Why low mintages in 1921?

This is something I've wondered about. Why were there low mintages of coins in 1921 relative to other years? Nickels and cents, I understand, had a relatively stable output of apx. 12 million and 54 million respectively but dimes, quarters and halves had low mintages in comparison to other years in the early half of the 20th century. Does anyone know why?

 

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There was a post war recession.

 

1922 wasn't a very good year for coins either, LOL.

 

Look at the mintages of Morgan dollars.

 

Yeah, the resurfacing of Morgans at full speed baffles me. I didn't even think of the impact of WWI. Yeah, I would think that would have something to do with it for sure. It looks like, from the surface, the Gov. took all of the silver out of dimes, quarters and halves, and put them in Morgans. What's up with that?

 

And yeah, I just realized - no nickels, dimes, quarters or halves minted in 1922. Wow!

 

Interesting question! I'll give it a try...

[FONT=&quot]In the late 19th century, there were two political factions; those supporting a gold standard (Republicans) and "bimetalists" (Democrats). The bimetalists wanted US currency to be based on both silver and gold at a fixed ratio. This position was largely supported by farmers and laborers who often carried debt and the inflationary pressure of bimetalism created the situation where debts could be repaid with less valuable money.

The Bland-Allison Act, passed on Feb 28, 1878, reestablished the silver dollar at the 1837 standard (412.5 grains, .900 fineness). The Bland-Allison Act required the US Government to purchase between 2-4 million ounces of silver bullion each and every month to be coined into silver dollars. The coins didn't circulate much; they backed the new Silver Certificates. So many silver dollars were required to be minted, that the New Orleans Mint resumed operations after an 18 year suspension.

On July, 14 1890, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act replaced Bland-Allison and was even more generous to the Bimetalists. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act required the Government to purchase as much silver bullion as was offered...up to 4.5 million ounces per month. Two (2) million ounces were to be coined into silver dollars each month during the first year. Subsequent years permitted the Mint to create only as many silver dollars as needed to redeem the new Treasury Notes (created by the same law).

Now here's where it starts to get interesting. The new Treasury Notes were redeemable "...in coin, either gold or silver, at the discretion of the Treasury Secretary. There was so much silver that its price kept falling. The Treasury Secretary, William Windom, felt the only way to maintain the value of the Treasury Notes was to redeem them in gold...and that's what happened.

The “Fore-Fathers of CT members” (no doubt) rushed to the banks to redeem their silver for Treasury Notes. They then went to another bank and demanded gold coin at a huge profit. This cycle repeated itself until there was almost not enough gold left to back the dollar. So, on November 2, 1893, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed.

The drain on US Gold reserves caused a painful deflation; the dollar rose in value and wages and prices fell. The ensuing labor strife renewed the call for inflationary bimetalism. This was the back drop for the William McKinley vs. William Jennings Bryan Presidential battles of 1896 and 1900. In 1896, Bryan gave his famous "Cross of Gold" speech at the Democratic Convention and was nominated as their candidate the next day.

As things turned out, the Gold Standard Republican William McKinley was elected in both 1896 and 1900. In 1900, another law was passed which reaffirmed the gold standard that had been in place since 1893. The government has so much silver bullion by this time that it took until 1904 before it was all coined into silver dollars. Since they were mainly used to back US currency, many of the surviving silver dollars never circulated.

Ok...so fast forward to 1918. In 1918, there was a speculative silver bubble in India (part of the British Commonwealth) and Great Britain had an urgent need for silver to flood the market and pop the bubble. They turned to their wartime ally, the US, for help. The US Government passed the Pittman Act on April 23, 1918. The Pittman Act called for the melting of 350 million US silver dollars used to back Silver Certificates. The Silver Certificates were withdrawn from circulation as they were turned in to the banks.

Again, politics gets involved and, instead of the US realizing a huge profit on the silver sale, they threw a bone to the western silver producers. The Pittman Act called for the replacement of all the melted silver dollars with newly mined silver from US mines. Actually, only 270 Million silver dollars were melted and over 11 million of those were used by the Mint for the production of dimes, quarters, and halves.

