The Coinage Act of 1873.
The enactment of the Mint Law of 1873 marks an era in the Mint Service of the United States. Prior to this, the Director of the Mint at Philadelphia was the Director of all the Mints—the institution at Philadelphia being regarded as the “Mother Mint,” and the others, at San Francisco, New Orleans, etc., were called Branch Mints. Each branch had its Superintendent, reporting direct to Philadelphia. But the authors of the Act of 1873 regarded the Mint Service as so large and important a part of the Government, that it should be constituted a separate Bureau of the Treasury, with the Director located at Washington. One of the promoters of this Act was the Hon. John Jay Knox, late Comptroller of the Currency, and now President of the National Bank of the Republic, New York. The following sketch of the origin and history of the new law may prove of interest. It was originally published in Rhodes’ Journal of Banking, July, 1884. Referring to Mr. Knox, the author says:
“In 1870 he made an elaborate report to Congress (Senate Mis. Doc. No. 132, XLI. Cong., 2d Sess.), including a codification of the Mint and Coinage laws, with important amendments, which was highly commended. The method adopted in this codification was, first, to arrange in as concise a form as possible the coinage laws then in existence, with such additional sections and suggestions as seemed valuable. The proposed bill was then printed upon paper having a wide margin, and transmitted to the officers of the different Mints and Assay offices, and to such other gentlemen as were known to be conversant and intelligent upon the subject of the coinage, with the request that the printed bill should be returned with such notes as experience and education should dictate. In this way the views of many gentlemen who were conversant with these subjects were obtained, with but little inconvenience to such correspondents. This correspondence was subsequently published by order of Congress, in H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 307, XLI. Cong., 2d Sess. Having received these suggestions, the bill, which comprised within the compass of eight or ten pages of the Revised Statutes every important provision contained in more than sixty different enactments upon the Mint and Coinage of the United States—the result of eighty years of legislation—was prepared and submitted to Congress. This bill, with but slight amendments, was subsequently passed, and was known as ‘The Coinage Act of 1873;’ and the Senate Finance Committee, in recognition of the services of the Comptroller of the Currency, by an amendment, made that officer an ex-officio member of the Assay Commission, which meets annually at the Mint in Philadelphia for the purpose of testing the weight and fineness of the coinage of the year. Upon his suggestion the coinage of the silver dollar was discontinued, and the paragraph in the report upon this subject was as follows:
“The coinage of the silver dollar-piece, the history of which is here given, is discontinued in the proposed bill. It is by law the dollar unit; and, assuming the value of gold to be fifteen and one-half times that of silver, being about the mean ratio for the past six years, is worth in gold a premium of about three per cent., its value being $1.03.12, and intrinsically more than seven per cent. premium in our other silver coins, its value thus being $1.07.42. The present laws consequently authorize both a gold dollar unit and a silver dollar unit, differing from each other in intrinsic value. The present gold dollar-piece is made the dollar unit in the proposed bill, and the silver piece is discontinued.”
The first Director of the Mint under this new law, was the Hon. Henry R. Linderman. The title of the chief officer at Philadelphia being changed to Superintendent—the first incumbent with that title was the Hon. James Pollock.
Biographical notices of these officers will be found in their appropriate place in this volume.