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The American dollar contained less silver than a full-weight Spanish 8 Reales, by 1-1.5 grams.
I think that should be 1-1.5 grains
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Even with the Philly mint working around the clock and technological advances in minting, there were not nearly enough coins to supply the nation
One reason for this is because the mint was dependent upon private citizens and businesses depositing gold and silver to provide them with material to work on. (The Mint did not have funds to purchase silver or gold on the open market for coinage until 1837.) Clipped or worn coins that were still accepted at face value would have been returned as cons with LESS face value, so it made more sense to just circulate them instead of having them recoined. For the most part the mint probably received mostly raw bullion and/or coins so worn or clipped that they would not longer pass at face value. Then you had the problems of a bimetallic standard. One metal or the other would always be overvalued and withdrawn from circulation.
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I would also add that the use of .925 silver would have been disastrous; any such coins would have rapidly fled the country and been replaced by debased foreign silver, and the operation of the Mint would not have been sustainable.
Fineness of the metal was not nearly as important as the silver content. A higher fineness coin would still circulate if its silver content by weight was less than a lower fineness coin. So a sterling silver dollar of slightly lower weight would have been acceptable, but they were trying to match the Spanish milled dollar as closely as possible in both size and weight.
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The .925 British coinage was already nearly nonexistent in circulation by the start of the 19th c. and had been for 30+ years before that; it tended to flow back to Britain and stay there.
Part of the reason for that was because imports from England typically had to be paid for in coin or goods, and as colonies the balance of trade was such that the value of material flowing to the colonies was greater than that flowing to England so most of the available coins flowed to England in payment.
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Posted 09/18/2017 8:12 pm
