Robert Morris's Proposal for a National Mint

Background. Robert Morris Jr., a British-born American merchant and Founding Father, accepted appointment as Superintendent of Finance in May 1781 amid an unremitting financial crisis underscored by the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny. By 1781 the Revolutionary War had become a stalemate, and Congress had created the finance post to oversee the nation's troubled wartime finances.

The Proposal and Authorization. While serving as Superintendent of Finance, Morris went before Congress to recommend establishing a national mint and decimal coinage. The Congress of the Confederation passed the first authorization for a mint in the United States in a resolution of February 21, 1782, though no general-circulation coin followed until the Fugio cent of 1787.

Aftermath. The 1782 resolution authorized a mint but produced no immediate coinage; the first general-circulation United States coin, the Fugio cent, was not produced until 1787, based on the Continental dollar. Morris, frustrated by the weakness of the national government, resigned as Superintendent of Finance in 1784.