Strongly supported by western mining interests and farmers, the Bland-Allison Act—which provided for a return to the minting of silver coins—becomes the law of the land.
The strife and controversy surrounding the coinage of silver is difficult for most modern Americans to understand, but in the late 19th century it was a topic of keen political and economic interest. Today, the value of American money is essentially secured by faith in the stability of the government, but during the 19th century, money was generally backed by actual deposits of silver and gold, the so-called “bimetallic standard.” The U.S. also minted both gold and silver coins.
In 1873, Congress decided to follow the lead of many European nations and cease buying silver and minting silver coins, because silver was relatively scarce and to simplify the monetary system. Exacerbated by a variety of other factors, this led to a financial panic. When the government stopped buying silver, prices naturally dropped, and many owners of primarily western silver mines were hurt. Likewise, farmers and others who carried substantial debt loads attacked the so-called “Crime of ’73.” They believed, somewhat simplistically, that it caused a tighter supply of money, which in turn made it more difficult for them to pay off their debts.
A nationwide drive to return to the bimetallic standard gripped the nation, and many Americans came to place a near mystical faith in the ability of silver to solve their economic difficulties. The leader of the fight to remonetize silver was the Missouri Congressman Richard Bland. Having worked in mining and having witnessed the struggles of small farmers, Bland became a fervent believer in the silver cause, earning him the nickname “Silver Dick.”
With the backing of powerful western mining interests, Bland secured passage of the Bland-Allison Act, which became law on this day in 1878. Although the act did not provide for a return to the old policy of unlimited silver coinage, it did require the U.S. Treasury to resume purchasing silver and minting silver dollars as legal tender. Americans could once again use silver coins as legal tender, and this helped some struggling western mining operations. However, the act had little economic impact, and it failed to satisfy the more radical desires and dreams of the silver backers. The battle over the use of silver and gold continued to occupy Americans well into the 20th century.
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Gold and silver is the way to go.
My granddad carried a silver dollar in his pocket so long that it became smooth. He gave it to me when I was 6 as a bribe to participate in my cousin’s wedding. Every time I take it out and hold it, I think of him and my grandmother.
A large swath of society have no clue that dimes,quarters,halves and dollars were once 90% silver. Or that there was a coinage act that made it law that they be made in that. The debasing of the country’s “currency” has been completed right down to the penny. Holding a coin from that era is history.Thinking who could have touched that coin. That same swath of people still think because it looks silver.It must be silver.
I knew a guy who ran a fleet of ice cream trucks from the 1970s into the 2000s.
He had more silver than many small countries could claim.
A lot of people don’t realize the wealth they have in some of the coins they receive and they spend silver and copper as if it’s the other cheap metals.
NOTHING that harms no one, should EVER be illegal. Minting silver coins (as long as there is no fraud in purity or quantity), should NEVER have been illegal.
It wasn’t “illegal” per se, just wasn’t authorized for the Treasury (Mint) for a certain period as far as domestic coinage was concerned. “Trade Dollars” were being minted for use in the then-contemporary China trade (and are very collectible today). Dimes, quarters and halves during the period in question continued to be minted from silver alloy.
Mintage of silver dimes:
1873 [Philadelphia] 2,378,500
1873CC 18,791
1873S 455,000
1874(P) 2,940,700
1874CC 10,817
1874S 240,000
1875(P) 10,350,700
1875CC4,645,000
1875S 9,070,000
1876 (P) 11,461,150
1876CC 8,270,000
1876S 10,420,000
1877 (P) 7,310,510
1877CC 7,700,000
1877S 2,340,000
Tens of millions of silver quarters and halves were also minted 1873-77 at all 3 mints.
Source: A Guide Book of United States Coins, by R.S. Yeoman.
