Thalers (from which dollar was derived) have indeed been minted from silver for hundreds of years. Indeed, AFAIK the Austrian mint still mints Maria Theresa thalers bearing the date 1780; each containing 0.7514 oz. of silver. IIRC, these were the operating currency in Oman until the 1950s.
Excepting the trade dollars discussed above, the US silver dollar has always been minted with 0.7736 or 0.7737 oz. of silver. This amount was determined by Thomas Jefferson, who examined, weighed, and then calculated the average weight of Spanish dollars in use (I assume in Philadelphia) while he was Secretary of State.
The Spanish dollar = the Mexican eight reales minted in Mexico by the Spanish. ("Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar -- a bit was an eighth of an eight reales coin; two bits is a "quarter" and four bits a "half"). These coins contained 0.7797 oz of silver when minted by the Spanish.
Gold is (or was when it was coined) denominated in eagles which were worth Ten Dollars each.
I trust you know that the US minted a "gold dollar" from 1849-1889. Not a "tenth eagle," a gold dollar.
However, in general, your remarks are correct.
What happened to the gold and silver?
Excepting the trade dollars discussed above, the US silver dollar has always been minted with 0.7736 or 0.7737 oz. of silver.
Not quite - I seem to remember a slight difference and I shamelessly plugged this from the usenet archives, a very nice history of dollars in the US:
“” Yep, mea maxima culpa; in actuality.....
In the 1700’s, the Spanish Dollar, the then standard, contained
about 374.875 grains of silver.
On 8 Aug, 1786, the Continental Congress ordered that the U.S.
coinage standard should be a ratio of 11:1, specie metal to
alloying agents ( for both gold and silver. ); and that the
U.S. dollar would contain precisely 375.64 grains of silver.
On 2 Apr, 1792, the Mint Act “cheapened” the U.S. dollar by
cutting silver content back to 371.25 grains.
( It also opened a major can of worms by fixing the value
ratio of gold:silver at 1:15. )
They pretty much knocked off minting silver dollars from around
1806 to about 1837, since the overseas flow was huge ( they
were worth more than the Spanish dollars, higher silver content )
On 18 Jan, 1837, a new Act fixed the standard fineness of the
silver dollar at 9:1, silver to alloying agents, and set the
weight of the dollar to 412.5 grains. ( obviously, this meant
the dollar still contained precisely 371.25 grains of silver. )
They stopped minting standard silver dollars in 1873, and
came up with the “trade dollar” for overseas trade use; the
“trade dollar” was 420 grains, and I’ve been *told* silver
content varied, but have no references.
On 28 Feb, 1878, minting began again, at 412.5 grains total
weight, 371.25 grains silver content. This continued until
the infamous Sherman Act of 1890, which paved the way for
the issuance of “Treasury Notes” to be used in the purchase
of silver for coinage. ( Got that? They used PAPER money
to buy silver, which they minted into money and spent...
thus putting roughly approximately equal amounts of paper
money and silver coinage out, with only the silver money
having actual specie value. ) Fortunately, the purchase
authority was revoked by an Act of Congress, 1 Nov 1893, but
not quite soon enough to head off some inflation/depression
effects.
Post WWI, the Pittman Act ( 23 April 1919 ) authorized the
Mint to melt down about a 350 million bucks’ worth of
silver dollars and use the output to make smaller silver
coins, or sell in bullion form. They contrived to peddle
about 275 million worth of the bullion to Great Britain
for ONE DOLLAR PER FINE OUNCE, i.e. per ounce of *silver*...
*plus* “mint charges.” ( this was the first major exchange
locking one dollar to one ounce of silver; but not the last. )
The Pittman Act also authorized purchase of more domestic
silver to *replace* the transferred silver. ( Resulting
in another spate of paper money going out to pay for silver,
which was then minted and spent by the government as well.
Note: Market crash in 1929, major depression in the thirties
— *snicker* ( Nota bene: I’ve always attributed the
Great Depression more to Income Tax and Prohibition. *grin* ) )
The Silver Purchase Act of 1934 made sure that all “Silver
Certificates” would be redeemed on demand by the Mint. “”
This is true, but it is really a distinction without a difference. The history I use (Vieira's Pieces of Eight) indicates that, "The draftsmen of the Coinage Act of 1849 were careful, therefore, to refer to the 'gold dollar' not as a dollar or the dollar, but as 'be[ing] of the value of one dollar.'" (Vieira's emphasis)
ML/NJ