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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 933243, member: 66&quot;]OK for starters the old bust dolars WERE heavier but the 29.96 gram figure given above is wrong, it&#039;s 26.96 grams.&nbsp; The fineness was lower though so the actual silver content of the bust dollars was&nbsp; .7734 oz the same as the later Morgan an Peace dollars.&nbsp; The heavier wight was just the result of more copper.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now the reason why the silver dollar is heavier than two halves, or four quarters, or ten dimes dates back to the Act of Feb 1853.&nbsp; The massive gold discoveries in California after 1949 resulte in the value of silver rising with respect to gold.&nbsp; By 1853 the silver in one dollars worth of silver coins was worth $1.04 in gold.&nbsp; This meant that the silver coins could be profitably melted down for their metal content.&nbsp; So the Act of Feb 1853 reuced the wight of th half dime, dime, quarter, and half dollar so they would remain in circulation.&nbsp; But since the siver dollar was the defined standard dollar, and the country still did not want to give up the bimetalic standard, it was felt that the weight of the silver dollar should not be &quot;cheapened&quot; by reducing its silver content.&nbsp; Combined with the weight reduction, the legal tender status of the minor coinage was also reduced to no more then $5 in any transaction.&nbsp; The silver dollar though did not have its legal tender reduced.&nbsp; The net result of this was the success of maintaining the minor coinage in circulation and the silver dollar being rmoved from circulation since it was worth more than its face value. (The silver dollar actually circulated during the 1840 to 1850 period.)&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The silver dollar was left out of the Coinage Act of 1873, (Which raised the weights of the minor silver slightly) but when it returned in 1878 it was brought back at the old standard weight because it was still not a subsidiary coin and did not have a limited legal tender.&nbsp; It was possible for it to circulate now though because the silver discoveries of the Comstock Lode has caused the value of silver to plummet.&nbsp; These proprotional weights for the silver dollar and the minor silver coinage have been unchanged now since 1873.&nbsp; When the silver was removed the clad Ike dollarno longer retained the old proportional weight and a copper nickel clad Ike does weight twice that of the copper nickel clad&nbsp; half, but the 40% silver Ike does still maintain the higher percentage weight over the 40% silver half.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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