By 1869, the Mint Act of 1837, enacted before the California gold rush or the American Civil War affected the monetary system of the United States, was deemed outdated.

The matter became a major political controversy that lasted the remainder of the century, pitting those who valued the deflationary gold standard against those who believed free coinage of silver, an inflationary policy, to be necessary for economic prosperity.

Despite vocal opposition led by Tennessee Representative (and future president) Andrew Johnson, the precious metal content of smaller silver coins was reduced in 1853, allowing them to circulate.

This was illegal, as Congress had ordered that the new lightweight coins only be purchasable using gold, a provision intended to limit quantities sold to actual demand.

[11] Greenbacks, which were backed by neither silver nor gold but by the credit of the United States, and which were necessitated by vast wartime expenditures, had helped to finance the war.

[17] Knox found that informalities in transferring bullion between various officers of that mint had led to inconsistent sets of accounts, but due to the lack of receipts kept, it was not possible to pinpoint who was to blame.

[16] In 1869, Knox, by then Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, was sent by McCullough's successor George Boutwell to investigate other Mint facilities, discovering severe irregularities and large government losses at the New York Assay Office.

None of this ever came to fruition, but in January 1868, Ohio Senator John Sherman introduced legislation to place the United States formally on the gold standard, to eliminate silver as a legal tender, and to implement the recommendations of the conference.

[18] Knox, in his 1866 report, had recommended a thorough revision of the laws pertaining to the Mint, and in January 1870, Secretary Boutwell instructed him to prepare a draft.

That it abolished the silver dollar, and thus bimetallism, was not discussed, as senators focused on the omission of the coinage charge (the fee for the Mint's services in converting bullion to money).

The bill now provided for competitive nickel bidding, but was again withdrawn, this time by Hooper, after Kelley accused Potter of trying to benefit New York bullion merchants.

Linderman had requested an amendment to require that gold and silver coins bear a statement of their weight and fineness, which would mean sacrificing the eagle.

[42] At no point in its almost three-year journey through the legislative process did the bill provide for the retention of the standard silver dollar, into which depositors could have their bullion coined.

[43] When, several years after its passage, the 1873 law became a political issue, some of those involved in enacting it, including Sherman and Linderman, stated that there had been no intent to end bimetallism in the elimination of the authority for private citizens to have silver bullion coined into dollars.

[45] Within a few years, the idea that the omission of the silver dollar from the Coinage Act had not been with intent to place the United States on the gold standard became the establishment position.

"[47] According to historian Allen Weinstein, "Silver's demonetization, according to the traditional account, came as an unplanned if fortunate by-product of a complex and largely technical revision of the mint laws in the Coinage Act of 1873.

In his explanatory statement accompanying his draft bill, Knox explained the discontinuance of the silver dollar would mean the United States was no longer a bimetallic nation.

[55] The Mint of the United States had originally reported directly to the president but over time legislation had made it subject to control by the Treasury Secretary.

[42] Although the first two coins circulated little, the half dime was still being heavily struck by the San Francisco Mint for use in the Far West, where paper money was disfavored.

It allowed the motto "In God We Trust" to appear on American coinage[63]—continuing permission granted in the Act of March 3, 1865, which had authorized the three-cent nickel.

[66] Further provisions in this part of the act allowed depositors of silver bullion to receive their metal back in the form of bars or in Trade dollars.

Consisting of government officials and members of the public, it tested the gold and silver coins issued by the Mint to ensure they met standards.

The 1873 law also prescribed a detailed procedure for taking samples from each delivery by that mint's Coiner, sealing them in envelopes and transmitting them to Philadelphia, where the Assay Commission met each February.

[75] Section 53 required the bureau's profits from seigniorage to be deposited in the Treasury and forbade the Mint from paying expenses or salaries from that money.

According to numismatic historian Don Taxay, "an agitation followed, during which several pious Congressmen feigned ignorance of the repeal, maintaining it had been worked into the Mint bill surreptitiously.

[87] Friedman stated that had it not been for the 1873 act, resumption would have been on the effective basis of a silver standard, which he viewed as a good thing, allowing for more economic stability and "almost surely would have avoided" the downturn of the early 1890s known as the Panic of 1893.

Over the next three years, $132,000,000 in gold was withdrawn from the Treasury, and amid another depression President Grover Cleveland secured the repeal of the silver purchase act.

Several factors combined to bring forth protest then: tight money policies by the Treasury in preparation for the resumption of specie payments, a more precipitous drop in the price of silver than had hitherto been the case, and widespread use of Trade dollars after their rejection in the Chinese market.

[94] Beginning in March 1876, former newspaper editor George Weston published letters asserting that bimetallism was mandated by the Constitution, and questioning how the Coinage Act had passed.

[96] Often blamed by those who deemed the act a crime was British financial writer Ernest Seyd, who had given advice as to the text of the bill, as attested by Congressman Hooper on the House floor in 1872.