EXTRACT FROM CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
Article I., Sect. 8. The Congress shall have power ... to coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coins, and fix the standard of weights and measures, ... to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States.
Article I. Sect. 2. No State shall ... coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, ...
Coinage, fiscal year 1887.
| Description. | Pieces. | Value. |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | 3,724,720 | $22,393,279.00 |
| Silver | 44,231,288 | 34,366,483.75 |
| Minor Coins | 50,166,509 | 943,650.65 |
| Total | 98,122,517 | $57,703,413.40 |
Total number of Coinage Dies made during the year 1887.
| Gold coinage | 120 |
| Silver coinage | 359 |
| Minor coinage | 684 |
| Proof coinage | 27 |
Bullion for the Silver Dollar Coinage, 1887.
| Mode of acquisition. | Standard ounces. | Cost. |
|---|---|---|
| Purchases, Treasury Department, Bureau of the Mint | 29,018,932.12 | $25,624,487.37 |
| Purchases by mint officers | 282,626.95 | 249,150.73 |
| Partings, bar charges and fractions | 131,783.20 | 114,982.36 |
| Total delivered on purchases | 29,433,342.27 | $25,988,620.46 |
| Balance on hand July 1, 1886 | 3,258,495.66 | 2,960,969.02 |
| Available for coinage of silver dollars during the fiscal year 1887 | 32,691,837.93 | $28,949,589.48 |
Value of the Gold and Silver (not including re-deposits) received at the Mints and Assay Offices during the fiscal years 1880-1887.
| Fiscal years. | Gold. | Silver. | Total. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880 | $ 98,835,096 | $34,640,522 | $133,475,618 |
| 1881 | 130,833,102 | 30,791,146 | 161,624,248 |
| 1882 | 66,756,652 | 33,720,491 | 100,477,143 |
| 1883 | 46,347,106 | 36,869,834 | 83,216,940 |
| 1884 | 46,326,678 | 36,520,290 | 82,846,968 |
| 1885 | 52,894,075 | 36,789,774 | 89,683,849 |
| 1886 | 44,909,749 | 35,494,183 | 80,403,932 |
| 1887 | 68,223,072 | 47,756,918 | 115,979,990 |
Silver Coins of the United States.
| Denominations. | Coinage commenced. | Coinage ceased. | Amount coined to June 30, 1884. | Standard weight, grains. | Amount for which a legal tender. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard dollars | 1878 | $175,355,829.00 | 412.5 | Unlimited. | |
| Trade dollars | 1873 | 1878 | 35,959,360.00 | 420. | Not a legal tender. |
| Dollars | 1793 | 1873 | 8,045,838.00 | 412.5 | Unlimited. |
| Half dollars | 1793 | 122,765,735.00 | 192.9 | Ten dollars. | |
| Quarter dollars | 1796 | 38,495,918.75 | 96.45 | Ten dollars. | |
| Twenty cents | 1875 | 1878 | 271,000.00 | 77.16 | Five dollars. |
| Dimes | 1796 | 18,293,172.50 | 38.58 | Ten dollars. | |
| Half dimes | 1793 | 1873 | 4,906,946.90 | 19.29 | Five dollars. |
| Three cents | 1851 | 1873 | 1,281,850.20 | 11.52 | Five dollars. |
FAC-SIMILE REPRODUCTIONS OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY.
Trade-Dollars Coined, Exported, Imported, Melted, and Redeemed (Act of March 3, 1887).
| Coined: | ||||
| Mint at Philadelphia | $5,107,024 | |||
| Mint at San Francisco | 26,647,000 | |||
| Mint at Carson | 4,211,400 | |||
| $35,965,924 | ||||
| Exported | 28,778,862 | |||
| Imported | 1,706,020 | |||
| Net export | 27,072,842 | |||
| 8,893,082 | ||||
| Melted: | ||||
| As bullion. | { Previous to Redemption Act | $915,346 | ||
| { Excluded from redemption (mutilated pieces, etc.) | 4,113 | |||
| 919,459 | ||||
| Redeemed. | { Mint at Philadelphia | 3,427,369 | ||
| { Mint at San Francisco | 764,263 | |||
| { Mint at New Orleans | 1,871 | |||
| { Assay office at New York | 3,495,533 | |||
| Total redeemed | 7,689,036 | |||
| Total melted | 8,608,495 | |||
| Not accounted for and not presented for redemption; employed in the arts; specimen pieces in the hands of coin collectors, carried out by emigrants, and in miscellaneous deposits of coin remelted at mints, etc. | $284,587 | |||
Gross Profits on Silver Coinage in 1887.
