Interesting information posted by The Mint. https://www.usmint.gov/news/inside-the-mint/mint-history-crime-of-1873
Crime of 1873: The Comstock Connection by Robert R. Van Ryzin was published in 2001 and relates the complete story beginning with the discovery of silver in Nevada. The book is a "slow read" because Van Ryzin uses footnote after footnote, but for anyone interested in the historical developments of the period, it is very fascinating. Chris
Thanks for the info on this book.. Interestingly enough I just requested this book from the Local Library today. They told me it would be a couple of days before they could get it Strange on how information travels.
From the article: In 1867, foreign counterparts in Paris had discussed turning away from silver toward a gold standard based on the weight of 25 francs. Factually though, this was agreed upon in 1865 with the formation of the Latin Monetary Union and the basis was 20 francs not 25 francs.
I think many of us have heard the phrase, or one similar - "Good enough for government work." lol Thank you for bringing their mistake to our attention. It propelled me to do some more reading, that I would like to share: The wiki version of the LMU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Monetary_Union & An article in Coin Week about LMU gold coins http://www.coinweek.com/world-coins/the-latin-monetary-union-gold-coins/
For me the most fascinating of the coins that were created for an LMU standard are the 1897 7.5 and 15 ruble coins issued in Russia - the equivalent of 20 and 40 francs.
And silver was NOT demonitized, it was just now the government purchased what they needed and struck coins for their own accounts, Free coinage of silver for silver dollars for the public ended. (Free coinage of the minor coins had ended in 1853) The silver coins were still perfectly acceptable and legal tender (for up to $5 for the minor coins, silver dollars were still unlimited legal tender.) To a large extent the Coinage Act of 1873 was of no great concern until the panic of 1893 (Which was brought about by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890). The public wanted an expansion of the money supply and one of the ways they wanted it was by a return to free coinage of silver which the Act of 1873 had ended. Hence "The Crime of 1873."
The TRUE crime was that many of the older silver coins were melted in 1874 because they were of the wrong standard, depriving collectors of our future bounty!
