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retary for the Department of State, and the Attorney General of the United States, (who are hereby required to attend for that purpose at the said Mint, on the last Monday in July in each year,) or under the inspection of any three of them, in such manner as they or a majority of them shall direct, and in the presence of the Director, assayer and chief coiner of the said Mint; and if it shall be found that the gold and silver so assayed, shall not be inferior to their respective standards herein before declared more than one part in one hundred and forty-four parts, the officer or officers of the said Mint whom it may concern shall be held excusable; but if any greater inferiority shall appear, it shall be certified to the President of the United States, and the said officer or officers Penalty on debasing the shall be deemed disqualified to hold their respective offices, coins. SEC. 19. And be it further enacted, That if any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at the said Mint shall be debased or made worse as to the proportion of fine gold or fine silver therein contained, or shall be of less weight or value than the same ought to be pursuant to the directions of this act, through the default or with the connivance of any of the officers or persons who shall be employed at the said Mint, for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise with a fraudulent intent, and if any of the said officers or persons shall embezzle any of the metals which shall at any time be committed to their charge for the purpose of being coined, or any of the coins which shall be struck or coined at the said Mint, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of the said offences, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death.

SEC. 20. And be it further enacted, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and milles or thousandths, a disme being the tenth part of a dollar, a cent the hundredth part of a dollar, a mille the thousandth part of a dollar, and that all accounts in the public offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation.

Approved, April 2, 1792.

Money of acpressed in dol

count to be ex

lars, etc.

ACT OF MAY 8, 1792.

1 Stat. L., CHAP. XXXIX.—An act to provide for a copper coinage.

283.

the Mint to

per and have

cents, etc.

Apr. 24

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in ConDirector of gress assembled, That the Director of the Mint, with the purchase cop-approbation of the President of the United States, be coined into authorized to contract for and purchase a quantity of copper, not exceeding one hundred and fifty tons, and 1800, ch. 1. 'that the said Director, as soon as the needful preparation Whence to shall be made, cause the copper by him purchased to be coined at the Mint into cents and half cents, pursuant to "the act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States; " and that the said cents and half cents, as they shall be coined, be paid into the Treasury of the United States, thence to issue into circulation.

1792, ch. 16.

issue.

Director to publish when a

has been paid

ury.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That after the excertain sum piration of six calendar months from the time when there into the Treas- shall have been paid into the Treasury by the said Director, in cents and half cents, a sum not less than fifty thousand dollars, which time shall forthwith be announced by the Treasurer in at least two gazettes or newspapers, published at the seat of the Government of the United States, for the time being, no copper coins or pieces whatsoever, except the said cents and half cents, shall pass current as money, or shall be paid, or offered to be paid or received in payment for any debt, demand, Penalty for claim, matter or thing whatsoever; and all copper coins pass other cop- or pieces, except the said cents and half cents, which shall be paid or offered to be paid or received in payment contrary to the prohibition aforesaid, shall be forfeited, and every person by whom any of them shall have been so paid or offered to be paid or received in payment, shall also forfeit the sum of ten dollars, and the said forfeiture and penalty shall and may be recovered with costs of suit for the benefit of any person or persons by whom information of the incurring thereof shall have been given. Approved, May 8, 1792.

offering to

per coins.

1

ACT OF JANUARY 14, 1793.

CHAP. II.-An act to amend an act intituled "An act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States," so far as respects the coinage of copper.

1 Stat. L., 299.

2, 1792, ch. 16. Contents of cents and half

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That every cent shall contain two hundred and eight, Act of Apr. grains of copper, and every half cent shall contain one hundred and four grains of copper; and that so much of cents. the act, intituled " An act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States," as respects the weight of cents and half cents, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed.

Approved, January 14, 1793.

ACT OF FEBRUARY 9, 1793.

CHAP. V.-An act regulating foreign coins, and for other

purposes.

