Editing Alexander Hamilton (section)

===Establishing the mint===
{{main|United States Mint}}
{{Css Image Crop|Image = NNC-US-1795-G$10-Turban Head (small eagle).jpg |bSize = 475|cWidth = 232|cHeight = 232|oTop = 3|oLeft = 3|Location = right|Description=The [[Turban Head eagle]] was one of the first gold coins minted under the [[Coinage Act of 1792]].}}
In 1791, Hamilton submitted the ''Report on the Establishment of a Mint'' to the House of Representatives. Many of Hamilton's ideas for this report were from European economists, resolutions from the 1785 and 1786 Continental Congress meetings, and people such as Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Jefferson.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|197}}<ref>Mitchell, p. 118.</ref>

Because the most circulated coins in the United States at the time were [[Spanish dollar|Spanish currency]], Hamilton proposed that minting a [[United States dollar]] weighing almost as much as the Spanish peso would be the simplest way to introduce a national currency.<ref>Engerman; Gallman, p. 644.</ref> Hamilton differed from European monetary policymakers in his desire to overprice gold relative to silver, on the grounds that the United States would always receive an influx of silver from the West Indies.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|197}} Despite his own preference for a monometallic [[gold standard]],<ref name=Studentski>Studentski; Krooss, p. 62.</ref> he ultimately issued a bimetallic currency at a fixed 15:1 ratio of silver to gold.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|197}}<ref name=nussbaum>{{cite journal |first=Arthur |last=Nussbaum |author-link=Arthur Nussbaum |title=The Law of the Dollar |journal=[[Columbia Law Review]] |volume=37 |number=7 |date=November 1937 |pages=1057–1091 |type=citing 2 Annals of Cong. 2115 (1789–1791) |jstor=1116782 |issn=0010-1958}}</ref><ref>Cooke, p. 87.</ref>

Hamilton proposed that the U.S. dollar should have fractional coins using decimals, rather than eighths like the Spanish coinage.<ref>Engerman; Gallman, pp. 644–645.</ref> This innovation was originally suggested by [[Superintendent of Finance of the United States|Superintendent of Finance]] [[Robert Morris (financier)|Robert Morris]], with whom Hamilton corresponded after examining one of Morris's [[Nova Constellatio]] coins in 1783.<ref>James Ferguson, John Catanzariti, Elizabeth M. Nuxoll and Mary Gallagher, eds. ''The Papers of Robert Morris'', University of Pittsburgh Press, 1973–1999 (Volume 7, pp. 682–713)</ref> He also desired the minting of small value coins, such as silver ten-cent and copper cent and half-cent pieces, for reducing the cost of living for the poor.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|198}}<ref name="Cooke82">[[Jacob E. Cooke|Cooke]], p. 88.</ref> One of his main objectives was for the general public to become accustomed to handling money on a frequent basis.<ref name=McDonald />{{rp|198}}

By 1792, Hamilton's principles were adopted by Congress, resulting in the [[Coinage Act of 1792]], and the creation of the mint. There was to be a ten-dollar gold Eagle coin, a silver dollar, and fractional money ranging from one-half to fifty cents.<ref name=Studentski/> The coining of silver and gold was issued by 1795.<ref name=Studentski/>