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| Misc RM 89 Misc reference material Part 2
Over time we have collected a lot of reference material. We figured it would be better to share with all rather than just delete it. If you want it, keep it, otherwise just delete it. Due to the volume it will take more than one mailing. I. Use of the dollar as a standard coin and monetary unit did not begin with the Continental Congress, however. Monetary historians generally first associate the dollar with one Count Schlick, who began striking such silver coins in 1519 in Joachim's Thai, Bavaria . Then called "Schlickten thalers" or "Joachimsthalers," the coins became known simply as "thalers," which transliterated into "dollars." Interestingly, the American Colonies did not adopt the dollar from England , but from Spain . Under that country's monetary reforms of 1497, the silver real became the Spanish money-unit, or unit of account. A new coin consisting of eight reales also appeared. Variously known as pesos, duros, piezas de a ocho ("pieces of eight"), or Spanish dollars (because of their similarity in weight and fineness to the thaler), the coins quickly achieved predominance in financial markets of the New World because of Spain's then-important commercial and political position. 24 Indeed, by 1704, the "pieces of eight" had in fact become a unit of account of the Colonies, as Queen Anne's Proclamation of 1704 recognized, when it decreed that all other current foreign silver coins "stand regulated, according to their weight and fineness, according and in proportion to the rate before limited and set for the pieces of eight of Sevil, Pillar, and Mexico." 25 By the War of Independence, the Spanish dollar was, for all practical purposes, rapidly becoming the monetary unit of the American people as a matter of economics. Not surprisingly, the Continental Congress first used, and then took formal steps to adopt, that dollar as the nation's standard of value. On 22 May 1776, a Congressional committee reported on "the value of the several species of gold and silver coins current in these colonies, and the proportions they ought to bear to Spanish milled dollars." And on 2 September of that year, a further committee-report undertook to "declar[e] the precise weight and fineness of the * * * Spanish milled dollar * * * now becoming the Money-Unit or common measure of other coins in these states and to "explai[n] the principles and establish the rules by which * * * the said common measure shall be applied to other coins * * * in order to estimate their comparative values." 26 Meanwhile, Congress and its agents were carefully exploring the basis of, and possible structures for, a national monetary-system. In his letter to Congress of 15 January 1782, Robert Morris, Superintendent of the Office of Finance, commented that, "[a]lthough most nations have coined copper, yet that metal is so impure, that it has never been considered as constituting the money standard. This is affixed to the two precious metals [i.e., silver and gold], because they alone will admit of having their intrinsic value precisely ascertained." "Arguments are unnecessary to shew that the scale by which every thing is to be measured ought to be as fixed as the nature of things will permit," wrote Morris, concluding that"[t]here can be no doubt therefore that our money standard ought to be affixed to silver." Although Morris personally favored creating an entirely new standard coin, he recognized that "[t]he various coins which have circulated in America, have undergone different changes in their value, so that there is hardly any which can be considered as a general standard, unless it be Spanish dollars." 27 In a plan first published on 24 July 1784, Thomas Jefferson strongly concurred that "[t]he Spanish dollar seems to fulfill all * * * conditions" applicable to "fixing the unit of money." "Taking into our view all money transactions, great and small," he ventured, "I question if a common measure, of more convenient size than the dollar, could be proposed." "The unit, or dollar," he wrote equating the one with the other, "is a known coin, and the most familiar of all to the minds of people. It is already adopted from south to north: has identified our currency, and therefore happily offers itself as an unit already introduced. Our public debt, our requisitions and their apportionments, have given it actual and long possession of the place of unit." 28 Yet Jefferson recognized the necessity of certain practical steps to adopt the dollar as the "Money-Unit": "If we determine that a dollar shall be our unit, we must then say with precision what a dollar is. This coin as struck at different times, of different weight and fineness, is of different values." This, though, Jefferson saw as a problem for economic science to solve through objective measurement, not as a matter for politics to dictate according to arbitrary policy. "If the dollars circulating among us be of every date equal, we should examine the quantity of pure metal in each, and from them form an average for our unit. This is a work proper to be committed to the mathematicians as well as merchants, and which should be decided on actual and accurate experiments." "The proportion between the value of gold and silver," he added, "is a mercantile problem altogether." Given "[t]he quantity of fine silver which shall constitute the unit," and "the proportion of the value of gold to that of silver," Jefferson went on, "a table should be formed * * * classing the several foreign coins according to their fineness, declaring the worth * * * in each class, and that they should be lawful tenders at those rates, if not clipped or otherwise diminished." 