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United States (Integer of account)

The integer of account is the dollar ($), which contains 100 cents, and (at par) is equivalent to 4s. 1d. sterling nearly.

COINS.

In gold: the eagle (of 10 dollars) weighing 258 troy grains, 9-10ths fine, or 232+ grains pure, and 25 grains alloy; also the half-eagle, quarter-eagle, and dollar, in the same proportion.

In silver: the dollar (of 100 cents) weighing 412½ troy grains. 9-10ths fine, or 371½ grains pure, and 414 grains alloy; also the dollar, weighing (since 1853) 192 grains, with + dollar, dime or dollar, and ½ dime.

In copper: the cent, weighing 208 troy grains, and the half-cent. The remedy of the mint is 1 part in 144.

The expenses of the mint being defrayed by the government, coin is exchanged for bullion, deducting per cent. for the advance during the time required for coining. The value of the eagle, of full weight, estimating British standard gold 11-12ths fine at £3, 175. 104. per troy ounce, is 41s. 1.16d., equal £2, 1S. 16 d. sterling nearly; and of the dollar, estimating British standard silver 37-40ths fine at 5s. per ounce, 50.17d., equal 4s. 216d. sterling nearly. But the value of the dollar, estimated in gold at th of the eagle, or rather th of the half-eagle (few eagles being coined), is only 49.32d., equal nearly 4s. 11/3d. sterling.

The preceding are the coins according to act of Congress of June 28, 1834, as modified by the subsequent Act of 1853.

Formerly silver was the medium of exchange; the Coinage Act of 1792 having fixed the relative value of gold to silver as 15 to 1; but the Act of 1834, while making no change in the silver dollar, reduced by 15+ grains the weight of pure gold in the eagle, and still preserved it as a legal tender for 10 dollars. The effect of this alteration was to lower the intrinsic value of the gold coin about 6% per cent., to substitute gold for silver as a medium of exchange and measure of value, and to reduce the general money standard of the Union nearly 125ds per cent., the difference in value between the former and the present dollars of account. Under the Act of 1853, the quantity of alloy in both the gold and silver coins was adjusted at the 1-10th part, but no change was made on their value, farther than a small fractional addition of pure metal to the gold coin, amounting in the eagle to only th of a grain.

The mint usage is to pay for deposits of gold bullion on the third day after they are received.

New Silver Coins, etc. - The Coinage Act of Feb. 12, 1873, provided for a new half-dollar of 12½ metrical grammes (slightly more than the old half-dollar), so that two half-dollars are now precisely equal to the five franc coin of France, and its equivalents in Italy, Spain etc.; also for commerce, but not for currency, of a new heavy silver trade dollar of 420 grains, thus exceeding in value the Mexican dollar. Both coins are thus fitted for international purposes. 666