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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



as it did in fact all manufacturing industries of every kind in the 

 colonies, but the mint continued in active operation for over thirty 

 years, and Maryland soon followed Massachusetts' example. These 



were the only silver coins is- 

 sued before the Kevolution, 

 but several other American 

 colonies issued copper coins. 

 After the Kevolution silver 

 was coined by the different 

 States, and even by private in- 

 dividuals, and very soon after 

 peace was established Congress 

 began agitating the subject of a national coinage. Kobert Morris, the 

 financier, was directed to present a scheme of coins and currency. His 

 first report (prepared by the assistant financier) was presented in 

 1782, and it proposed a decimal system, which has been adopted, but 

 all the other features were discarded, chiefly on account of the 

 diminutiveness of the proposed " unit," which was only one tenth of 

 a penny. Jefferson said in the discussion, " A horse or bullock of $80 

 value would require a notation of six figures, to wit: 115.200 units." 

 A few years later Jefferson himself presented a report proposing the 

 Spanish milled dollar as a suit- 





$5 gold piece. Carolina gold; 20 carats, 140 

 grains. C. Bechtler, August 1, 1834. 







$5 gold piece. Carolina gold ; 21 carats, 

 134 grains. A. Bechtler. 



able unit, as this coin was very 

 familiar to the people and of 

 a convenient size; these pro- 

 ceedings were under the 

 " Confederation," and one of 

 the articles of the original 

 compact permitted coinage 

 '• by the respective States." 

 Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and other States issued coins 

 under this arrangement for a few years, until the Constitution in 

 1Y87 vested the right of coinage solely in the General Government. 



For some reason, not known, the code of laws for establishing 

 the National Mint was not formulated until five years later. 



The act of April 2, 1792, provided for the establishment of a 

 mint, and for the coining of ten, five, and two-and-a-half dollar gold 

 pieces; also one dollar, one-half, one-quarter, one-tenth of a dollar 

 in silver; one cent and half -cent in copper. 



Pattern coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1792;* 

 some of these bore the head of Washington on one side, but he dis- 



* A rare pattern piece of 1'792 was in the form of an annular ring of copper having a 

 silver plug in the center. A large copper penny of 1192, with head of Liberty and an eagle 

 resting on the globe, brought at public sale, in New York in 1890, the sum of two hundred 



