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 Replies: 36 / Views: 3,242 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2448 Posts |
OK, this is really my last guess; the Cherokee trail of tears! All that Wampum out there couldn't have been good for the minting business. Not to mention Jackson hated the American Indians.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3294 Posts |
The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857? Maybe it interrupted trade with GB or something.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3234 Posts |
Hint: Think about the other side of the bimetallic standard.
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Valued Member
Guatemala
357 Posts |
Does the answer have anything to do with Gresham's Law?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3234 Posts |
Quote:
Does the answer have anything to do with Gresham's Law?
Yes! Good clue...now, what's the answer? By the way, I need to confess that I shouldn't purport that these two items are THE answer but are two significant events and there are likely some other events that helped (and others might argue are equally or more significant). Edited by Prethen
03/02/2011 1:08 pm
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Valued Member
Guatemala
357 Posts |
Well... The apparently obvious answer is that the Coinage Act of 1834 set an artificially low price for silver on the domestic market, certainly lower than the international market. In consequence, foreign countries could buy our silver at a discount for their own use, and invoke Gresham's Law in the United States.
As the California Gold flooded the market, the legal mandate regarding the bi-metallic standard required domestic silver prices to be raised, to prevent further erosion of silver stockpiles in the U.S.
The Coinage Act of 1857 also removed any incentive for a foreign country to buy up our silver, re-mint it, and in effect, sell it back to us at a profit.
Edited by JMerrick
03/02/2011 1:31 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3234 Posts |
I'll give ya a big hint....1853. Remember the 1857 Act couldn't be successful unless we were already able to start pushing out foreign coins.
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Valued Member
United States
327 Posts |
The act of February 21 1853 reduced the amount of silver in the fractional coins by 6.9 percent, making the face value more than the silver content. Essentially this meant our money became overvalued against the bimetallic standard, but at least people would stop turning it into bullion as soon as it left the mint.
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Valued Member
Guatemala
357 Posts |
Well. Potato chips were invented, and Franklin Pierce became president. While potato chips were, for very good reason, much more popular, Pierce did any number of things that could affect monetary supply. He tried to strong-arm the British out of Central America, buy Cuba from Spain, and was a leading figure in the division between slave holding and abolitionist states and territories, including the "Compromises".
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Valued Member
Guatemala
357 Posts |
SPQR,
That was 1857, not 1853...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3234 Posts |
SPQR actually is on track for the correct answer. By making the silver coins have lower silver content (1853) by weight, the practice for exporting them for more than face was squashed. This allowed those coins to finally circulate and compete against all the silver minor coins. Now, the Mint had a chance to finally get rid of all that foreign silver.
Edited by Prethen
03/02/2011 2:46 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8904 Posts |
I have no clue to the answer but I am following this (and Prethen's other "Trivia" threads) fascinatedly! (Is that a word?)  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3234 Posts |
So the two major events that I was looking for (again maybe not all inclusive) are:
1 - January 24, 1848: The gold side of the equation was solved with Sutter's Mill and the California Gold Rush
2 - Coinage Act of 1853: The silver side of the equation; reduced weight of silver in minor coins to prevent exporting
The bi-metallic standard was still intact but, as always, on shakey ground until we went to the gold standard (and I forget off hand what year that was).
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Valued Member
Guatemala
357 Posts |
It can only be the Mint Act of 1853. If that isn't the answer, I give up!  |
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Valued Member
Guatemala
357 Posts |
And, to be fair to SPQR, the Mint Act of 1853 is dated on the same calendar day as the Coinage Act of 1857.
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Posted 03/02/2011 08:46 am
