Fourth Coinage Act

Coinage Act of 1873

Other short titles	Mint Act of 1873 Fourth Coinage Act
Long title	An Act revising and amending the Laws relative to the Mints, Assay-offices, and Coinage of the United States
Nicknames	Crime of 1873
Enacted by	the 42nd United States Congress
Effective	April 1, 1873
Citations
Public law	42–131
Statutes at Large	17 Stat. 424
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 2934 Passed the House on May 27, 1872 (110—13) Passed the Senate on January 17, 1873 (passed) Reported by the joint conference committee on or before February 6, 1873; agreed to by the Senate on February 6, 1873 (passed) and by the House on February 7, 1873 (passed) Signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on February 12, 1873

The Coinage Act of 1873 or Mint Act of 1873, 17 Stat. 424, was a general revision of the laws relating to the Mint of the United States. In abolishing the right of holders of silver bullion to have their metal struck into fully legal tender dollar coins, it ended bimetallism in the United States, placing the nation firmly on the gold standard. Because of this, the act became contentious in later years, and was denounced by people who wanted inflation as the "Crime of '73".

By 1869, the Mint Act of 1837 was deemed outdated, and Treasury Secretary George Boutwell had Deputy Comptroller of the Currency John Jay Knox undertake a draft of a revised law, which was introduced into Congress by Ohio Senator John Sherman. Due to the high price of silver, little of that metal was presented at the Mint, but Knox and others foresaw that development of the and other rich silver-mining areas would lower the price, causing large quantities of silver dollars to be struck and the gold standard to be endangered. During the almost three years the bill was pending before Congress, it was rarely mentioned that it would end bimetallism, though this was not concealed. Congressmen instead debated other provisions. The legislation, in addition to ending the production of the silver dollar, abolished three low-denomination coins. The bill became the Act of February 12, 1873, with the signature of President Ulysses S. Grant.

When silver prices dropped in 1876, producers sought to have their bullion struck at the Mint, only to learn that this was no longer possible. The matter became a major political controversy that lasted the remainder of the century, pitting those who valued the deflationary gold standard against those who believed free coinage of silver to be necessary for economic prosperity. Accusations were made that the passage of the act had been secured through corruption, though there is little evidence of this. The gold standard was explicitly enacted into law in 1900, and was completely abandoned by the U.S. in 1971.

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