A while back I made a purchase of some old silver certificates from the 1930's, which I will share at a later date, along with the below 1892-S Morgan Dollar.
One of the things I always try to do when I purchase a coin is look into the history of the coin, the desiger and anything else to do with the specific coin. Even if I have seen and read about the specific type of coin before, I always learn something new.
There is always some new historical event, character, or oddity that comes up that I have never seen, or that I had forgotten about. Like for instance the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 was something I had briefly read about in books before, but never knew that much about.
The entire purpose of the act was to reintroduce silver coinage after what critics called the "Crime of '73", also known as the Coinage Act of 1873. After the "Crime of 73" silver coinage had largely been removed from the U.S. monetary system.
A couple of the key provisions from the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 of note where that it required the U.S. Treasury to purchase $2 to $4 million worth of silver bullion each month. The Act also required silver be coined into silver dollars, specifically the Morgan Dollar pictured here.
It was passed because it was pushed through by Representative Richard P. Bland (Missouri) and Senator William B. Allison (Iowa). They had the support of western farmers and miners who demanded more silver in circulation so that deflation and debt would be combated. The Act was vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes, but Congress overrode the veto, ultimately making it law.
The impact of the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 was that it led to mass prodcution of the silver dollar, like the Morgan. It also appeased advocates for silver and kept the debate alive well into the 1890's. The Bland-Allison Ac was eventually replaced by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which increased the silver purchased required by the Treasury.
I am still reading about the legacy of this act and learning more about it. The hope is to share more when I post about what is learned about my silver certificates at a later date. As they are a piece of this same legislative history.
If you have any further information about this coin you would like to add, like historical information I left out or want to correct any I may have gotten wrong, please drop it in the comments.
Thanks for reading,
Joe
Notes:
-All content is mine unless otherwise annotated.
-Images are my own unless otherwise noted.
-Photos edited using MS Paint and/or iPhone SE.
-Page Dividers from The Terminal Discord.
