Free silver

Last updated March 08, 2024

Free silver was a major economic policy issue in the United States in the late 19th century. Its advocates were in favor of an expansionary monetary policy featuring the unlimited coinage of silver into money on-demand, as opposed to strict adherence to the more carefully fixed money supply implicit in the gold standard. Free silver became increasingly associated with populism, unions, and the perceived struggle of ordinary Americans against the bankers, monopolists, and robber barons of the Gilded Age. Hence, it became known as the "People's Money".

Supporters of an important place for silver in a bimetallic money system making use of both silver and gold, called "Silverites", sought coinage of silver dollars at a fixed weight ratio of 16-to-1 against dollar coins made of gold. Because the actual price ratio of the two metals was substantially higher in favor of gold at the time, most economists warned that the less valuable silver coinage would drive the more valuable gold out of circulation.

While all agreed that an expanded money supply would inevitably inflate prices, the issue was whether this inflation would be beneficial or not. The issue peaked from 1893 to 1896, when the economy was suffering from a severe depression characterized by falling prices (deflation), high unemployment in industrial areas, and severe distress for farmers.^[1] It ranks as the 11th largest decline in U.S. stock market history.^[2]

The "free silver" debate pitted the pro-gold financial establishment of the Northeast, along with railroads, factories, and businessmen, who were creditors deriving benefit from deflation and repayment of loans with valuable gold dollars, against farmers who would benefit from higher prices for their crops and an easing of credit burdens.^[3] Free silver was especially popular among farmers in the Wheat Belt (the western Midwest) and the Cotton Belt (the Deep South),^[3] as well as silver miners in the West. It had little support among farmers in the Northeast and the Corn Belt (the eastern Midwest).

Free silver was the central issue for Democrats in the presidential elections of 1896 and 1900, under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan, famed for his Cross of Gold speech in favor of free silver. The Populists also endorsed Bryan and free silver in 1896, which marked the effective end of their independence. In major elections, free silver was consistently defeated, and after 1896 the nation moved to the gold standard.^[4]

The debate over silver lasted from the passage of the Fourth Coinage Act in 1873, which demonetized silver and was called the "Crime of '73" by opponents, until 1963, when the Silver Purchase Act of 1934, which allowed the U.S. President and U.S Department of Treasury to regulate U.S silver,^[5] was completely repealed by Public Law 88-36.

Definitions and explanation

Under the gold specie standard, anyone in possession of gold bullion could deposit it at a mint where it would then be processed into gold coins. Less a nominal seigniorage to cover processing costs, the coins would then be paid to the depositor; this was free coinage of gold by definition. The objective of the free silver movement was that the mints should accept and process silver bullion according to the same principle, although the market value of the silver in circulating coins of the United States was substantially less than face value.^[6]

As a result, the monetary value of silver coins was based on government fiat rather than on the commodity value of their contents, and this became especially true following the huge silver strikes in the West, which further depressed the silver price. From that time until the early 1960s the silver content in United States dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and silver dollars was worth only a fraction of their face values.^[7] Free coinage of silver would have amounted to an increase in the money supply, resulting in inflation.^[3]

Response

Cartoon from Puck showing a silverite farmer and a Democratic donkey whose wagon has been destroyed by the locomotive of sound money 96SILVER.JPG — Cartoon from *Puck* showing a silverite farmer and a Democratic donkey whose wagon has been destroyed by the locomotive of sound money

Many populist organizations favored an inflationary monetary policy because it would enable debtors (often farmers who had mortgages on their land) to pay their debts off with cheaper, more readily available dollars. Those who would suffer under this policy were the creditors such as banks and landlords.^[3] The most vocal and best-organized supporters were the silver mine owners (such as William Randolph Hearst) and workers, and the western states and territories generally, as most U.S. silver production was based there and the region had a great number of highly indebted farmers and ranchers.^[3]

Outside the mining states of the West, the Republican Party steadfastly opposed free silver,^[3] arguing that the best road to national prosperity was "sound money", or gold, which was central to international trade. They argued that inflation meant guaranteed higher prices for everyone, and real gains chiefly for the silver interests. In 1896 Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado led many western Republicans to bolt and form a third party that supported Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, the short-lived Silver Republican Party.