29 Concluding, he encouraged Congress: To appoint proper persons to assay and examine, with the utmost accuracy practicable, the Spanish milled dollars of different dates in circulation with us. To assay and examine in like manner the fineness of all the other coins which may be found in circulation within these states. To appoint also proper persons to enquire what are the proportions between the values in fine gold and fine silver, at the markets of the several countries with which we are or probably may be connected in commerce; and what would be a proper proportion here, having regard to the average of their values at those markets * * * . To prepare an ordinance for establishing the unit of money within these states * * * on the * * * principle[:] That the money-unit of these states shall be equal in value to Spanish milled dollar, containing so much fine silver as the assay * * * shall shew to be contained on an average in dollars of the several dates in circulation with us. 30 Jefferson's cogent and straightforward analysis of the problem of selecting and defining a unit of money should be compared - contrasted, really - with the present mishmash of monetary statutes that leave the definition of the "dollar" in a state of hopeless confusion today. First, for Jefferson , the "unit" was to be "a known coin" that was "familiar" to the people because it was "already adopted" in the marketplace. None of the coins that Congress now authorizes - be it of silver, gold, or base metals - was (before its authorization) a "known coin" "familiar" to anyone in the United States, even in terms of its content of metal. Second, having settled on the "dollar" as the "unit," for Jefferson the problem of fixing the standard "unit" reduced to determining "what a dollar is" in terms of "the quantity of pure metal" [i.e., silver] contained in "an average" coin that actually circulated in the marketplace. Thus, for Jefferson it was not the prerogative of Congress to create the "dollar" ex nihilo, but the responsibility of Congress to determine what the "dollar" in common use among the people actually was. Today's Congress assumes that it may declare anything a "dollar," and then impose that ersatz, political pseudo- "dollar" on the people whether they want it or not. Third, for Jefferson , to settle the relative values of silver and gold coins was also a matter of studying actual economic relationships in the marketplace: to wit, "the proportion of the value of gold to that of silver" in the various coins in circulation. For today's Congress, economic relationships between silver and gold are irrelevant. And, of course, there is no rational economic relationship between the coins of base metals and the coins of precious metals, either. Moreover, even within the sets of gold and base-metallic coins themselves, rational economic relationships are irrelevant to Congress! Obviously, Jefferson 's free-market, scientific approach is a world apart from the arbitrary way in which Congress has set up the mutually incompatible and internally irrational sets of silver, gold, and base- metallic coins that exist today. On 13 May 1785, a committee presented Congress with "Propositions Respecting the Coinage of Gold, Silver, and Copper," which referred to the "Plan which proposes that the Money Unit be One Dollar." "In favor of this Plan," the committee reported, is "that a Dollar, the proposed Unit, has long been in general Use. Its Value is familiar. This accords with the national mode of keeping Accounts." Later, the report referred to the "dollar" as the "Money of Account," thereby equating that term with the term "Money-Unit." 31 On 6 July 1785, Congress unanimously "Resolved, That the money unit of the United States be one dollar." 32 Almost another year elapsed until, on 8 April 1786, the Board of Treasury reported to Congress on the establishment of a mint: Congress by their Act of the 6th July last resolved, that the Money Unit of the United States should be a Dollar, but did not determine what number of grains of Fine Silver should constitute the Dollar. We have concluded that Congress by their Act aforesaid, intended the common Dollars that are Current in the United States , and we have made our calculations accordingly. * * * * * The Money Unit or Dollar will contain three hundred and seventy five grains and sixty four hundredths of a Grain of fine Silver. A Dollar containing this number of Grains of fine Silver, will be worth as much as the New Spanish Dollars. 33 Shortly thereafter, on 8 August 1787, Congress adopted this standard as "the money Unit of the United States. 34 Again, stark and striking is the contrast between how the committee of the Continental Congress - composed of the Founding Fathers - approached the problem of fixing the unit of money, and how the modern Congress deals with the same matter. The committee determined that an American"dollar" should contain a known, unchangeable weight of silver, and would be "worth as much as the New Spanish Dollars" because it actually contained this weight of precious metal, not simply because Congress said it was a "dollar." Today's Congress, however, assumes that the "dollar" need have no rational relationship to a weight of silver, of gold, or even of base metals. Thus, today's Congress assumes that the value of money has nothing to do with the substance that composes a coin, but is merely the product of a political decree. In today's Washington , D.C., might not only makes right, but also creates economic value! Many of the same people who served in the Continental Congress participated in the Federal Convention that drafted the Constitution. And even those members of the Convention who had not served in the Continental Congress knew what that Congress had done. Therefore, when the Convention used the noun "dollar" in Article 1, Section 9. Clause I of