In January 1892, at the start of the 52nd Congress, Allen Ralph Bushnell (D-WI) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that called for "all silver dollars hereafter coined [to] contain one ounce troy of pure silver, and for the free coinage thereof." The bill was referred to House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
The "free coinage thereof" phrase gave notice that Bushnell was aligned with the "Silver free coinage" advocates who pushed for unlimited silver coinage and the expansion of US monetary policy beyond the rigid controls of the gold standard that the US had adopted (over silver) via its Coinage Act of 1873. One objective of the legislation was to increase the amount of silver in the marketplace through silver dollars (SDs) of increased silver weight (a move, BTW, that would have required increased amounts of silver to be purchased in the marketplace).
The bill did not call for a change to the design of the then-current SD (i.e., the
Morgan silver dollar), however, nor to its diameter. If the coin's diameter was held constant, its depth/thickness would likely have had to increase, unless a composition other than 0.900 silver/0.100 copper would have been used. Based on the diameter of the current one-ounce 0.999 fine American Silver Eagle (40.6 mm), however, it would seem that the higher silver content SD would have required a thicker planchet if its diameter was to be held constant.
The bill did not require the weights of subsidiary silver coin to be adjusted, they were to remain - along with previously struck silver dollars - legal tender as they were. No widespread re-coinage was to be needed!
The bill was not reported by the Committee, and was never considered by the Whole House.
It makes me wonder...Had Bushnell's bill become law, would the push, 90 years later, for the American Silver Eagle (
ASE) bullion coin program (issued 1986-present) ever have materialized? With all US Silver Dollars already essentially being bullion coins, the
ASE program might not have been needed and the world's most popular silver bullion coin might never have been struck!
For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, and other US coin stories, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 05/22/2025 07:09 am