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, while falling short of free silver's goals,^[3] required the U.S. government to buy millions of ounces of silver (driving up the price of the metal and pleasing silver miners) for money (pleasing farmers and many others). However, the U.S. government paid for that silver bullion in gold notes—and actually reduced their coinage of silver. The result was a "run" on the U.S. Treasury's gold reserves, which was one of the many reasons for the Panic of 1893 and the onset of the 1890s Depression. Once he regained power, and after the Panic of 1893 had begun, Grover Cleveland engineered the repeal of the act, setting the stage for the key issue of the next presidential election.^[3]

Climax

The Populist Party had a strong free-silver element. Its subsequent combination with the Democratic Party moved the latter from the support of the gold standard which had been the hallmark of the Cleveland administration to the free-silver position epitomized by 1896 presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan in his Cross of Gold speech.^[8] Bryan's 1896 candidacy was supported by Populists and "silver Republicans" as well as by most Democrats.

The issue was over what would back the US currency. The two options were: gold (wanted by the "Goldbugs" and William McKinley) and silver (wanted by the Silverites and Bryan). Unbacked paper (wanted by the Greenbacks) represented a third option.^[3] A fourth option, a currency backed by land value, was advocated by Senator Leland Stanford through several Senate bills introduced in 1890–1892, but was always killed by the Senate Finance Committee.^[9]

Silver fraternal orders

Three fraternal organizations rose to prominence during the mid-1890s and supported the silver campaign in 1896. They all disappeared after the failure of the campaign.

List of Silverite fraternal orders

Freemen's Protective Silver Federation - Founded in 1894 in Spokane, Washington, it adopted a constitution, bylaws, and a ritual at Pullman, Washington late that year. Their stated goal was "to unite the friends of silver under one banner to battle for the white metal and to wage war against the gold monopoly". It was reportedly an outgrowth of the National Order of Videttes. The order spread through the Pacific Coast states and east to the Missouri River. It claimed as many as 800,000 members in late 1896, though Stevens considered this "extravagant". Nevertheless, there was no doubt about its popularity and influence west of the Rocky Mountains during the 1896 free silver campaign. The obligation of the order was said to be "most emphatic and binding" and lawyers and bankers were barred from membership.^[10] The order was apparently defunct by the early 1920s.^[11]
Silver Knights of America - Founded early in 1895 to campaign for free silver, it was headquartered in Washington, D.C., where it had a literary bureau. The governing body, the Supreme Temple, was incorporated as a stock company with $100,000 capital. Senator W. M. Stewart of Nevada was president, James Pait was vice-president, Oliver Sabin secretary, James A. B. Richard treasurer, and S. S. Yoder was the director-general. Many well-known current and former members of the House of Representatives were members. The organization was "pushed simultaneously" in Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Arkansas, from which it invaded the Democratic-leaning areas. There was a female branch, the Silver Ladies of America, which was "intended to strongly develop the social feature of the organization". The order had a ritual, grips, passwords, and a burial service. The order became defunct after 1896.^[12]
Patriots of America - It was founded in late 1895 by William Harvey to organize for free silver in the 1896 campaign. Officers of the order included First National Patriot William Harvey, National Recorder Charles H. McClure of Michigan, and National Treasurer James F. Adams of Michigan. Each state was also expected to have a First State Patriot and these officers would constitute the Congress of Patriots. Each county was also supposed to have a First Patriot. The "First Patriots" of the national, state, and county level were expected to make an oath refusing to ever serve in elective or appointive offices or to have property over $100,000. There was an auxiliary organization, the Daughters of the Republic, which was tasked with looking after the poor of the Patriots of America. There were no dues and the order was financed through voluntary contributions. The order's object was to swing one of the parties to a free silver platform in 1896 and, if that failed, to launch an independent free silver ticket. The order was expected to hold a ballot every four years to determine what cause and candidate it would support, however, the order appeared to become defunct after 1896.^[13] Headquartered in Chicago.^[12]

