Editing Coinage Act of 1873 (section)

== Provisions ==

=== Bureau of the Mint; duties of officers (§§1–12) ===
[[File:Coinage Act 1873.pdf|thumb|right|Text of the Coinage Act of 1873]]
The Director of the Mint had always been located at the Philadelphia Mint, with the other mints and assay offices governed by superintendents of whom the director was in charge.{{sfn|Taxay|p=250}} The 1873 act moved the office to Washington, where the director supervised the new Bureau of the Mint and remained in charge of all mints and assay offices. The Mint Director required appointment by the president and confirmation by the Senate and served a term of five years (unless removed by the president).{{sfn|Taxay|p=258}}{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|pp=50–51}} Henceforth, the Philadelphia Mint would be under the immediate control of a superintendent, like the other mints. The act also formally made the bureau part of the Department of the Treasury.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=51}} The Mint of the United States had originally reported directly to the president but over time legislation had made it subject to control by the Treasury Secretary.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Mint: Annual Report of the Director|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=December 9, 1873|page=2|id={{ProQuest|93278343}}}}{{subscription required}}</ref>

Little change was made to the officers of the mints, other than adding a superintendent for Philadelphia (Pollock would be the first incumbent), and abolishing the office of Treasurer at each facility. In addition to the superintendent, each mint had as officers the Assayer, the Melter and Refiner, and the Coiner; each was required to post a bond to indemnify the government against losses during their tenure of office, and each was responsible for part of the coining process. Philadelphia also had an Engraver (sometimes Chief Engraver), responsible for preparing coinage dies and designs, though the Director of the Mint could, with the agreement of the Treasury Secretary, hire outside artists to design coins.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|pp=51–53}}{{sfn|Nugent|p=156}} The provision allowing for the hiring of outside artists was inserted at the suggestion of former director Patterson.{{sfn|Taxay|p=254}} The act set the salaries and bonding requirements for the officers, and required them to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, as was the case under both the 1792 and 1837 acts. It also set forth the procedures for appointment of an acting officer or Director of the Mint, in the case of the incumbent's temporary absence.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|pp=51–53}}

=== Coins and deposit of bullion (§§13–39) ===

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{{Css Image Crop|Image =1873 3CS Cameo.jpg|bSize = 450|cWidth = 220|cHeight = 220|oTop = 4|oLeft = 3|Location = right}}
{{Css Image Crop|Image =1873_H10C_Ultra_Cameo.jpg|bSize = 450|cWidth = 220|cHeight = 220|oTop = 4|oLeft = 3|Location = right|Description=The two-cent piece, three-cent silver, and half dime were discontinued by the Coinage Act of 1873.}}
Sections 14 to 16 of the act set forth the coins authorized to be struck by the Mint Bureau. This is the part of the act that would later prove contentious, as it omitted the standard silver dollar, since 1853 the only coin into which depositors of silver bullion could have their metal struck. It did allow for a Trade dollar, of higher weight than the old coin, that depositors could have their silver made into, but the legal tender of this and all silver coins was limited to $5{{sfn|Taxay|pp=258–259}}—the old silver dollar had an unlimited legal tender.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=31}} All gold coins had unlimited legal tender, and the act made provision for the redemption of gold coin [[Abrasion (mechanical)|abraded]] below normal weight at full value, if twenty years or more old and if still containing 99.5 percent or more of the authorized weight. Lightweight gold coin that did not meet these qualifications would have the loss in value fall upon the depositor.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=54}}

Also eliminated by the 1873 act were the two-cent piece, three-cent silver and half dime.{{sfn|Taxay|p=258}} Although the first two coins circulated little, the half dime was still being heavily struck by the San Francisco Mint for use in the Far West, where paper money was disfavored.{{sfn|Breen|pp=255–258}} The coins authorized by the 1873 act were the cent, [[three-cent nickel]], five-cent nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar, [[Trade dollar (United States coin)|Trade dollar]], [[gold dollar]], [[quarter eagle]], [[three-dollar piece]], [[half eagle]], [[eagle (United States coin)|eagle]], and [[double eagle]].{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=54}}