We have gold because we cannot trust governments. ― Herbert Hoover
It’s absolutely critical that we audit the Fed so the American people can see what’s going on over there. Do it from top to bottom so that we can have transparency in this entity called the Federal Reserve. Hopefully, the American people will see that we need to go back to the gold standard, which I’ve introduced, and get rid of the Fed. – Paul Broun
Gold is money. Everything else is credit. – J. P. Morgan
Never trust money more than gold. ― Toba Beta (he could have said currancy mark)
In reality, there is no such thing as an inflation of prices, relatively to gold. There is such a thing as a depreciated paper currency. — Lysander Spooner
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. — Alan Greenspan
A gold standard doesn’t imply stability in the prices of the goods and services that people buy every day, it implies a stability in the price of gold itself. — Ben Bernanke
The desire for gold is the most universal and deeply rooted commercial instinct of the human race. — Gerald M. Loeb
The threat of gold redeemability imposes a constant check and limit on inflationary issues of government paper. If the government can remove the threat, it can expand and inflate without cease. And so it begins to emit propaganda, trying to persuade the public not to use gold coins in their daily lives. — Murray Rothbard
When goods are exchanged between countries, they must be paid for by commodities or gold. They cannot be paid for by the notes, certificates, and checks of the purchaser’s country, since these are of value only in the country of issue. — Carroll Quigley
When people talk about people who are optimistic about gold, they call them ‘gold bugs.’ A bug is an insect. I don’t call equity bugs ‘cockroaches.’ Do you understand? There is already a negative connotation with the expression of ‘gold bug.’ — Marc Faber
The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of oppression and coercion — policemen, customs guards, penal courts, prisons, in some countries even executioners — had to be put into action in order to destroy the gold standard. Solemn pledges were broken, retroactive laws were promulgated, provisions of constitutions and bills of rights were openly defied. And hosts of servile writers praised what the governments had done and hailed the dawn of the fiat-money millennium. — Ludwig von Mises
With the exception only of the period of the gold standard, practically all governments of history have used their exclusive power to issue money to defraud and plunder the people. — Friedrich August von Hayek
Monetary policy today is guided by little more than government fiat — by the calculations, often-mistaken economic theories and whims of central bankers or, even worse, politicians. Under such a regime, inflation of three or four percent annually has come to be viewed as a stellar monetary performance. However, under a more sound monetary system — i.e., a gold standard — such increases in the general price level would be seen as wildly inflationary. — Raymond J. Keating
Although gold and silver are not by nature money, money is by nature gold and silver. — Karl Marx
Governments lie; bankers lie; even auditors sometimes lie. Gold tells the truth. — Lord Rees Mogg
If an automatic commodity standard were feasible, it would provide an excellent solution to the liberal’s (i.e., classic liberal) dilemma: a stable monetary framework without danger of the irresponsible exercise of monetary powers. If, for example, an honest-to-goodness gold standard, in which 100 percent of the money in a country consisted literally of gold, were widely backed by the public at large, imbued with the mythology of a gold standard and with the belief that it is immoral and improper for government to interfere with its operation, it would provide an effective guarantee against governmental tinkering with the currency and against irresponsible monetary action. — Milton Friedman
Until government administrators can so identify the interests of government with those of the people and refrain from defrauding the masses through the device of currency depreciation for the sake of remaining in office, the wiser ones will prefer to keep as much of their wealth in the most stable and marketable forms possible — forms which only the precious metals provide. — Elgin Groseclose
If you don’t trust gold, do you trust the logic of taking a beautiful pine tree, worth about $4,000-$5,000, cutting it up, turning it into pulp and then paper, putting some ink on it and then calling it one billion dollars? — Kenneth J. Gerbino
The great merit of gold is precisely that it is scarce; that its quantity is limited by nature; that it is costly to discover, to mine and to process; and that it cannot be created by political fiat or caprice. — Henry Hazlitt
Gold will be around, gold will be money when the dollar and the euro and the yuan and the ringgit are mere memories. — Richard Russell
Those entrapped by the herd instinct are drowned in the deluges of history. But there are always the few who observe, reason, and take precautions, and thus escape the flood. For these few gold has been the asset of last resort. — Antony C. Sutton
The modern mind dislikes gold because it blurts out unpleasant truths. — Joseph Schumpeter
I have always felt that if a man gives you a solid gold key to his door he is entitled to the courtesy of a visit. — Hedy Lamarr