"The free silver Jabberwock" in 1896

Result

The city voters—especially German Americans—overwhelmingly rejected the free-silver cause out of the conviction that it would lead to economic disaster, unemployment, and higher prices. The diversified farmers of the Midwest and East opposed it as well, but the cotton farmers in the South and the wheat farmers in the West were enthusiastic for free silver. Bryan tried again in 1900 to raise the issue but lost by larger margins, and when he dropped the issue it fell out of circulation. Subsequent actions to revive the issue were unsuccessful.^[14]

Symbolism

Free silver became increasingly associated with populism, unions, and the fight of ordinary Americans against the bankers, railroad monopolists, and the robber barons of the Gilded Age capitalism era and was referred to as the "People's Money" (as opposed to the gold-based currency, which was portrayed by the Populists as the money of "exploitation" and "oppression"). William H. Harvey's popular pamphlet Coin's Financial School , issued in the aftermath of the Panic of 1893, illustrated the "restorative" properties of silver; through the devaluation of the currency, closed factories would reopen, darkened furnaces would be relit, and the like. But progressive activist Henry Demarest Lloyd held a harshly critical view, writing: "The free silver movement is a fake. Free silver is the cowbird of the reform movement. It waited until the nest had been built by the sacrifices and labor of others, and then it lay its own eggs in it, pushing out the others which lie smashed on the ground."^[15]

Silver Purchase Act of 1934

In 1934, the passage of the Silver Purchase Act revived the debate stirred by Grover Cleveland's 1893 repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890.^[16] The new law granted the U.S. President and U.S. Secretary of Treasury the authority to purchase silver, issue silver certificates, and also nationalize U.S. mines.^[5]^[16] The law also included a 50¢ tax on profits from the transfer of silver bullion and financing a "Silver Tax Stamp".^[16]^[5] After the law was passed, the U.S. Treasury paid rates for silver well over its 1934 value, achieving the hoped-for result, raising the price of silver from 45¢ to 81¢ an ounce.^[16] However, overprints on the Silver Stamp Taxes, which ranged from 1¢ to $1,000, also presented a problem for free, nationally owned silver.^[16] These were stamps attached to transfer memoranda to indicate payment of the silver tax.^[17] In 1943, the overprints were discontinued, and the Silver Purchase Act of 1934 would be fully repealed in 1963.^[16]

Related Research Articles

The Cross of Gold speech was delivered by William Jennings Bryan, a former United States Representative from Nebraska, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on July 9, 1896. In his address, Bryan supported "free silver", which he believed would bring the nation prosperity. He decried the gold standard, concluding the speech, "you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold". Bryan's address helped catapult him to the Democratic Party's presidential nomination and is considered one of the greatest political speeches in American history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1896 United States presidential election</span> 28th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1896 United States presidential election was the 28th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1896. Former Governor William McKinley, the Republican nominee, defeated former Representative William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic nominee. The 1896 campaign, which took place during an economic depression known as the Panic of 1893, was a political realignment that ended the old Third Party System and began the Fourth Party System.

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was a United States federal law enacted on July 14, 1890.

The People's Party, also known as the Populist Party or simply the Populists, was a left-wing agrarian populist political party in the United States in the late 19th century. The Populist Party emerged in the early 1890s as an important force in the Southern and Western United States, but collapsed after it nominated Democrat William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 United States presidential election. A rump faction of the party continued to operate into the first decade of the 20th century, but never matched the popularity of the party in the early 1890s.