The seignorage or immediate gross profit on the coinage of silver dollars—that is, the difference between the cost of the bullion and the nominal value of the coins—during the fiscal year 1887, was $7,923,558.61.
The seignorage on subsidiary coin manufactured during the year was $31,704.94, of which $1,130.65 was gained from the recoinage of old subsidiary coins in the Treasury.
The total seignorage on the silver coinage during the fiscal year was $7,955,263.55.
As stated in last fiscal report, the balance of silver profits remaining in the coinage mints on the 1st July, 1886, amounted to $553,201.44.
Adding to this the seignorage of the year, the total gross silver profits to be accounted for by the mints is $8,508,464.99.
Of this there was paid for expenses of distributing silver coin $35,059.03, and reimbursed for wastage and loss on sale of sweeps $20,294.88.
The seignorage on the coinage of silver at the mints of the United States from July 1, 1878, to the close of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1887, has amounted to $39,057,566.90.
Tabulated Statement of Expenditures of the Mint at Philadelphia, for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1887.
| Items. | Amount. |
|---|---|
| Acids | $7,149.28 |
| Belting | 315.07 |
| Charcoal | 1,873.42 |
| Chemicals | 832.58 |
| Coal | 16,332.20 |
| Copper | 13,585.00 |
| Crucibles, covers, stirrers, and dippers | 3,712.72 |
| Dry goods | 1,198.97 |
| Fluxes | 3,560.91 |
| Freight and drayage | 252.12 |
| Gas | 4,098.78 |
| Gloves and gauntlets | 5,930.40 |
| Hardware | 957.01 |
| Ice | 613.45 |
| Iron and steel | 205.91 |
| Labor and repairs | 3,417.82 |
| Loss on sale of sweeps | 1,301.15 |
| Lumber | 2,109.74 |
| Machinery and appliances | 2,617.49 |
| Metal work and castings | 1,697.61 |
| Oil | 1,047.12 |
| Salt | 117.56 |
| Stationery, printing and binding | 773.42 |
| Sundries | 6,230.61 |
| Telegraphing | 28.87 |
| Washing | 42.67 |
| Wood | 5,432.62 |
| Zinc | 935.57 |
| Steam-power plant | 11,464.27 |
| Manufacture of 5-cent nickel blank | 19,498.50 |
| Total | 117,332.84 |
| Salaries | 40,665.69 |
| Wages of workmen | 426,593.93 |
| Aggregate | 581,597.46 |
Value of the Foreign Gold Coins Deposited at the United States Assay Office at New York during the Year ended June 30, 1887.
| Countries of Coinage. | Denominations of coin. | Total of each denomination of coin. | Total by countries of coinage. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica | Mixed | 257.56 | $257.56 |
| France | 20 francs | 1,219,351.02 | 1,219,351.02 |
| Germany | 20 marks | 179,121.67 | 179,121.67 |
| Great Britain | Sovereigns | 1,018,036.21 | 1,018,036.21 |
| Japan | Yens | 18,608.37 | 18,608.37 |
| Mexico | 20 pesos | 388,668.88 | |
| ” | 10 pesos | 1,341.64 | |
| ” | Doubloons | 1,178.60 | 391,189.12 |
| Russia | 5 roubles | 155,237.39 | |
| ” | Roubles | 2,596.80 | |
| ” | ½ imperials | 577,223.34 | 735,057.53 |
| Peru | 20 soles | 999.82 | 999.82 |
| Spain | Doubloons | 3,101,388.08 | |
| ” | Isabellines | 98,151.58 | |
| ” | 25 pesetas | 957,276.17 | |
| ” | Mixed | 179,863.62 | 4,336,679.45 |
| U. S. Colombia | Cinco pesos | 709.76 | 709.76 |
| Total | $7,900,010.51 | $7,900,010.51 |
The total value of both gold and silver deposited and purchased at the mints of the United States during the fiscal year 1887, not including redeposits, was $115,979,991.62, and including redeposits, $131,635,811.34.
The value of the gold and silver received at the mints and assay offices during the fiscal year 1887, was greater than any previous year since 1881.