TRIVIA:1st U.S.A. Legal Tender Coin

After about 10 pages or so into The Official RED BOOK ("A GUIDE BOOK OF UNITED STATES COINS") you arrive at two photos of a silver coin minted in Mexico at the Mexico City Mint. The photos show the obverse and reverse of the coin. There's a double caption above the coin reading

AN INTRODUCTION TO UNITED STATES COINS
​

The Spanish Milled Dollar​

Three paragraphs following the photos explain:

1} The coin is valued at 8 Reales and is aka Pillar Dollar and Piece of Eight. They were struck from 1732 through 1771. What isn't mentioned is Spain and its New World possessions called the coin Columnario. In Spanish a Pillar is a column. The Columnario designation only pertains to Silver Dollar-sized silver coins minted from 1732 through 1771.

2} There are fractioinal parts (1, 2, and 4 Reales). What isn't pointed out is all four denominations circulated as legal tender in the United States until 1857.

3} The coin bears the Mexico City mint mark (capital "M" topped by a tiny "o."), but may have other mint marks from mints located at Potosi, Bolivia; Santiago, Chile; Columbia; Guatemala and Lima, Peru.

After looking at the following photo of an 8 Reales, I will tell you what the images and text mean.

Here's the photo, courtesy of Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_V_Coin.jpg


Obverse:

The obvious (date at 6:00) (mint mark at 5:00 and 8:00). The crowned pillars of Hercules with a crown resting atop a two-hemisphere world map between them. (The two globes represent the Old World (Europe) and the New World (the Americas). The significance is that both worlds are under the single rule of Spain).

From 9:30 to 2:30 is "VTRAQVEVNUM" which translates into English as "BOTH (are) ONE." One word of a motto is on the left pillar (PLVS) and the second word of the motto adorns the right pillar (VLTR) with an assumed ending letter (A) and means "Plus More."

Reverse:

Centered is the arms of Castile and Leon with Granada in base and an escutcheon of Anjou. Text reads from 6:30 to 5:50 as "PHILIP V D G HISPAN ET IND" translating to Philip V, by the Grace of God, King of the Spains and the Indies. The "M" above the "F" denotes the Assayer's initials and the "8" is the denomination in Reales.

Here's a photo of a 1 Real courtesy of coinarchives

(Click photo to enlarge)

Obverse:

Same as 8 Reales except date.

Reverse:

Same as 8 Reales except a star in lieu of denomination.

Photo 1 Real:

(coinarchives)

http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=551080&AucID=395&Lot=74872


Obverse:

Date different.

Reverse:

Assayer initial "R." Denomination "1."

Photo of 2 Reales:

(coinarchives)

http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=648610&AucID=472&Lot=621


Obverse:

Same as 8 Reales except date and Ferdinand VI instead of Philip V.

Reverse:

Only difference is the Assayer's initial "R" and denomination "2."

Photo of 4 Reales:

(coin archives)

http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=650726&AucID=474&Lot=1842


Obverse:

Only differences are Philiip V and date. NOTE: 1742/1.

Reverse:

Back to Assayer "MF." Denomination: "4."

Hope this was interesting...

Clinker

 

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The fools that contribute are the ones that don't check facts etc before they post it there. I look at wikipedia, but take it with a grain of salt. It is great for an overview of a subject, but for substance I think you need to go elsewhere.

 

I'm confused. What makes this the first USA legal tender coin if it wasn't minted in the USA and predates the formation of the USA?

 

scittidhmoney

Thanks for the advice...

Clinker

 

Dgdjmsp

Thanks and I'll find other sources to reseasrch...

Clinker

 

Cloudsweeper99:

I believe our framers of a money system declared it so and based our own coinage on the coin and its fractions "one bit, two bits sixt bit, a Dollar!

If I'm wrong, please (someone) correct me...

Clinker

 

Well, the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, but the states were still independent. The Ariticles of Confederation only provided for a confederation of independent states. And in the 18th century, my understanding is that the term "state" was commonly used in the same manner that we now use the word "nation." It wasn't until 1787 when the Constitution was ratified that there was a United States of America [USA].

Also, is there any documentation that the Spanish coin was declared "legal tender" by the government at that time? If it was done, it must have been written down. I thought legal tender laws were only passed later, but I don't exactly recall.