the Constitution, it was with the tacit understanding of all the history surrounding that noun. Thus, the lesson here is clear: The constitutional "dollar," the constitutional "Money-Unit" or "Money of Account" of the United States, is an historically determinate, fixed weight of fine silver in the form of a coin - in essence, a unit of measure - adopted, not created, first by the American market and then by the Continental Congress well before ratification of the Constitution. c. Adoption of the "dollar" as the unit of money immediately after the ratification of the Constitution. Upon ratification of the Constitution. Congress and the Executive began work on a national monetary system. (1) Alexander Hamilton's Report on the Mint. On 28 January 1791, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton presented to Congress his Report on the Subject of a Mint. "A plan for an establishment of this nature," he wrote, "involves a great variety of considerations intricate, nice, and important." Indeed, the erection of a mint was essential to the continued integrity of the nation's coinage: The dollar originally contemplated in the money transactions of this country [i.e., the silver Spanish milled dollar], by successive diminutions of its weight and fineness [in the Spanish mints], has sustained a depreciation of five per cent, and yet the new dollar has a currency in all payments in place of the old, with scarcely any attention to the difference between them. The operation of this in depreciating the value of property depending upon past contracts, and * * * of all other property, is apparent. Nor can it require argument to prove that a nation ought not to suffer the value of the property of its citizens to fluctuate with the fluctuations of a foreign mint, or to change with the changes in the regulations of a foreign sovereign. This, nevertheless, is the condition of one which, having no coins of its own, adopts with implicit confidence those of other countries. * * * * * It was with great reason, therefore, that the attention of Congress, under the late Confederation, was repeatedly drawn to the establishment of a mint; and it is with equal reason that the subject has been resumed * * * . 35 To form "a right judgment of what ought to be done," Hamilton posed two questions, "lst. What ought to be the nature of the money unit of the United States ?," and "2d. What the proportion between gold and silver, if coins of both metals are to be established?" 36 Recognizing that "[a] pre-requisite to determining with propriety what ought to be the money-unit of the United States" is "to form as accurate an idea as the nature of the case will admit, of what it actually is," Hamilton referred to the resolutions of the Continental Congress on the subject, noted that they had resulted in "no formal regulation on the point," and concluded that "usage and practice * * * indicate the dollar as best entitled to that character." As to "what kind of dollar ought to be understood; or, * * * what precise quantity of fine silver," he surveyed the various pieces in circulation over the years, and recommended that "[t]he actual dollar in common circulation has * * * a much better claim to be regarded as the actual money unit." 37 Hamilton recognized that "[t]he suggestions and proceedings hitherto have had for object the annexing of [the title of 'money unit'] emphatically to the silver dollar." Yet, his personal view was that "a preference ought to be given to neither of the metals for the money unit" - at least "[i]f each of them be as valid as the other in payments to any amount." He realized, of course, that adopting equivalent, interchangeable "money units" of both silver and gold would pose practical problems "from the fluctuations in the relative [market-]value of the metals"; but he suggested that this could be overcome "if care be taken to regulate the proportion between them with an eye to their average commercial value." 38 Turning to "the proportion which ought to subsist between [gold and silver] in the coins," Hamilton proposed two "option[s]": namely, "[t]o approach as nearly as can be ascertained, the * * * average proportion * * * in * * the commercial world"; or "[t]o retain that which now exists in the United States ." The first alternative "requir[ing] better materials than are possessed, or than could be obtained without an inconvenient delay," he recommended instead the domestic market-ratio of "about as 1 to 15." "There can hardly be a better rule in any country for the legal than the market proportion," he explained, "if this can be supposed to have been produced by the free and steady course of commercial principles. The presumption in such a case is that each metal finds its true level, according to its intrinsic utility, in the general system of money operation." 39 In the course of determining the method by which the government would defray the expenses of coining silver and gold brought to the mint byprivate parties (the system of "free coinage" 40 ), Hamilton restated the traditional policy against monetary debasement in emphatic terms: [R]aising the denomination of the coin [is] a measure which has been disapproved by the wisest men in the nations in which it has been practiced, and condemned by the rest of the world. To declare that a less weight of gold or silver shall pass for the same sum, which before represented a greater weight, or to ordain that the same weight shall pass for a greater sum, are things substantially of one nature. The consequence of either of them is to degrade the money unit; obliging creditors to receive less than their just dues, and depreciating property of every kind. * * * * * The quantity of gold and silver in the national coins, corresponding with a given sum, cannot be made less than