CURIOSITIES OF AMERICAN COINAGE. 605 



pelled by the " Bland " act of February, 1878, to purchase silver at 

 the rate of " not less than $2,000,000 worth per month." This con- 

 tinued without interruption for twelve years (from 1878 to 1890), 

 during which time more than four hundred million silver dollars 

 were coined. The Sherman act, repealing the coining of the Bland 

 dollars, really made matters worse, in some respects, as it authorized 

 the purchase by the Government of not less than 4,500,000 ounces 

 of silver per month, and 168,674,682.53 fine ounces were purchased 

 in four years (1891-1894) at a cost to the Government of $155,931,- 

 002.25, under the act of July 14, 1890. The average price paid 

 for this silver was almost 92^ cents per ounce. At the present 

 market price (55^ cents per ounce) there is a depreciation in value of 

 $62,316,553.45 on the silver pigs purchased under this act. !N^ot- 

 withstanding these heroic efforts to sustain the price of silver through 

 the compulsory purchase by the Government of such vast quan- 

 tities of the metal, the flood continued rising higher and higher 

 while the price descended lower and lower, thus proving that silver 

 obeys the law of all commodities, and that any attempt to sustain 

 the price by artificial means, even when backed by such a rich and 

 powerful Government, and carried out on such a great scale, must 

 surely fail.* 



Coining of Gold. — If the question should now be asked you, 

 " What denomination of gold money of the United States has been 

 most largely coined since the establishment of the Mint in 1792? " 

 you would probably say, " The gold dollar, of course." The answer 

 would be wTong — very wrong. Less than twenty million gold dol- 

 lars in all have been struck, and their coinage has been entirely dis- 

 continued for nearly ten years. If, on the other hand, the question 

 should be asked, " Which denomination of gold money has been 

 coined most sparingly? " you would probably say, " The double 

 eagle." Again the answer would be wrong. 



* Circular No. 143 (dated July 1, 1897), issued by the United States Treasury Depart- 

 ment, says (page 63): " The stock of gold and silver in the world in 1873 and 1896 is esti- 

 mated to have been as follows : 



The commercial value of silver in 1896 was less than one half of its value per ounce 

 fine in 1873 ; notwithstanding this great fall in price, the estimated value of silver in the 

 world in 1896 exceeded the estimated value of gold at that time, while in 1873 the esti- 

 mated value of silver was only 594 per cent of the estimated value of the gold in the 

 world. Stated in other terms, the gain in estimated value of gold is 34 65 per cent, while 

 the gain in estimated value of silver in the same period is 131 per cent. 