 

The Coinage Act of 1792 created the Mint and defined the denominations and weights for US coins [for the first time I believe], but I don't think there were any "legal tender" laws until around the time of the Civil War. I could be wrong about that since I'm going from memory -- always a dangerous thing.

I guess it really isn't that important.

 

The fractional parts ceased to be legal tender after 1809. The Spanish 8 reales were not legal tender between 1809 and 1843. At that time they were made legal tender again and remained so until early 1857.

The Spanish colonial 8 reales were not legal tender until 1834, and only those of Mexico, Peru, Chile, and the Central American countries were legal tender at that time. Those of Bolivia were not legal tender until 1843. NONE of the Spanish colonial fractionals were ever legal tender.

Fugio copper 1787 but it was not legal tender. But it was struck under contract with the US Government and not by the government itself.

Act of Feb 9th 1793. This was after the establishment of our mint but before any legal tender coins were struck there.

And several of the states did legally make it legal tender in the years before the Constitution.

See my first two comments. In addition NONE of the Spanish silver was legal tender between 1801 and 1806 either.

 

This is from the US Treasury web site. Going through the history of US money, this is the first reference to "legal tender." Before that there were variousl issues of coins and paper money, but none of it seems to carry the legal designation as "legal tender" for the United States of America.

"April 2, 1792 - An Act of Congress established the first United States Mint facility in Philadelphia and established the U.S. legal tender system, ordering the creation of gold, silver and copper coinage ranging in value from $10 to half of a penny. It also ordered the eagle design on United States coins."

Maybe it depends on what the meaning of "legal tender" is.

 

ANYBODY can contribute original information, or correct information already there. If you read something that's incorrect or misleading, all you have to do is use the [edit] link and correct it. You should be ready to provide supportive links to your information.

 

As a matter of fact I have done it a number of times. For most of the things I had incontrovertible photographic evidence to back up my change, but there were cases where I only made reference to authoritatively published materials. I haven't re-checked all the submissions I made but the ones I did check still had the changes in place. There are also probably a hundred times I made spelling/grammar/logic changes without attribution and they all stood, to the best of my knowledge.

Isn't this a little like the "Oh look at the fake being offered on ebay now, why doesn't someone do something about it?" argument? For a long time there were just complaints here, now there's action being taken. I'd like to think that the prodding I did on that subject resulted in it being commonplace now for CT members to make reports to ebay. If errors in Wikipedia were cited more often here I'd likely go on the same campaign, as I happen to like the site.

When you see something that you know is wrong, your choices are 1. Sit back and do nothing but complain or 2. Do something about it. Personally, I prefer 2.

 

Which comments do you disagree with? I've attached a PDF that shows pictorially which coins were legal tender and when and is indexed with the different Acts that provided the legal tender authorization.

One thing to remember is the acts that specified legal tender status for the various coins also specified specific time periods that they would be legal tender, ie: 3 years, 6 years etc. Typically another act would be passed to extend the time period or to change the coins that were legal. But often the legislation would run out and the Congress didn't bother to pass new legislation to extend it. In that case the coin would cease to be legal tender when the legislation expired.

For example my comment about how none of the Spanish silver was legal tender from 1801 to 1806. If you look at the PDF file you will see under the Spanish silver a reference in 1798 to the Act of Feb 1st 1798. here is the text of that act


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
second section of an act, intituled “An act regulating
foreign coins, and for other purposes,” be, and the same is
hereby suspended, for and during the space of three years
from and after the first day of January, one thousand
seven hundred and ninety-eight, and until the end of the
next session of Congress thereafter, during which time the
said gold and silver coins shall be and continue a legal
tender, as is provided in and by the first section of the act
aforesaid; and that the same coins shall thereafter cease
to be such tender.

The first Act referred to was the Act of Feb 9th 1793 that made the coins legal tender. That act was suspended, and then this act extended the legal tender status of those same coins for a further three years and then until the end of the next session of Congress. That session mentioned ended when the next Congress took office in 1802. But no further legislation was passed to extend the legal tender status of the Spanish silver until the Act of April 10th 1806. So from roughly the end of 1801/early 1802 until April 1806 Spanish silver was not legal tender in the United States.