heretofore without disturbing the balance of intrinsic value, and making every acre of land, as well as every bushel of wheat, of less actual worth than in time past. * * * [A debasement would cause] a rise of prices proportioned to the diminution of the intrinsic value of the coins. This might be looked for in every enlightened commercial country; but, perhaps, in none with greater certainty than in this; because in none are men less liable to be the dupes of sounds; in none has authority so little resource for substituting names for things. A general revolution in prices * * * could not fail to distract the ideas of the community, and would be apt to breed discontents as well among those who live on the income of their money as among the poorer classes of the people, to whom the necessaries of life would * * * become dearer. Among the evils attendant on such an operation are these: creditors, both of the public and of individuals would lose a part of their property, public and private credits would receive a wound; the effective revenues of the Government would be diminished. There is scarcely any point, in the economy of national affairs, of greater moment than the uniform preservation of the intrinsic value of the money unit. On this the security and steady value of property essentially depend. 41 In sum, Hamilton recommended two equivalent statutory money-units based on weight, a gold coin of 24.75 grains of fine gold, and a silver coin of 371.25 grains of fine silver. "[N]othing better," he wrote, "can be done * * * than to pursue the track marked out by the resolution [of the Continental Congress] of the 8th of August, 1786." 42 Hamilton 's Report thus restated the traditional monetary principles of American law, as the Continental Congress applied them, and as the Federal Convention embodied them in the Constitution. Congress, Hamilton urged, should adopt silver and gold as the nation's monetary substances, at an exchange-ratio representing the average proportionate value between the metals in the domestic free market. Congress should continue on "the track marked out" under the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution by employing the "dollar" as the "money-unit," or "money of account" - a silver "dollar" derived directly from the Spanish milled dollar, and a new gold coin containing a silver-"dollar's" worth of gold. The government should provide "free coinage" of both silver and gold for the public. And it should guarantee the preservation of the intrinsic value of the coinage. Of enduring importance is Hamilton 's admonition that "[t]here is scarcely any point, in the economy of national affairs, of greater moment than the uniform preservation of the intrinsic value of the money unit. On this the security and steady value of property essentially depend" Apparently, however, although Hamilton 's statue stands before the Department of the Treasury, his words have been forgotten in contemporary Washington , D.C. (2) The Coinage Act of 1792. Little more than a year after Hamilton 's Report, Congress enacted its principles into law. The Coinage Act of 1792 43 initiated a new statutory system embodying the constitutional principles that Hamilton had reaffirmed. First, Congress followed consistent American common-law tradition by continuing the use of silver, gold, and copper as "Money." 44 Second, it reiterated the judgment of the Continental Congress and the Constitution that "the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units," 45 and defined the "DOLLARS OR UNITS" in terms of weight, as "of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure * * * silver." 46 Recognizing that to adopt Hamilton's suggestion of a "gold dollar" would cause confusion and require constant governmental supervision to "regulate * * * Value[s]," 47 Congress created no such coin, instead mandating the coinage of "EAGLES," "each to be of the value of ten dollars or units," 48 that is, of the weight of fine gold equivalent in the marketplace to 3,712.50 grains of fine silver. Following Hamilton 's recommendation, though, it fixed "the proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall by law be current as money within the United States " at "fifteen to one, according to quantity in weight, of pure gold or pure silver." 49 And it made "all the gold and silver coins * * * issued from the * * * mint * * * a lawful tender in all payments whatsoever, those of full weight according to the respective values [established in the Act], and those of less than full weight at values proportional to their respective weights." 50 Thus, Congress did not establish a "gold dollar," or enact a "gold standard," as the popular misconception holds. For example, the Encyclopaedia Britannica erroneously reports that the "dollar * * * was defined in the Coinage Act of 1792 as either 24.75 gr. (troy) of fine gold or 371.25 gr. (troy) of fine silver." 51 The Act did no such thing. It explicitly defined the "dollar" as a fixed weight of silver, and "regulate[d] the Value" of gold coins according to this standard unit (or money of account) and the market exchange-ratio between the two metals. Nowhere did the Act refer to a "gold dollar," only to various gold coins of other names that it valued in "dollars." 52 Congress also provided free coinage "for any person or persons," 53 and affixed the penalty of death for the crime of debasing the coinage. 