The Coinage Act of 1873 or Mint Act of 1873 was a general revision of laws relating to the Mint of the United States. By ending the right of holders of silver bullion to have it coined into standard silver dollars, while allowing holders of gold to continue to have their bullion made into money, the act created a gold standard by default. It also authorized a Trade dollar, with limited legal tender, intended for export, mainly to Asia, and abolished three small-denomination coins. The act led to controversial results and was denounced by critics as the "Crime of '73".

The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the presidency of William McKinley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bimetallism</span> Monetary standard in which the value of currency is based on quantities of two metals

Bimetallism, also known as the bimetallic standard, is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, typically gold and silver, creating a fixed rate of exchange between them.

"Gold bug" is a term frequently employed in the financial sector and among economists in reference to persons who are extremely bullish on the commodity gold as an investment or a standard for measuring wealth. Depending on the circumstances the term can have one or a combination of closely related and often overlapping themes that extend beyond the support for gold as an investment, including in some cases the use of the term as a pejorative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silver certificate (United States)</span> Paper currency used between 1878 and 1964

Silver certificates are a type of representative money issued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, which had effectively placed the United States on a gold standard. The certificates were initially redeemable for their face value of silver dollar coins and later in raw silver bullion. Since 1968 they have been redeemable only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete, but still valid legal tender at their face value and thus are still an accepted form of currency.

Coin's Financial School was an 1894 pamphlet written by lawyer, politician and resort founder William Hope Harvey (1851–1936). It advocated a return to bimetallism, where the value of a monetary unit is defined as a certain amount of two different kinds of metals, often gold and silver. In the book, Harvey charged that the demonetization of silver caused by the Coinage Act of 1873 led to the Panic of 1893 by halving the supply of available redemption money in the economy. This lowered the prices of goods throughout the country and hurt farmers and small business owners, according to Harvey. Harvey argued that by returning silver to the same monetary status as gold, the American economy would benefit from stabilized prices, resulting in higher revenue, and ease of repayment of debts. The pamphlet sold about 1 million copies, which helped popularize the free silver movement with the public. Harvey would go on to aid Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan’s presidential campaign in 1896, which ran on the platform of free coinage of silver. The issue of bimetallism remained controversial throughout the remainder of the 19th century.

The history of the United States dollar began with moves by the Founding Fathers of the United States of America to establish a national currency based on the Spanish silver dollar, which had been in use in the North American colonies of the Kingdom of Great Britain for over 100 years prior to the United States Declaration of Independence. The new Congress's Coinage Act of 1792 established the United States dollar as the country's standard unit of money, creating the United States Mint tasked with producing and circulating coinage. Initially defined under a bimetallic standard in terms of a fixed quantity of silver or gold, it formally adopted the gold standard in 1900, and finally eliminated all links to gold in 1971.

The Morgan dollar is a United States dollar coin minted from 1878 to 1904, in 1921, and beginning again in 2021 as a collectible. It was the first standard silver dollar minted since the passage of the Coinage Act of 1873, which ended the free coining of silver and the production of the previous design, the Seated Liberty dollar. It contained 412.5 Troy grains of 90% pure silver. The coin is named after its designer, United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan. The obverse depicts a profile portrait representing Liberty, modeled by Anna Willess Williams, while the reverse depicts an eagle with wings outstretched. The mint mark, if present, appears on the reverse above between D and O in "Dollar".

The 1896 Democratic National Convention, held at the Chicago Coliseum from July 7 to July 11, was the scene of William Jennings Bryan's nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate for the 1896 U.S. presidential election.

The Silverites were members of a political movement in the United States in the late-19th century that advocated that silver should continue to be a monetary standard along with gold, as authorized under the Coinage Act of 1792. The Silverite coalition's famous slogan was "16 to 1" – that is, the ratio of sixteen ounces of silver equal in value to one ounce of gold, a ratio similar to that established in the Coinage Act of 1834. Silverites belonged to a number of political parties, including the Silver Party, Populist Party, Democratic Party, and the Silver Republican Party.

