Coinage Act of 1792
Long title | An Act establishing a Mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States. |
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Enacted by | the 2nd United States Congress |
Citations | |
Statutes at Large | 1 Stat. 246 |
Legislative history | |
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The Coinage Act of 1792 (also known as the Mint Act; officially: An act establishing a mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States), passed by the
By the Act, the Mint was to be situated at the seat of government of the United States. The five original officers of the U.S. Mint were a Director, an Assayer, a Chief Coiner, an Engraver, and a Treasurer (not the same as the Secretary of the Treasury). The Act allowed that one person could perform the functions of Chief Coiner and Engraver. The Assayer, Chief Coiner and Treasurer were required to post a $10,000 bond with the Secretary of the Treasury.
The Act
History
Although some of the provisions in the 1792 Coinage Act were adjusted as time went by, the majority of the rules specified in this Act remained in effect for decades. Essentially, it provided the framework for all subsequent coinage design and production. The Act called for an image emblematic of liberty as well as the word "liberty", and the year of the coinage. It further declared that on the reverse of each gold and silver coin there would also be the representation of an eagle, with the inscription, "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA". On the reverse of the copper coins, there express the denomination of the coin as one-cent or half-cent.
An Act to Provide For a Copper Coinage
On May 8, 1792, An Act to Provide For a Copper Coinage [1 Stat. 283]] was signed into law by President
Effects
Merchants and bankers were reluctant to bring silver bullion to the Mint because of the disclosure of the illegal silver standard that was previously in effect.[clarification needed] The silver coins produced in 1794 & 1795 honored the official overall weight of the coin (at 416 grains), but employed a 0.900 fine standard instead of the Spanish dollar 0.8924 fine standard as prescribed in the Mint Act of April 2, 1792 (Heritage Coin Auction #390, Vol III, p. 117). Since the overall weight of the coin remained the same, but the purity was increased, each coin had an excess of precious metal content (416 * 0.9 = 374.4 grains; vs. 416 * 0.8924 = 371.2384 grains; thus: 374.4 - 371.2384 = +3.1616 grains); but since the value of the coin was determined by its face value, this excess precious metal was essentially wasted. The most immediate effect of this practice was that depositors ended up paying an additional 3.1616 grains (0.205 grams) of silver bullion (almost 1% extra; 3.1616 / 371.2384 = 0.8%) for every dollar they received (Taxay, 1966, p. 89). When this became widely known, bullion deposits brought to the mint declined significantly in 1796 and 1797.
Authorization and free coinage
The Act authorized production of the following coins:[6]
Eagles | $10.00 | 247+4⁄8 grain (16.04 g) pure or 270 grain (17.5 g) standard gold
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Half eagles | $5.00 | 123+6⁄8 grain (8.02 g) pure or 135 grain (8.75 g) standard gold |
Quarter eagles | $2.50 | 61+7⁄8 grain (4.01 g) pure or 67+4⁄8 grain (4.37 g) standard gold |
Dollars or Units | $1.00 | 371+4⁄16 grain (24.1 g) pure or 416 grain (27.0 g) standard silver |
Half dollars | $0.50 | 185+10⁄16 grain (12.0 g) pure or 208 grain (13.5 g) standard silver |
Quarter dollars | $0.25 | 92+13⁄16 grain (6.01 g) pure or 104 grains (6.74 g) standard silver |
Dismes | $0.10 | 37+2⁄16 grain (2.41 g) pure or 41+3⁄5 grain (2.70 g) standard silver |
Half dismes | $0.05 | 18+9⁄16 grain (1.20 g) pure or 20+4⁄5 grain (1.35 g) standard silver |
Cents or Pennies | $0.01 | 11 pennyweights (17.1 g) of copper |
Half cents | $0.005 | 5+1⁄2 pennyweights (8.55 g) of copper |
The coins were to contain the following markings:
- One side was to have an impression emblematic of liberty, with the inscription "Liberty", and the year of the coinage.
- The reverse side of each of the gold and silver coins was to have the figure or representation of an eagle with the inscription "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA".
- The reverse of the copper coins was to have an inscription expressing the denomination.
Images of Liberty would remain a standard part of US coinage through the 19th century and into the early 20th. While European coins typically included a portrait of the reigning monarch, the idea of depicting a real, as opposed to an allegorical, figure was considered unacceptable in the republican United States. The image of Liberty used on US coins generally reflected contemporary standards of female beauty, and was redesigned every few decades to reflect the changing times, although the Seated Liberty image which graced coins starting in 1837 would end up being used for over half a century. Not until the Lincoln cent, issued in 1909 to commemorate the centenary of President Lincoln's birth, would a real person be depicted on a US coin.
The Act defined the proportional value of gold and silver as 15 units of pure silver to 1 unit of pure gold. Standard gold was defined as 11 parts pure gold to one part alloy composed of silver and copper. Standard silver was defined as 1485 parts pure silver to 179 parts copper alloy. The Act also specified the dollar as the "money of account" of the United States, and directed that all accounts of the federal government be kept in dollars, "
This section's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (March 2018) |
Under Sec.14, any person could bring gold or silver bullion and have it coined for free or later for a small fee, exchange it immediately for an equivalent value of coin. The paragraph summary states: "Persons may bring gold and silver bullion, to be coined free of expense;"
Quality control measures were implemented in that from each separate mass of gold or silver used to produce coins, three coins were set aside by the treasurer. Each year on the last Monday in July, under the inspection of the Chief Justice, the Secretary and Comptroller of the Treasury, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney General, the coins were to be assayed and if the coins did not meet established standards, the officers were disqualified from office. The meetings later became formalized as the United States Assay Commission, which continued meeting until it was disbanded in 1980.
Section 19 of the Act established a penalty of death for debasing the gold or silver coins authorized by the Act, or embezzlement of the metals for those coins, by officers or employees of the mint; this section of the Act apparently remains in effect and would, in theory, continue to apply in the case of "any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint". (At present the only gold or silver coins struck by the US mint are the
See also
- Coinage Act of 1834
- Coinage Act of 1849
- Coinage Act of 1853
- Coinage Act of 1857
- Coinage Act of 1864
- Coinage Act of 1873
- Coinage Act of 1965
- Mill (currency)
References
- JSTOR 1116782.
- ^ "Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia: Money in Colonial Times". Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Archived from the original on November 21, 2011. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- ^ "Section 9 of the Coinage Act of 1792". Memory.loc.gov. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
- ^ "Coinage Act of April 2, 1792". U.S. Mint. April 19, 2017. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
- ISBN 9780375722219. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
- ^ "Coinage Act of 1792" (PDF). United States Congress. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2004-04-07. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- ^ United States Statutes at Large.
Further reading
- Nussbaum, Arthur (November 1937). "The Law of the Dollar". JSTOR 1116782.
- Allen, Larry (2009). The Encyclopedia of Money (2nd ed.). ISBN 978-1598842517.
External links
- Facsimile of the Coinage Act of 1792 in the Statutes at Large from the Library of Congress
- Facsimile of the Act to provide for a Copper Coinage in the Statutes at Large from the Library of Congress