineness or higher, for gold coin or gold certificates only, and in lots of notless than $5,000. Silver barsmay not be sold except upon special authorization.
Gold Bar Charges
Per $100 Value
Barsof$5,000invalueand over $.05
Barsoflessthan$5,000to$500, assortedsizes .05 Barsoflessthan$500, assortedsizes .07 Bars between $300and$200,in lots of 20bars .09 Barsofafineness of 999.9, not over $5,000 .09 Barsofafineness of 999.9, over $5,000 .08