54 Thus did the first Congress - which knew what the Constitution meant if any Congress ever did - rigorously apply the Constitution's mandate: It determined as a fact "the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current," and thereby permanently fixed the constitutional standard of value, or "money of account," as a unit of weight consisting of 371.25 grains of fine silver in the form of coin. It coined American "dollars" as "Money," containing this intrinsic value of silver. It coined American "eagles" as "Money," containing a fixed weight of pure gold - and regulate[d]" their "Value" at so-many "dollars" by comparing their intrinsic value in (weight of) fine gold to the market-equivalent of silver. It gave both the silver and gold coins legal-tender character for their intrinsic values in all payments. It opened the mint to free coinage of the precious metals. And it outlawed debasement of the nation's new "Money." The handiwork of the statesmen who drafted and approved these measures is more than a merely coincidental embodiment of the traditional principles of Anglo-American common law, the experiences of the Continental Congress, and the explicit provisions of the Constitution. Rather, taking into account the vicissitudes of the time, the Coinage Act of 1792 perfectly reflects what the common law and the law under the Articles of Confederation had been before ratification of the Constitution, and what the constitutional law was then and remains today. 55 It is a definitive interpretation, elaboration, and application of the Constitution - with, in some of its sections at least, a clearly constitutional character of its own: in particular, Sections 9 (definition of the "dollar"), 14-15 (free coinage of silver and gold), 16 (legal-tender character for silver and gold coins), 56 and 20 ("dollar" identified as the "money of account"). 57 Most importantly, Congress' determination of the proper weight of the "dollar" is, for all practical purposes today, a statement of constitutional law unalterable except by amendment of the Constitution itself. For, at the remove of almost two centuries, to check the accuracy of the conclusion that 371.25 grains (troy) of fine silver best represents an average weight of the various Spanish milled "dollars" in circulation in the United States in 1792 is most probably impossible. Conclusion In the light of this history, the present monetary provisions of the United States Code demonstrate that official Washington , D.C. , has no conception of what a "dollar" really is. The reason for this self-imposed ignorance is obvious. By reducing the "dollar" to a political abstraction, the national government has empowered itself to engage in limitless debasement (depreciation in purchasing power) of the currency. A "dollar" that contains - and must perforce of the Constitution contain - 371.25 grains of fine silver cannot be reduced in value below the market exchange value of silver for other commodities. A pseudo-"dollar" that contains no fixed amount of any particular substance per "dollar" can be reduced in value infinitely. As debasement of currency amounts to a hidden tax, Congress' silent refusal to recognize the constitutional "dollar" amounts to the usurpation of an unlimited power to tax through manipulation of the monetary system. Thus, modern "money" has become a means for the total confiscation of private property by the government. More ominously, this scheme of surreptitious confiscation remains hidden from the vast majority of Americans, who seem blissfully unconcerned about the issue most important to the soundness of the country's monetary system: namely, the character of the monetary unit. One need not be overly pessimistic to predict that misuse by politicians of the fictional, constantly depreciating pseudo-"dollar" to expropriate unsuspecting citizens will continue until an economic crisis finally shocks an increasingly impoverished American people out of its slumber, and forces the people to ask the simple question: "What is a 'dollar'?" At that time, the answer will be no different from what it is today, and has been since 1704 - but the opportunity to use that knowledge to prevent a catastrophe may be long gone. Therefore, those few who do know what a "dollar" is, and why that definition is important, need to inform as many of their fellow-citizens as possible. If time has not already run out for re-education of the American people in this area, it is racing towards the historic exit. Under these circumstances, silence by the friends of sound money and honest government is not "golden," but potentially fatal. Appendix Excerpts from the Coinage Act of 1792 Act of 2 April 1792, 1 Statutes at Large 246 [246] CHAPTER XVI. - An Act establishing a Mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States . SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That a mint for the purpose of a national coinage be, and the same is established * * * . * * * * * [248] SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That there shall be from time to time struck and coined at the said mint, coins of gold, silver, and copper, of the following denominations, values and descriptions, viz., EAGLES - each to be of the value of ten dollars or units, and to contain two hundred and forty-seven grains and four eights of a grain of pure, or two hundred and seventy grains of standard gold. HALF EAGLES - each to be of the value of five dollars, and to contain one hundred and twenty-three grains and six eights of a grain of pure, or one hundred and thirty five grains of standard gold. QUARTER EAGLES - each of be of the value of two dollars and a half dollar, and to contain sixty-one grains and seven eights of a grain of pure, or sixtyseven grains and four eights of a grain of standard gold. DOLLARS or UNITS - each to be of the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver. HALF DOLLARS - each to be of half the value of the dollar or unit, and to contain one hundred and eighty-five grains and ten sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or two hundred and eight grains of standard silver. QUARTER DOLLAR - each to be of one fourth the value of the dollar or