Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Coinage Act of 1873 or Mint Act of 1873 was a general revision of laws relating to the Mint of the United States.By ending the right of holders of silver bullion to have it coined into standard silver dollars, while allowing holders of gold to continue to have their bullion made into money, the act created a gold standard by default.
The revised bill, which came to be known as the Coinage Act of 1873, was approved in the House and Senate and was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on February 12, 1873. [7] Patterns for the Trade Dollar. The bill provided, in part, for the striking of trade dollars which held legal tender status up to five dollars. [12]
Designed by the Mint's chief engraver, James B. Longacre, it circulated well while other silver coinage was being hoarded and melted, but once that problem was addressed, became less used. It was abolished by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1873.
Coinage Act 1891 (54 & 55 Vict. c. 72) Coinage Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5 c. 3) Coinage Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6 c. 74) Coinage Act 1971, made provisions for decimalisation of the pound sterling; Coinage (Measurement) Act 2011, amended the Coinage Act 1971 to allow the method for measuring and confirming the weight of coins to be set by proclamation
The Act formalized the American gold standard that the Coinage Act of 1873, which demonetized silver, and the Resumption Act of 1875, which made all legal tender notes redeemable in gold at the Treasury, had established by default.
In 1992, economist Milton Friedman concluded that abandonment of the bimetallic standard in 1873 led to greater price instability than would have occurred otherwise, and thus resulted in long-term harm to the US economy. His retrospective analysis led him to write that the act of 1873 was "a mistake that had highly adverse consequences". [33
The Coinage Act of 1873 comes into force, ending bimetallism in the U.S. and placing the nation firmly on the gold standard. Hinsdale, Illinois is incorporated. April 13 – Between 62 and 153 Republican freedmen and state militia die in the Colfax massacre while attempting to protect the Grant Parish courthouse, including about 50 who surrendered.
In 1873, Congress had removed the use of silver dollar from the list of authorized coins under the Coinage Act of 1873 (referred to by opponents as 'the Crime of '73'"). Although the Bland–Allison Act of 1878 directed the Treasury to purchase silver from the "best-western" miners, President Grover Cleveland repealed the act in 1893. [4]