The act prescribed the specifications of each coin. No change was made to the bronze composition of the cent. The dime, quarter, and half dollar were made slightly heavier so that a dollar in these coins would weigh {{convert|25|g}}, in a nod to the metric system—the five-cent nickel already weighed {{convert|5|g}}. It required that the obverse of each American coin be emblematic of Liberty, and that an eagle must appear on the reverse, except for the small-diameter cent, three-cent nickel, five-cent nickel, dime, gold dollar, and three-dollar piece, on which an eagle could not appear. It required the use of the country's name on the reverse, and of "E Pluribus Unum" somewhere on the coin. It allowed the motto "In God We Trust" to appear on American coinage{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=55}}—continuing permission granted in the Act of March 3, 1865, which had authorized the three-cent nickel.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|pp=47–48}} The 1873 law allowed for the redemption of current or obsolete base-metal coinage by the Treasury when presented in lots of $20 or more,{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=57}} continuing a provision enacted in 1871.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=50}}

Further provisions in this part of the act allowed depositors of silver bullion to receive their metal back in the form of bars or in Trade dollars. It forbade deposit of silver for striking into other coins, but allowed the Mint, for two years, to purchase silver bullion with silver coins at Philadelphia and at the New York Assay Office.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|pp=56–57}} This practice, although illegal under the 1853 act, had long been permitted by Mint Directors.{{sfn|Taxay|pp=253–254}}

=== Testing and the Assay Commission (§§40–50) ===
[[File:1873 Assay Commission Medal (Julian AC-12).jpg|thumb|450px|Medal (by Chief Engraver [[William Barber (engraver)|William Barber]]) struck for the 1873 Assay Commission. The casket on the reverse honors Philadelphia Mint Assayer Jacob Eckfeldt, who had recently died.{{sfn|Pessolano-Filos|p=9}}]]
{{main|United States Assay Commission}}

The annual [[United States Assay Commission|Assay Commission]] met at the Philadelphia Mint in most years from 1797 to 1980, when it was abolished. Consisting of government officials and members of the public, it tested the gold and silver coins issued by the Mint to ensure they met standards.{{sfn|Coin World Almanac|pp=163–164}}

The 1837 act had designated the judge of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]], the [[United States Attorney]] for that district, and the Collector of the Port of Philadelphia as members ''ex officio'' of the Assay Commission. The Coinage Act of 1873 kept the judge as a member, but omitted the other two, substituting the Comptroller of the Currency and the assayer of the New York [[Assay Office]]. Under the 1837 act, the president was allowed to appoint members of the public each year, and this continued under the new legislation. The 1873 law also prescribed a detailed procedure for taking samples from each delivery by that mint's Coiner, sealing them in envelopes and transmitting them to Philadelphia, where the Assay Commission met each February.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|pp=35, 59–61}}

This part of the Coinage Act also provided as to how the Coiner should settle accounts, for internal testing of coins outside the auspices of the Assay Commission, and continued the bullion fund, allowing depositors of gold or silver to receive coins or other payment without having to wait for the actual metal they had deposited to go through the coining process. The mints were required to have a set of weights conforming to the official weight weighing one troy pound purchased by the U.S. minister in London in 1827, and to have the ones at Philadelphia tested in the presence of the Assay Commission each year.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|pp=59–61}}

=== Criminal offenses and miscellaneous provisions (§§51–67) ===
Sections 51 to 53 regulated matters that had proved controversial in past decades. Section 51 required all obverse dies (containing the date on most denominations) to be destroyed at the conclusion of each year.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=62}} Under Director Snowden in the 1850s, the Mint had restruck rare early-dated coins to sell or exchange with collectors.{{sfn|Taxay|p=191}} Medals of a national nature could be struck at Philadelphia under Section 52, but private medals were forbidden.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=62}} Until 1854, the year in which he was fired by President [[Franklin Pierce]], Peale had conducted a controversial medals business on the premises of the Philadelphia Mint.{{sfn|Taxay|pp=188–190}} Section 53 required the bureau's profits from [[seigniorage]] to be deposited in the Treasury and forbade the Mint from paying expenses or salaries from that money.{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|p=62}} Under Director Patterson (retired 1851), the Mint had retained such earnings, and spent them without congressional oversight.{{sfn|Taxay|p=180}}

The assay offices were regulated by sections 54 through 60, under the control of the Director of the Mint. Each office would be governed in a manner similar to the mints, with a superintendent in charge and two subordinate officers: an Assayer and a Melter and Refiner. Sections 61 to 64 forbade counterfeiting, intentional lightening of coins to secure metal, and other offenses, and prescribed the punishments for them. Section 65 is a transition provision, setting an April 1, 1873 effective date, as well as providing that the current Director of the Mint (Pollock) would become superintendent at Philadelphia, and the occupants of the office of Treasurer at each mint (abolished by the legislation) would become Assistant Treasurers of the United States. Section 66 names each mint and assay office, and Section 67 names the legislation as the "Coinage Act of one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three".{{sfn|Bureau of the Mint|pp=62–66}}