Show ahe SILVER POLLAY since the fiher sit er question has b become so int interesting cresting and im a history of the silver dollar recently appeared in the JOURNAL OF EDUCATION from the pen of T P white As it is full of fact and bearing on the moston queston we 9 give iv c it in substance for tha benefit of our man many readers the spanish milled in 1707 contained 78 7 8 grain of pure silver in 1772 the amount of pure silver deduc reduced ed to 1 in the dollar was 0 4 grains in 1785 17 the confederates adoli adopted ted the dollar as a unit of account declaring it to contain 0 gl 61 grains of pure silver twenty years yeara latter Conre Con greis qs passed an act acl establishing for the country a uni uniform i money account with tho the dollar for a unit and cent containing a ini n rf grains of standard silver gr pure vie the sanie same act also alio made 2473 grains of pure gold the le legal leal n al equivalent of this dollar and one pound of pure gold the substitute for fifteen pounds of pure silver thus making 0 the le legal tr at le ie lations between tile lie two metals illet als I 1 to 15 thus mide made gold old a little liitle under value va lue and little was brought brough t to tile mint illint for coina coinage m e the foreign e gold old coins to which the people W were ei c a accustomed I 1 furnished a satisfactory medium for money exchanges U up p to 1809 1139 silver dotu dollars had been issued at this time yr mr jefferson Jef Terson being president and desiring Z that gold as well as is silver should ci circulate pe emp dorily ordered tile the mint to discontinue the makin making n of silver dollars this T aliet order had the t i ie effect of stopping P n the coinage of silver dollars from fl 1809 to 1836 during this time om silver of fractional fineness and proportional ado lit were circulated freely in 1834 congress con 0 ress changed clial ed the ratio from I 1 to 15 to 1 ta 16 and reduced the weight M feure gold in in a dollar seven grams grains now the gold dollars could not be coined fast enough arld ana were put in circulation cu lation as soon as they were issued silver river at the new rating T rapidly become a commodity and the aj new w coins coins of that metal were rapi rapidly Ily shipped abroad or melted down for uses in the arts nobody would take silver to the mint to become manufactured into coins for circulation when they could trade it for gold bullion which tile the mint without cliate charge e would make into more dollars than the silver would make this soon drained the country of silver ch change ange consequently worn spanish and mexican dollars tool took the I 1 place bace of the full weight pieces which anti silver legislation had driven out of circulation A small number of silver dollar k were coined occa occasionally but tile the only ones that used them were the bullion de deders dealers ders who found them a convenient form for transportation in 1872 mr hopper of boston said by reason of the intrinsic value of the silver dollar being bein greater than its nominal value it lias long ion erased ceased to be a coin of circulation cu and is only melted by the manufacturers of silverware it does not circulate in ill commercial transactions with any country and the inconvenience ce of the these thee e man manufacturers 11 rs rB could be better met by supplying small stamped bars of tile the same standard and bo avold avoid the useless expense of coining the dollar for that purpose mr potter spoke to the change proposed having the legal tender coin of the country condit of only one metal instead of two III 1 I think hink this would be a wise provision and that the full legal tender should be of gold alone mr ir kelley said it is impossible to retain the lie double standard the value of gold and silver continually fluctuates expense has shown that we must have one standard coin which shall tic be a full le leal egal al tender lender and then by having it subsidiary coinage of silver which shall birc circulate in all parts of the country as legal tender for a limited amount we may promote our domestic convenience tile the coinage act of 1872 had ha eardly adly gone into effect discontinuing the coinage of the silver dollars when the price of silver as compared with gold fell rapidly in price in a year the amount of silver necessary to make a dollar could be bought in gold for 98 cents in 1875 it could bo be purchased c ila ed for 91 cents in 75 for cents and in 77 for 90 00 cents 1 the most violent fluctuation in the re rela 1 ati tic e value of the two metals ever known in the history tile the following are some of the causes which produced these changes the extraordinary tra yield of silver hilver in nevada had increased the stock on hand the german government had in 1871 undertook to redeem the th 0 enormous amount in circulation n aad ax d replace it with gold the redeemed silver being melted down and sold old in bull bulk for what it would bring through that operation ov over er seven million pounds of pure silver were thrown into the market the becoming alarmed it at the abundance of silver changed their coins from silver to tn gold and the latin union 1 l france I 1 italy belgium and switzerland in in 1871 4 1 suspended the coinage 0 of silver through the union B by y maintaining the gold dollar as a unit of account congress kept the circulating medium of this country in harmony with that of europe and so saved the producers of this country the heavy premiums ahamed char geil in effecting exchange tn ge which bankers would have been compelled to charge in order to protect allem elves tile the restoration of the sih silver er dollar to its former place as an alternative itter ter native with gold was generally called for by both republicans and democrats in 1877 president hayea called an ail extra session of con congress ress and on nov ath representative bland of missouri moved to suspend the rules and pass 1 a I bill directing the coinage of silver dollars of grains weight standard silver as provided by the act jan 1837 and providing 7 that any owner of silver bullion might 0 deposit the same nt at the mints t to 0 be coined into dollars for his orr own 11 benefit upon the same terms as gold bullion the bullion if it had become a law would have restored the double standard and as the amount of silver necessary for a dollar could be pure purchased bassel G for eighty five in gold old every one could very so soon on pay his debts at a discount of fifteen per cent from their face value on nov senator allison or nf I 1 the lie committe on f cnance nance reported the bill with beveral important amendments the authority for owners of silver bullion to have dollars coined was stricken out and instead the secretary of the treasury was authorized to purchase from time to time silver bullion at the market prices not less than two million dollars a month and not more than four million and have it coined into dollars as fast as purchased the profit to bo be paid into the treasury |