A man that hoards up riches and enjoys them not is like an ass that carries gold and eats thistles. — Richard Burton
There is no such thing in the world as luck. There never was a man who could go out in the morning and find a purse full of gold in the street today, and another tomorrow, and so on, day after day. He may do so once in his life; but so far as mere luck is concerned, he is as liable to lose it as to find it. — P. T. Barnum
The Seven Cities of Gold always fascinated me. Southwestern U.S. history especially fascinates me. The whole spur of the Spanish exploration of the Southwestern U.S. was the search for these mythical Seven Cities of Gold. — Neil Peart
They don’t give you gold medals for beating somebody. They give you gold medals for beating everybody. — Michael Johnson
Bitcoin is not an actual physical coin, and if computers are shut down, you can’t buy or sell them. That’s why nothing will ever replace gold and silver coins themselves, and all investors should have them at home or in a safe deposit box. — Mark Skousen
My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it. ― John Gardner
Because gold is honest money, it is disliked by dishonest men. — Ron Paul
Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold. — Robert Kiyosaki
The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. – Attributed to a 1967 Wizard of Id comic strip
The finest compliment you can pay a man is that his word was as good as gold. — Evel Knievel
Gold is valuable everywhere in the world and is not dependent on political systems, any specific government policy or set of policies. — Roy Sebag
My mother might find a thin gold chain at the back of a drawer, wadded into an impossibly tight knot, and give it to me to untangle. It would have a shiny, sweaty smell, and excite me: Gold chains linked you to the great fairy tales and myths, to Arabia and India; to the great weight of the world, but lighter than a feather. — Anne Lamott
Gold has intrinsic value. The problem with the dollar is it has no intrinsic value. And if the Federal Reserve is going to spend trillions of them to buy up all these bad mortgages and all other kinds of bad debt, the dollar is going to lose all of its value. Gold will store its value, and you’ll always be able to buy more food with your gold. — Peter Schiff
If the world does well, gold will be fine. If the world doesn’t do well, gold will also do fine…but a lot of other things could collapse. — Thomas Kaplan
If you want an alternative currency, check out gold. It has stood the test of thousands of years as a store of value and medium of exchange. — Paul Singer
The world’s central banks and the International Monetary Fund still have vaults full of bullion, even though currencies are no longer backed by gold. Governments hold on to it as a kind of magic symbol, a way of reassuring people that their money is real. — James Surowiecki
If you trade in paper, the notion of many who trade gold…if the financial world comes to an end, they’re going to have the gold. If you’re playing in ETFs, you’re going to have a piece of paper. — Rick Santelli
Gold is still the ultimate store of wealth. It’s the world’s only true money. And there isn’t much of it to go around. All of it ever mined would fit into a small building — a 56-foot cube. The annual world production would fit into a 14-foot cube, roughly the size of an ordinary living room. If each Chinese citizen were to buy just one ounce, it would take up the annual supply for the next 200 years. — Mark Nestmann
If ever there was an area in which to do the exact opposite of that which government and the media urge you to do, that area is the purchasing of gold. — Robert Ringer
Regardless of the dollar price involved, one ounce of gold would purchase a good-quality man’s suit at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt and today. — Peter A. Burshre
I like gold because it is a stabilizer; it is an insurance policy. — Kevin O’Leary
Bitcoin is not an actual physical coin, and if computers are shut down, you can’t buy or sell them. That’s why nothing will ever replace gold and silver coins themselves, and all investors should have them at home or in a safe deposit box. — Mark Skousen
Because gold is honest money, it is disliked by dishonest men. — Ron Paul
Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold. — Robert Kiyosaki
The Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. – Attributed to a 1967 Wizard of Id comic strip
The finest compliment you can pay a man is that his word was as good as gold. —
Gold is valuable everywhere in the world and is not dependent on political systems, any specific government policy or set of policies. — Roy Sebag
My mother might find a thin gold chain at the back of a drawer, wadded into an impossibly tight knot, and give it to me to untangle. It would have a shiny, sweaty smell, and excite me: Gold chains linked you to the great fairy tales and myths, to Arabia and India; to the great weight of the world, but lighter than a feather. — Anne Lamott
Gold has an almost atavistic lure. People feel it has a panacea effect. — Howard Blum
A U.S. dollar is an I.O.U. from the Federal Reserve Bank. It’s not backed by gold or silver. It’s a promissory note that doesn’t actually promise anything. — P.J. O’Rourke
When it comes to real money, true wealth and financial health, Gold & Silver, various hard assets, and day to day basic self-sufficiency…will allow you to stand on your own wisdom and proficiency.
