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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;CentDime, post: 187950, member: 7297&quot;]I pulled this up, maybe it helps:</p><p><br /></p><p>The coinage of the trade dollar was authorized by the Act of 1873. As the bill came from the Treasury officials, in 1871, it contained a provision for a dollar of 384 grains—that is, one of the weight of 100 cents of subsidiary coin. This was in the bill when it first passed the Senate, and also when, in 1872, it passed the House. January 7, 1873, however, Mr. Sherman reported the bill in the Senate so amended as to strike out the clause authorizing a dollar of the standard of the subsidiary coin, and inserted in its place the provisions*70 for the coinage of the trade dollar, which was intended purely for merchants trading with the East. This amendment was promptly accepted by the House. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;III.XV.36 </p><p>At the time the act was passed a silver dollar containing 420 grains of standard silver (378 grains of pure silver) was worth 104 cents in gold; but the fall in the value of silver after 1874 seriously affected the uses originally intended for the trade dollar. The fall of silver relatively to gold in 1876 was so great that the pure silver in a trade dollar became worth less than a gold dollar; consequently, money-dealers in California, where gold was the only money in use, found a profit in putting the trade dollars into circulation there. At this time, it will be recalled, this coin was a legal tender for sums of five dollars, owing to an unintentional provision of the Act of 1873. Although this law limited its use to small payments, the mere fact of its circulation in the United States called attention to the inadvertence in the Act of 1873, and all legal-tender power was taken away from the trade dollar by a section*71 of the Act of July 22, 1876, and the Secretary of the Treasury was empowered to suspend its coinage altogether at his discretion. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;III.XV.37 </p><p>As yet, however, the trade dollar had not come into use in States where gold was not in circulation, because the United States notes which occupied the place of gold were worth less than the silver coin. By 1877, however, the United States notes had so increased in value that they were worth 95 cents in gold to the dollar; but the average price of silver in 1877 was only 54¾d., so that the 420 grains of standard weight in the trade dollar were worth only about 93 cents. As a consequence, under the quick action of money-brokers, trade dollars suddenly appeared in circulation in the United States in large quantities. It was found more profitable to put the coin into circulation at home than to export it. After 1876 the trade dollars had no legal-tender quality whatever, and, inasmuch as dishonest persons were carrying them to remote districts, where the actual nature of the coins was unknown, and were passing them at full value, the Secretary promptly used the discretion granted him by the law, and ordered a discontinuance of further coinage of these commercial dollars. In all, there were coined 35,959,360 of these pieces, and numbers of them still remain in the hands of money-dealers or individuals. They are, however, worth no more than a similar amount of bullion. The Government does not redeem them, because the Government only coined them at the expense, and for the convenience, of owners of bullion, for commercial purposes, and did not create them as legal coins. They are coins only in shape and appearance; in truth, they are only round disks of silver bullion, refined, of course, with the stamp of the United States, certifying to their weight and fineness. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;III.XV.38 </p><p>But even after the coinage of trade dollars was suspended, and their limited legal-tender quality had been taken away, a difficulty arose. Speculators had reimported them from China on the strength of the proposals in Congress that the Government should redeem them at their face value in gold, like subsidiary coin. Probably 2,000,000 of them were held on this understanding. Although a demand upon the country to help out a mistaken speculation was wholly illegitimate, Congress, by Act of March 3, 1887, yielded to the pressure, and passed a bill to redeem at par all that should be presented within six months. President Cleveland, not approving the purpose of the act, allowed it to become a law without his signature. Thereafter, the trade dollar passed out of our history, after $7,689,036 had been exchanged for standard dollars and fractional silver coin.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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