1857: Ending Foreign Coin Reliance

It should be noted that the Coinage at of 1857 removed much of the Spanish silver circulating as legal tender money so when a silver Spanish Reale is found, the site may likely be pre-1857.  At that time the mint traded Spanish silver for newly minted Flying Eagle cents:


Soon the marketplace became inundated with the new small cents, and because they were not legal tender, stores and banks soon refused to accept the coins as the overabundance became a nuisance. The cents ended up trading at a discount of up to 5 percent. Ironically, just a few years later, all these cents would disappear from circulation during the Civil War, necessitating issuance of the cent-size Civil War tokens to keep the economy functional during the war.

The Flying Eagle cents brought much needed silver into the coffers of the U.S. Treasury Department, as was expected. This silver was then minted into Seated Liberty coins.


Continued here: [m.coinworld.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2013 01:47AM by go-rebels.

Even before that era all types of coinage were used to trade and barter with and still have my 1825 british quarter which was probably used as legal tender found in a super old area so more than Spanish silver was used...