When was it legal to spend foreign coins in the USA?

Trade Dollar? Coinage act of 1965?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

This entire series was redeemed and punched cancelled. Because they were already cancelled there was no need to demonetize them.

 

Trade Dollars were originally supposed to circulate in China. They were not for US circulation because they had more silver than the US Silver Dollars.

 

And that's why I always wanted one when I was a kid.........

 

I've been there...it's true they prefer US currency. Their currency is totally based on US currency...the exchange rate is 1:1. Since their money is backed by ours (basically)...they prefer to skip the "middle man" and just use USD.

 

As someone else mentioned - I remember using Canadian money very easily when I lived in Eastern Michigan, probably due to the traffic back and forth there from Canada. I think it came down to a business or cashier just being used to taking it and how to use quick exchange rate.

 

I think you find this a lot in countries where they have a black market in US currency and they can exchange dollars for more than the legal exchange rate. Often involves shady businesses, either illegal or barely legal.

 

Aren't there going to be anymore people trying to answer Doug's questions? If no one answers by tomorrow I'm going to.

And I wonder if Doug realizes how extensive the answer to his second question is?

 

Isn't the answer to part one answered by Conder101 in post #22?

 

In Northern New England Canadian coins are often used

 

You may have me then because half cent, cent (1793 - 1864), and trade dollar (1877 - 1883) are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head that weren't legal tender at the time they were issued. (There could be some argument that the pre-1864 cents did not become legal tender under the law that made the 1864 bronze cents legal tender to 10 cents and that they weren't legal tender until the Congressional resolution of 1933.)

As for the coins that had limited legal tender that would be most of them.

Under the Act of 1864 the cent was limited to 10 cents, and the two cent to 20 cents. When the trime was issued it was limited to either 30 or 60 cents I don't remember which. The nickel three cent was limited to 30 cents, the shield nickel was limited to 60 cents. After 1853 the dime, quarter, and half dollar were limited to $5. I believe the trimes were also included in the $5 limit for the minor silver coins when the silver content was raise to 90%. Trade dollars were limited to $5.

Standard silver dollars were never limited (although there was some thought that they had been demonitized when they were not listed in the Act of 1873, but the fact that they were not listed didn't change the status of the earlier pieces.) Gold coins have always had unlimited legal tender status.

When these limits may have been modified I don't know, they may have remained so until 1933 (and later with the restatement of legal tender status in the Act of 1965). There were attempts to raise the legal tender status of the silver minor coinage to $10 in the 1890's but it was not passed.

 

Act of March 3, 1851

Sec 11 created the silver three cent and "and that it shall be a legal tender in payment of debts for all sums of thirty cents or under"


Act of April 22,1864

Sec 1 created the bronze one and two cent pieces.

Sec 4 And be it further enacted that the said coins shall be a legal tender in any payment, the one cent coin to the amount of ten cents, and the two cent coin to the amount of twenty cents,


Act of March 3, 1865

Sec 1 created nickel three cent piece

Sec 3 "and be it further enacted that the said coin shall be a legal tender in any payment to the amount of sixty cents"


There is nothing in the Act of May 16, 1866 that removed the legal tender status form the cent, two cent, or nickel three cent pieces. It does say that the new five cent piece may be paid out by the treasurer of the mint in exchange for any lawful US currency except half cents, cents and two cent pieces issued under former acts of Congress. But that has nothing to do with their legal tender status. It also says nothing dealing with the use of any of these coins for stamps.

 

Paying out the coins was exchanging one form of currency for another,not a payment of a debt or other payment. The object of restricting the paying out was to use the base metal coins to redeem paper currency, especially the fractional notes, rather than using precious metal. Or to exchange base metal coinage for gold or silver. Exchanging base metal for base metal provided no advantage.

 

Not trying to go off topic, but why were 3ct silver coins and 3ct Nickels minted at the same time? So 3ct silver was legal tender while the Nickel was only good to buy stamps?