9th Congress.
No. 250
1st Session.

FOREIGN COINS.

Communicated to the Senate, March 26, 1806.

Mr Anderson, from the committee to whom was referred the bill, passed by the House of Representatives, to repeal so much of the act, entitled "An act regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes," as is contained in the second section thereof, reported:

That they find, by the law aforesaid, which passed on the 9th day of February, 1793, in the first section thereof, certain foreign coins are made a legal tender, at the rates therein specified. The said first section closes with these words, viz: "But no foreign coin that may have been, or shall be, issued subsequent to the 1st of January, 1792, shall be a tender as aforesaid, until samples thereof shall have been found, by assay at the mint of the United States, to be conformable to the respective standards required, and proclamation thereof shall have been made by the President the United States."

The second section of the same law (a repeal of which section is contemplated by the bill referred to the committee) is in the following words, viz: "That, at the expiration of three years next ensuing, the time when the coinage of gold and silver, agreeably to the act, entitled 'An act establishing a mint, and regulating the coins of the United States,' shall commence at the mint of the United States, (which time shall be announced by the proclamation of the President of the United States) all foreign gold coins, and all foreign silver coins, except Spanish milled dollars, and parts of such dollars, shall cease to be a legal tender as aforesaid."

The committee find that, in consequence of the operations of the mint having commenced, the President of the United States did, by his proclamation, dated the 22d day of July, 1797, announce the same, pursuant to the directions contained in said second section, and did thereby give notice that, in conformity with said law, all foreign silver coins, except Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars, would cease to pass current as money, within the United States, and to be a legal tender for the payment of any debts or demands, after the 15th day of October then next, and that all foreign gold coins would cease to be a tender as aforesaid, after the 31st day of July, in the year 1798.

The committee find that no proclamation has ever been made by the President of the United States, upon the subject of foreign coins which may have issued since January 1st, 1792, as contemplated by the first section of the act aforesaid; nor does it appear that any assay of such coins has been made at the mint of the United States.

The committee find that, on the 1st day of February, 1798, Congress passed an act, supplementary to the act, entitled "An act regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes" in the words following, viz: "That the second section of an act, entitled 'An act regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes,' be, and the same is hereby, suspended, for and during the space of three years, from and after the 1st day of January, 1798, and until the end of the next session of Congress thereafter; during which time the said gold and silver coins shall be and continue a legal tender, as is provided in and by the first section of the act aforesaid; and that the same coins shall thereafter cease to be such tender."

On the 30th of April, 1802, Congress passed an act to suspend, in part, the act, entitled "An act regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes," in the words following, viz: "That so much of the act, entitled 'An act for regulating foreign coins, an for other purposes,' as is contained within the second section thereof, be, and the same hereby is, suspended, for and during the space of three years, from and after the end of the present session of Congress." That session of Congress, the committee find, was closed, and at an end, on the 3d day of May, 1802.

By placing in one view all the laws upon the subject of foreign coins, it appears that, if the first section of the law upon that subject were now in force, no foreign coin whatever, which has issued subsequent to the 1st of January, 1792, is current money or a legal tender - not even Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars, unless by force of the second section of the same law; which, if suspended or repealed, will throw out of circulation almost the whole of Spanish dollars and parts of dollars, as but few pieces of those, or of any other foreign coins of a prior date to January, 1792, are in circulation. But, when we consider the act passed on the 1st day of February, 1798, as not only suspending the operation of the second section of the act regulating foreign coins, but positively enacting that all the foreign coins, mentioned in the first section thereof, shall, at the end of the next session of Congress, after three years from the 1st day of January, 1798, cease to be a tender, it will be discerned that the first section stands completely repealed, as it respects the legal tender of foreign coins: for the act of the 30th of April, 1802, suspends the operation of the second section only of said act, without reviving the first section.

The legal state of things in the United States, in respect to the currency of foreign coins, then, is as follows, viz: From and after the 3d day of May, 1802, (the end of the session of Congress mentioned in the act of February, 1798) no foreign coin whatever has been a legal tender, until 3d May, 1805. From the 3d May, 1805, (at which time the last suspension of the second section of the law regulating foreign coins, expired) Spanish milled dollars, and parts of such dollars, have been a legal tender.

With this view of the subject, which your committee believe is correct, they cannot discern the policy of repealing the second section of said act, as contemplated by the bill referred to them by the Senate. Were this bill to pass, no money would be a legal tender to satisfy debts and demands in the United States, except the gold and silver coins which have issued from their mint. These coins, the committee believe, are not sufficient in quantity and value for a circulating medium, without the aid of Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars.

But, since such great quantities of Spanish milled dollars have been exported, and are still exporting, from the United States, and so great a portion of the remaining foreign gold and silver coins, as well as those issued by the United States, are locked up in the cells of the Banks, already numerous, and still increasing; your committee believe that measures ought to be adopted by Congress, to increase the quantity of circulating medium beyond our own coins and Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars.

In effecting this object, the committee are sensible that caution is requisite to prevent coins, which may not be of a standard weight and value, from becoming a currency, especially as there seems to have been no assay of foreign coins, which have issued subsequent to the 1st day of January, 1792.