HAMILTON'S REPORT ON ESTABLISHMENT OF A MINT

 

The coins that numismatists cherish today are the result of the restless intellect and tireless efforts of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804). He single-handedly embarked upon a financial revolution that has greatly influenced the US economy to this very day. An integral element of that revolution was his Report on the Establishment of a Mint (hereafter ‘the Report'), submitted to Congress on January 28, 1791, which served as the blueprint for the forging of the US Mint. In essence, his words—his rhetoric—became brick and mortar, offices and machinery, officers, engravers and workers.

Financier Robert Morris put forth in Congress a plan for coinage and a mint in 1782, though the specifics were formulated by his assistant, Gouverneur Morris. Their plan averaged the currency of 12 states into a unit valued at 1/1440th of the Spanish dollar and included coins in the denomination of 5, 8, 100, 500 and 1,000 units. In response to Morris, Thomas Jefferson authored his Notes on Coinage in 1784. Employing straightforward language, Jefferson methodically presented the practicality of a decimal coinage, described the flaws in Morris's plan and made suggestions that he hoped would quicken the process of creating a national mint. However, it was not until April 15, 1790, that Congress requested Secretary Hamilton prepare a formal plan for establishing a national mint.

Hamilton's Report was an ambitious undertaking. In his introduction, he presented the myriad complexities involved in conceiving and developing a national mint from scratch. He wrote:

The Report is a verbose, complex work that is essentially a lecture that was written down. Hamilton proposed a question, vis-à-vis the existing monetary system in the United States, whether it may not be most advisable to leave things, in this respect, in the state in which they are. Why might it be asked…should alterations be attempted, the precise effect of which cannot with certainty be calculated?

Answering his own question, Hamilton cited immense disorders that were everpresent in the contemporary American economy, including the debasement and depreciation of the dollar to the tune of 5%, which lowered the value of all property. And since much of the circulating specie of the day was foreign, states the Report, Nor can it require argument to prove, that a nation ought not to suffer the value of the property of its citizens to fluctuate with the fluctuations of a foreign Mint, and to change with the changes in the regulations of a foreign sovereign.

 

The Report also discusses the unequal values allowed in different parts of the Union to coins of the same intrinsic worth…—coinage of different denominations and values produced in the 13 individual states under the Articles of Confederation. Such a confusing situation would be remedied by the establishment of a national coinage.

The Secretary discussed challenges inherent in forging a national mint, concluding, the difficulty of devising a proper establishment ought not to deter from undertaking so necessary a work. He then presented an outline in the form of a series of questions, the answers to which would result in the framework of the US Mint.

To read Hamilton's Report, see:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-07-02-0334-0004 (https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-07-02-0334-0004)

To read Jefferson's Notes, see:
IV. Notes on Coinage, [March–May 1784] (https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-07-02-0151-0005)

To read the complete issue and article, see:
https://fhmagazine.org/financial-history-141-spring-2022/0057643001652783691

For more information on the Museum of American Finance, see:
https://www.moaf.org/

 

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web