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Coinage Act of 1873 signed into law

When
1871–1873
Where
Washington, D.C.
Episodes
2

The Coinage Act of 1873, a general revision of laws relating to the U.S. Mint, was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on February 12, 1873, and took effect April 1, 1873. The gold standard was widely seen as the only possible choice at the time, and participants later denied any intent to end bimetallism. Critics subsequently branded the law the 'Crime of 1873.'

Episodes

  1. 1871-1873 · Washington, D.C.Legislative Process

    The bill was introduced in 1871, died, was reintroduced in 1871, and reported back to the Senate in 1873.

  2. 1873 · Washington, D.C.Signing and Effective Date

    President Grant signed the bill on February 12, 1873, with an effective date of April 1, 1873, ending bimetallism.

Background and detail

Legislative Background. The act was a general revision of laws relating to the Mint of the United States. Senator John Sherman brought the bill to the Senate floor on January 9, 1871, but it died with the 41st Congress on March 3, 1871. Representative Kelley reintroduced the bill in the House in December 1871, and Representative Samuel Hooper of Massachusetts managed it on the House floor on April 9, 1872. The bill was reported back to the Senate on January 7, 1873.

Key Provisions. The act eliminated the two-cent piece, three-cent silver, and half dime. It established a procedure for assaying samples from mints, transmitted to Philadelphia for the Assay Commission. Section 65 set an April 1, 1873, effective date, transitioning the Director of the Mint to superintendent at Philadelphia and abolishing the office of Treasurer at each mint.

The 'Crime of 1873'. When the law became a political issue years after passage, Representative Bland told the House that the act of February 12, 1873 was a fraud because its title gave no clue to its real intent. Senator Henry M. Teller used the phrase 'the blunder or the crime of 1873' in 1890. Scant evidence exists of corrupt motivation, and according to historian Allen Weinstein, the traditional account holds that silver's demonetization came as an unplanned by-product of a largely technical revision of the mint laws. Some participants, including Sherman and Linderman, later stated there had been no intent to end bimetallism.

People involved

Sources

  1. Coinage Act of 1873 Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-30

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.