When did the americans start using the Dollar?

Question

AS THE FIRST COLONISTS WERE FROM BRITIAN, DID THEY USE BRITISH CURRENCY, IF SO WHERE DID THE DOLLAR COME FROM?

Answer 1

The history of the dollar in North America pre-dates US independence. Even before the Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress had authorized the issuance of dollar denominated coins and currency, since the term 'dollar' was in common usage referring to Spanish colonial 8 real coins or "Spanish Milled Dollars". Though several monetary systems were proposed for the early republic, the dollar was approved by Congress in a largely symbolic resolution on 8 August 1786. After passage of the Constitution was secured, the government turned its attention to monetary issues again in the early 1790's under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury at the time. Congress acted on Hamilton's recommendations in the Coinage Act of 1792, which established the Dollar as the basic unit of account for the United States. The word "dollar" is derived from Low Saxon "daler", an abbreviation of "Joachimsdaler" – (coin) from Joachimstal – so called because it was minted from 1519 onwards using silver extracted from a mine which had opened in 1516 near Joachimstal, a town in the Ore Mountains of northwestern Bohemia. The term "dollar" was widely used in reference to a Spanish coin at the time it was adopted by the United States.

Until 1874 the value of the United States dollar was tied to and backed by silver, gold, or both. From 1792 to 1873, the U.S. dollar was freely backed by both gold and silver at a ratio of 15:1 under a system known as bimetallism. In this system, the dollar could be exchanged for 371.25 grains (24.06 g) of silver or 24.75 grains (1.60 g) of gold.

Because prices of gold and silver in the open marketplace vary independently, the production of coins of full intrinsic worth under any ratio will nearly always result in the melting of either all silver coins or all gold coins. In the early 1800's, gold rose in relation to silver, resulting in the removal from commerce of nearly all gold coins, and their subsequent melting. Therefore, in 1834, the 15:1 ratio was changed to a 16:1 ratio by reducing the weight of the nation's gold coinage. This created a new U.S. dollar that was backed by 1.50 g (23.2 grains) of gold. However, the previous dollar had been represented by 1.60 g (24.75 grains) of gold. The result of this revaluation, which was the first-ever devaluation of the U.S. dollar, was that the value in gold of the dollar was reduced by 6%. Moreover, for a time, both gold and siver coin were useful in commerce.

In 1853, the weights of US silver coins (except, interestingly, the dollar itself, which was rarely used) were reduced. This had the effect of placing the nation effectively (although not officially) on the gold standard. The retained weight in the dollar coin was a nod to bimetallism, although it had the effect of further driving the silver dollar coin from commerce.

In 1878, the Bland-Allison Act was enacted to provide for freer coinage of silver. This act required the government to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month at market prices and to coin it into silver dollars. This was, in effect, a subsidy for politically influential silver producers.

The discovery of large silver deposits in the Western United States in the late 19th century created a political controversy. Due to the large influx of silver, the value of silver in the nation's coinage dropped precipitously. On one side were agrarian interests such as the United States Greenback Party that wanted to retain the bimetallic standard in order to inflate the dollar, which would allow farmers to more easily repay their debts. On the other side were Eastern banking and commercial interests, who advocated sound money and a switch to the gold standard. This issue split the Democratic Party in 1896. It led to the famous "cross of gold" speech given by William Jennings Bryan, and may have inspired many of the themes in The Wizard of Oz. Despite the controversy, the status of silver was slowly diminished through a series of legislative changes from 1873 to 1900, when a gold standard was formally adopted. The gold standard survived, with several modifications, until 1971.

Answer 2

Dang I pretty much can't out-do the first post, but oh well I'll just type from memory.

At the time of the American Revolution, the colonies were spending the gold coins they had to buy imports from other countries. They spent so much on imports, and had virtually no gold remaining, that in order to fund the Continental Army Congress began issuing paper currency, which were essentially IOU's which can be turned in later in return for gold pieces.

Banks began printing their own paper money, and by the time of the early twentieth century the banks began printing so much paper money that, when people came in to get their gold, the banks literally went bankrupt because they didn't have the gold to back up the paper currency. The President ordered all the banks shut down, and thus began the Great Depression. Because banks wouldn't give gold in exchange for paper currency, stores were going out of business because they wouldn't sell things for paper money because the banks wouldn't honor the paper. Essentially, the currency wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. Eventually the President ordered that no longer will banks give gold-in-exchange-for-paper money. 10 dollars is worth 10 dollars simply because the government says so, and businesses must honor it because the government will honor it too.

Answer 3

The final time we had a $a million coin (Susan B. Anthony) it replaced into particularly plenty an identical length as 1 / 4 and that's what it replaced into being unsuitable for. would desire to they deliver about a $a million coin it is going to would desire to be different than the different coin made and that i do no longer think of the idiots in government are able to bobbing up with something unique. i did no longer recommend that individuals would desire to no longer tell the version. maximum folk shop all money in a single section and whilst grabbing some substitute the $a million coin replaced into an identical length because of the fact the quarter. next time I answer one in all your idiotic questions i will do it as though I have been explaining to a 2-12 months-previous.