Editing Dollar (section)

===Adoption by the United States===
{{Main article|United States dollar}}

By the time of the [[American Revolution]], the Spanish dólar gained significance because they backed paper money authorized by the individual colonies and the [[Continental Congress]].<ref name = "nqteor"/>  Because Britain deliberately withheld hard currency from the American colonies, virtually all the non-token coinage in circulation was Spanish (and to a much lesser extent French and Dutch) silver, obtained via illegal but widespread commerce with the West Indies. Common in the Thirteen Colonies, Spanish dólar were even [[legal tender]] in one colony, [[Virginia]].

On 2 April 1792, U.S. [[Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Alexander Hamilton]] reported to Congress the precise amount of silver found in [[Spanish dollar]] coins in common use in the states. As a result, the [[United States dollar]] was defined<ref name = "Act 1792">''Act of April 2, A.D. 1792 of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Section 9''.</ref> as a unit of pure silver weighing 371 4/16th grains (24.057&nbsp;grams), or 416 grains of standard silver (standard silver being defined as 371.25/416 in silver, and balance in alloy).<ref name = "Act 1792 13">Section 13 of the Act.</ref> It was specified that the "money of account" of the United States should be expressed in those same "dollars" or parts thereof. Additionally, all lesser-denomination coins were defined as percentages of the dollar coin, such that a half-dollar was to contain half as much silver as a dollar, quarter-dollars would contain one-fourth as much, and so on.

In an act passed in January 1837, the dollar's weight was reduced to 412.5 grains and alloy at 90% silver, resulting in the same fine silver content of 371.25 grains. On 21 February 1853, the quantity of silver in the lesser coins was reduced, with the effect that their denominations no longer represented their silver content relative to dollar coins.

Various acts have subsequently been passed affecting the amount and type of metal in U.S. coins, so that today there is no legal definition of the term "dollar" to be found in U.S. statute.<ref name = "At Large">{{cite book | title = United States Statutes at Large}}</ref><ref name = "Yeoman">{{cite book | title = A Guide Book of United States Coins | url = https://archive.org/details/guidebookofuni1965yeom | url-access = registration | first = RS | last = Yeoman| year = 1965 }}</ref><ref name = "Ewart">{{cite book | title = Money — Ye shall have honest weights and measures | first = James E | last = Ewart}}</ref> Currently the closest thing{{clarify|date=October 2023}} to a definition is found in United States Code Title 31, Section 5116, paragraph b, subsection 2: "The Secretary [of the Treasury] shall sell silver under conditions the Secretary considers appropriate for at least $1.292929292 a fine troy ounce."

Silver was mostly removed from U.S. coinage by 1965 and the dollar became a free-floating [[fiat money]] without a commodity backing defined in terms of real gold or silver. The [[US Mint]] continues to make silver $1-denomination coins, but these are not intended for general circulation.