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Message:: [QUOTE="John Burgess, post: 5412027, member: 105098"]The coinage act of 1792 authorized the Mint to produce copper, silver, and gold coins for circulation. The Act specified that the government must buy the copper needed to coin half cents and cents (as raw material or as blank coins already the appropriate size for coining). But depositors such as banks and individuals provided the silver and gold. The silver and gold were either in the form of foreign coins or bullion that the Mint melted down and refined to the appropriate fineness for coining. The Coinage Act allowed any person to have silver or gold bullion coined at the mint free of charge, or exchange it for the equivalent value of the coin, less a charge of one-half percent of the weight of pure bullion presented. The Mint Act established quality control measures for the assaying of coins that would remain in effect until 1980 when the United States Assay Commission was abolished. The law also established a penalty of death for the debasement of gold or silver coins or the embezzlement of the same by the officers of the mint. You can read up more on it if you like but I think this answers the question and leaves a crumb trail for further research without going way too deep into it. for the most part gold and silver was melted  reprocessed from silver and gold from other countries from American depositors to U.S. coinage.[/QUOTE]