So...to answer your question, the replacement dollars mandated under the Pittman Act of 1918 began in the spring of 1921. [/FONT]
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Canada also had low silver mintages for 1921 and none in the next few years.
The 1921 5 cents and 50 cents were mostly melted.

 

To bad our currency isn't back by Gold or Silver anymore? Well I guess are current coinage is good for tramming machines and making into washers?

 

The economy was on a downward spiral those years, and in 29 is when the stock market crashed taking us into a depression.

 

<<On July, 14 1890, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act replaced Bland-Allison and was even more generous to the Bimetalists. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act required the Government to purchase as much silver bullion as was offered...up to 4.5 million ounces per month. Two (2) million ounces were to be coined into silver dollars each month during the first year. Subsequent years permitted the Mint to create only as many silver dollars as needed to redeem the new Treasury Notes (created by the same law).>>

That explains why silver dollar mintage was so low in 1893-1895. Can anybody explain why the mintage of silver dollars was up in 1896-1897. Somebody (the Treasury or Treasury straws ?) must have redeemed a lot of 1890 notes for silver dollars which did not stay in circulation. Coming back into the Treasury would cause Silver certificates to be issued which were not redeemable in gold at that time.

The War Revenue Act of 1898 and the Currency/ Gold Standard Act of 1900 provided for silver dollar coinage of the bullion and replacing Treasury notes of 1890 with silver certificates.

​

 

That was about the same time that the Trade Dollar was phased out, and trade with the Far East was growing at a pretty steady clip. I'm guessing that those Morgans went overseas into countries where paper was not an acceptable form of currency.

 

Good guess, but the Treasury figures for dollars outstanding in circulation were not going up in this period.

 

Thanks for the props, guys! :cheers:

That period of US history seems so familiar to what's happening today. I just hope it doesn't end in a President getting shot!

 

On further thought, this scenario does make sense. Outstanding silver dollars might have flown back into the treasury offsetting a far East outflow.

 

Omg!!

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of 911, the whole conspiracy surrounding the event has come to light. The evil organization that perpetrated 911 is the same secret organization that Killed JFK...and McKinley!! ...and you know who the MasterMind is? ...Mark Twain!! I KNOW, I KNOW...I didn't believe it either, but LOOK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRIB8TV69QQ

 

Here's some thing interesting I didn't know...(just a tad "off topic"...but interesting). I found the info here. These seem to have become rather common place lately...attempts, anyway. I find it interesting that both Garfield and McKinley were assassinated for the same reason...defense of the Gold Standard. "Hey! Ron Paul...DUCK!!" :sniper:

Presidential Assassinations (4)...

Abraham Lincoln
James Garfield
William McKinley
John Kennedy

Suspicious Presidential deaths thought to be assassinations (2)...

Zachary Taylor
Warren Harding

Failed Assassination attempts (12)...

Andrew Jackson
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
John Kennedy
Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Ronald Reagan
George H.W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush

 

One note on that list. In 1968 the hugely popular Bobby Kennedy, JFK's brother, was also shot dead. At the time he was the leading contender to be nominated by the Democrats to run against Nixon. Instead the democrats, in the very violent 1968 Chicago convention nominated Hubert Humphrey who only appealed to the democratic base.

Kennedy probably would have beaten Nixon and that might have totally changed history. In those days the Southern states did not automatically go to the republicians (they were still blaiming the GOP for Lincoln's actions), so Nixon's support wasn't that strong. See the 1968 Electoral Map.

It was Nixon of course who ended the gold standard and put us on our present course of financial ruin. If one were looking for a conspiracy, and if the Kennedy brothers had not been shot, then silver and gold might not have been removed from the currency system. (then there is Vietnam which really would be off-topic)

 

Hey! How dare you go off-topic on my off-topic post!

The list would likely become very large if we include Presidential candidates...In 1972, George Wallace was paralyzed from the waist down after being shot at a campaign stop in Laurel, Md (home of the 911 hijackers...btw).

We all have probably forgotten about the capture of skinheads planning to assassinate "Candidate" Obama.

 

There was one prominent man present at the first three presidential assasinations, Nobody has mentioned him yet.