unit, and to contain ninety-two grains and thirteen sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or one hundred and four grains of standard silver. DISMES - each to be of the value of one tenth of a dollar or unit, and to contain thirty-seven grains and two sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or forty-one grains and two sixteenth parts of a grain of standard silver. HALF DISMES - each to be of the value of one twentieth of a dollar, and to contain eighteen grains and nine sixteenth parts of a grain of pure, or twenty grains and four fifth parts of a grain of standard silver. CENTS each to be of the value of the one hundredth part of a dollar, and to contain eleven penny-weights of copper. HALF CENTS - each to be of the value of half a cent, and to contain five penny-weights and a half penny-weight of copper. SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall by law be current as money within [249] the United States, shall be as fifteen to one, according to quantity in weight, of pure gold or pure silver; that is to say, every fifteen pounds weight of pure silver shall be of equal value in all payments, with one pound weight of pure gold, and so in proportion as to any greater or less quantities of the respective metals. SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the standard for all gold coins of the United States shall be eleven parts fine to one part alloy; and accordingly that eleven parts in twelve of the entire weight of each of the said coins shall consist of pure gold, and the remaining one twelfth part of alloy; and the said alloy shall be composed of silver and copper, in such proportions not exceeding one half silver as shall be found convenient; to be regulated by the director of the mint, for the time being, with the approbation of the President of the United States, until further provision shall be made by law. * * * SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the standard for all silver coins of the United States, shall be one thousand four hundred and eighty-five parts fine to one hundred and seventy-nine parts alloy; and accordingly that one thousand four hundred and eighty-five parts in one thousand six hundred and sixty-four parts of the entire weight of each of the said coins shall consist of pure silver, and the remaining one hundred and seventy- nine parts of alloy; which alloy shall be wholly of copper. SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for any person or persons to bring to the said mint gold and silver bullion, in order to their being coined; and that the bullion so brought shall be there assayed and coined as speedily as may be after the receipt thereof, and that free of expense to the person or persons by whom the same shall have been brought. And as soon as the said bullion shall have been coined, the person or persons by whom the same shall have been delivered, shall upon demand receive in lieu thereof coins of the same species of bullion which shall have been delivered, weight for weight, of the pure gold or pure silver therein contained: Provided nevertheless, That it shall be at the mutual option of the party or parties bringing such bullion, and of the director of the said mint, to make an immediate exchange of coins for standard bullion, with a deduction of one half per cent, from the weight of the pure gold, or pure silver contained in the said bullion, as an indemnification to the mint for the time which will necessarily be required for coining the said bullion, and for the advance which shall have been so made in coins. * * * * * [250] SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That all the gold and silver coins which shall have been struck at, and issued from the said mint, shall be a lawful tender in all payments whatsoever, those of full weight according to the respective values herein before described, and those of less than full weight at values proportional to their respective weights. SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the respective officers of the said mint, carefully and faithfully to use their best endeavours that all the gold and silver coins which shall be struck at the said mint shall be, as nearly as may be, conformable to the several standards and weights aforesaid SEC. 19. And be it further enacted, That if any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint shall be debased or made worse as to the proportion of fine gold or fine silver therein contained, or shall be of less weight or value than the same ought to be pursuant to the directions of this act, through the default or with the connivance of any of the officers or persons who shall be employed at the said mint, for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise with a fraudulent intent, * * * every such officer or person who shall be guilty of any * * * of the said offenses, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death. SEC. 20. And be it further enacted, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and milles or thousandths, a disme being the tenth part of a dollar, a cent the hundredth part of a dollar, a mille the thousandth part of a dollar, and that all accounts in the public offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. APPROVED, April 2, 1792. ********************************************************** Disclaimer: We are just people that get together and exchange information. We are not a group or organization. We are not a company or corporation or association. We sell nothing and we charge nothing. To cancel your class e-mail click "reply" and type "stop messages". ********************************************************** No virus found in this incoming message. No virus found in this outgoing message. |
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