1 Stat. L., 300.

Rates of foreign coins

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the first day of July next, foreign gold and silver coins shall pass cur- tablished. rent as money within the United States, and be a legal tender for the payment of all debts and demands, at the several and respective rates following, and not otherwise, viz: The gold coins of Great Britain and Portugal, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains of the actual weight thereof; the gold coins of France, Spain and the dominions of Spain, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains and two-fifths of a grain, of the actual weight thereof. Spanish milled dollars, at the rate of one hundred cents for each dollar, the actual weight whereof shall not be less than seventeen pennyweights and seven grains; and in proportion for the parts of a dollar. Crowns of France, at the rate of one hundred and ten cents for each crown, the actual weight whereof, shall not be less than eighteen pennyweights and seventeen grains, and in proportion for the parts of a crown. But no foreign coin that may have been, or shall be issued subsequent to the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, shall be a tender, as aforesaid, until samples thereof shall have

es

coins except

shall cease to

been found, by assay, at the Mint of the United States, to be conformable to the respective standards required, and proclamation thereof shall have been made by the President of the United States.

When all SEC. 2. Provided always, and be it further enacted. Spanish dollars That at the expiration of three years next ensuing the be a tender. time when the coinage of gold and silver, agreeably to the act, entitled "An act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States," shall commence at the mint of the United States, (which time shall be announced by the proclamation of the President of the United States,) all foreign gold coins, and all foreign silver coins, except Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars, shall cease to be a legal tender, as aforesaid. Other foreign SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That all foreign gold and silver coins, (except Spanish milled dollars, and parts of such dollars,) which shall be received in payment for monies due to the United States, after the said time, when the coining of gold and silver coins shall begin at the Mint of the United States, shall, previously to their being issued in circulation, be coined anew, in conformity to the act, entitled "An act establishing a Mint and regulating the coins of the United States."

coins to be coined anew.

After July 1, 1793, fifty

a certain act

coins, repealed.

sec. 61.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That from and after fifth section of the first day of July next, the fifty-fifth section of the act, rating foreign entitled "An act to provide more effectually for the col1799, ch. 22, lection of the duties imposed by law on goods, wares and merchandise imported into the United States," which ascertains the rates at which foreign gold and silver coins shall be received for the duties and fees to be collected in virtue of the said act, be, and the same is hereby repealed. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the assay, provided to be made by the act, entitled "An act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States," shall commence in the manner as by the said act is prescribed, on the second Monday of February, annually, any thing in the said act to the contrary notwithstanding. Approved, February 9, 1793.

Assay of coins, when to commence.

1792, ch. 16,

sec. 18.

1 Stat. L., 680.

NOTE.

The proclamation required by section 2 of the above act was issued July 22, 1797. (See 11 Statutes at Large, 755.)

The collection act of March 2, 1799, provides for the collection of all duties and fees in money of the United States or in foreign coins at the rates prescribed by section 1 above; and also provides that no foreign coins which are not by law a tender for debts shall be received, except under a proclamation of the President authoriz ing the same.

ACT OF MARCH 3, 1794.

CHAP. IV.-An act in alteration of the act establishing a
Mint and regulating the coins of the United States.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passing this act it shall be the duty of the treasurer of the Mint to receive and give receipts for all metals which may lawfully be brought to the Mint to be coined; and for the purpose of ascertaining their respective qualities, shall deliver from every parcel so received, a sufficient number of grains to the assayer, who shall assay all such of them as may require it. And the said treasurer shall from time to time deliver the said metals to the chief coiner to be coined in such quantities as the Director of the Mint may prescribe. (Section 2 provides that the assayer and chief coiner shall give bond.)

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Act of Apr.

,2, 1792, ch. 16.

Assay.

Part of certain act re

1792, ch. 16.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act entitled "An act establishing a Mint and regulating pealed, the coins of the United States," as comes within the purview of this act be and the same is hereby repealed. Approved, March 3, 1794.

ACT OF MARCH 3, 1795.

439.

CHAP. XLVII.-An act supplementary to the act intituled 41 Stat. L., "An act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States."

ficer of the

name of the

finer.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, and it is hereby enacted and declared, That for the better conducting of the business of the Mint, Act of Apr. 2, 1792, ch. 16. of the United States there shall be an additional officer Additional ofappointed therein by the name of the melter and refiner, Mint by the whose duty shall be to take charge of all copper, and silver melter and reor gold bullion delivered out by the treasurer of the Mint His duty. after it has been assayed, agreeably to the rules and customs of the Mint already directed and established, or which may hereafter be directed and established by the accounting officers of the Treasury, and to reduce the same into bars or ingots fit for the rolling mills, and then to deliver them to the coiner or treasurer, as the Director shall

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