Build common sense prep – in all its’s defiant depth.
Be armed to the teeth – to bequeath…liberty & freedom.
The vast majority of Americans are dumbed down, brainwashed, propagandized, debt monetized, lemming like suckers being led around with fiat rings in their noses…by the Luciferian Bankster posers.
Don’t hate your fate…just don’t take their debt/fiat bait. ———- mark of TBP
Mark, you could almost teach an economics class just with those quotes.
My favorite of the quotes: “Gold is valuable everywhere in the world and is not dependent on political systems, any specific government policy or set of policies. — Roy Sebag”
That’s why my savings is in gold and silver.
“Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants – but debt is the money of slaves.”
― Norm Franz, Money & Wealth in the New Millennium: A Prophetic Guide to the New World Economic Order
I wish, but don’t see, the government ever re-monetizing silver in coinage even though… at least in my mind…it should be reinstated…
Article I, Section 8 lays out the powers explicitly granted to the US Congress. Among these powers granted to the US Congress was the power to “Coin Money”. There is, however, nothing in this article that states that the coined money must be made of gold and silver.
The next piece of the puzzle that accounts for the misconception surrounding constitutional silver and gold is the Coinage act of 1792. With this act, Congress regulated that gold, silver, and copper would be used as legal tender and even set forth the amount of metal that every coin would contain. For instance, a $10 gold coin was known as an Eagle and was to contain 16 grams of pure gold. The Coinage Act of 1792 set for the foundation of gold and silver in US coins for many years to come but it was never part of the US Constitution.
Many times when people say that constitutional silver and gold is mandated by the US Constitution they quote Article I, Section 10, which reads, “[No state shall] make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts;” In the infancy of the United States, before the constitution was ratified, there were many problems with individual states issuing their own debt. This clause in the US Constitution was meant to legitimize the US Government to foreign lenders by preventing individual states from taking on debt and repaying with fiat currencies.
The idea that constitutional silver and gold is mandated is wrong but that does not mean that proponents of sound money are wrong for wanting the US government to adhere to gold and silver to maintain wealth and prosperity amongst its citizens. In the early years, when the United States used gold and silver for the basis of its currency, inflation remained relatively non-existent. As you can see from the graph, when the United States abandoned the gold standard the inflationary woes began.
Remonetization of silver came to a brick wall for the US Treasury.
Because Europe paid more for silver, in gold, the aforementioned treasury was squeaking by with 7 million dollars by the time that lawyer from Buffalo, NY…what’s his name ( oh yeah, President Cleveland) had to convince that fella that was known to thrash a photographer for taking a pic on the wrong side of his face vainly trying to prevent exposing his malformed nose to viewers…(oh yeah, J.P. Morgan) to lend the USA enough to thwart bankruptcy.
Gotta love those congressmen that set the hole scam up for all those western mining interest, eh?
One of my numi coins happens to be a graded MS64 1878-S Morgan silver dollar, one of the first minted in Scat Franscisco. I purchased it as a reminder of silver’s past historical value. The Carson City coins minted later have more numismatic value but I wanted a first date coin at a good price.
Nice piece, it’s listed on the NGC website from a previous owner.
The 8 tail feathers were the first first’s.