The Panic of 1896 was an acute economic depression in the United States that was less serious than other panics of the era, precipitated by a drop in silver reserves, and market concerns on the effects it would have on the gold standard. Deflation of commodities' prices drove the stock market to new lows in a trend that began to reverse only after the 1896 Klondike Gold Rush. During the panic, call money would reach 125 percent, the highest level since the Civil War.

Monetary policy in the United States is associated with interest rates and availability of credit.

In 1896, William Jennings Bryan ran unsuccessfully for president of the United States. Bryan, a former Democratic congressman from Nebraska, gained his party's presidential nomination in July of that year after electrifying the Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech. He was defeated in the general election by the Republican candidate, former Ohio governor William McKinley.

Grover Cleveland was president of the United States first from March 4, 1885, to March 4, 1889, and then from March 4, 1893, to March 4, 1897. The first Democrat elected after the Civil War, Cleveland is the only US president to leave office after one term and later return for a second term. His presidencies were the nation's 22nd and 24th. Cleveland defeated James G. Blaine of Maine in 1884, lost to Benjamin Harrison of Indiana in 1888, and then defeated President Harrison in 1892.

Bryan Money is a term used by numismatists to refer to tokens and medals associated with William Jennings Bryan's platform during the United States presidential elections of 1896 and 1900. Bryan's platform advocated for the reinstatement of silver currency in the United States economy as part of the short-lived Silver Republican Party.

The Coinage Act of 1853, 10 Stat. 160, was a piece of legislation passed by the United States Congress which lowered the silver content of the silver half dime, dime, quarter dollar, and half dollar, and authorized a three dollar gold piece. Although intending to stabilize the country's silver shortage, it, in effect, pushed the United States closer to abandoning bimetallism entirely and adopting the gold standard.

References

↑ Charles Hoffmann, "The Depression of the Nineties," Journal of Economic History (1956). Vol. 16, No. 2) 16 (2): 137–164. in JSTOR
↑ "What Prior Market Crashes Can Teach Us About Navigating the Current One". Morningstar, Inc. Retrieved 2020-07-14.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Roark, James L.; Johnson, Michael P.; Furstenburg, Francois; Cline Cohen, Patricia; Hartmann, Susan M.; Stage, Sarah; Igo, Sarah E. (2020). "Chapter 18 The Gilded Age: 1865–1900". The American Promise: A History of the United States (Kindle). Vol. Combined Volume (Value Edition, 8th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's. Kindle Locations 13951–13983. ISBN 978-1319208929. OCLC 1096495503.
↑ Williams, 1910
1 2 3 73rd United States Congress (June 19, 1934). "Chapter 674: An Act To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase silver, issue silver certificates, and for other purposes" (PDF). The Statutes at Large of the United States of America from March 1933 to June 1934 (PDF). Vol. 48. United States Government Printing Office. pp. 1178–1181. OCLC 50860124. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-18.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ Walter T. K. Nugent, Money and American Society, 1865–1880 (1968)
↑ Milton Friedman, "Bimetallism Revisited", Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 4, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 85–104 in JSTOR
↑ "Cross of Gold speech | Summary, Meaning, Audio, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-03-11.
↑ Congress, United States (1890). Congressional Record, 51 Congress, 1 Sess.: 2068-2069, March 3, 1890 . Retrieved August 7, 2017.
↑ Stevens, Albert C. The Cyclopædia of Fraternities; a compilation of existing authentic information and the results of an original investigation as to more than six hundred secret societies in the United States New York City, Paterson, N.J., Hamilton printing and publishing company p.301
↑ Preuss, Arthur A Dictionary of Secret and Other Societies St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co. 1924 p.137
1 2 Stevens p.322
↑ Stevens p.321
↑ Russell L. Mahan, "William Jennings Bryan and the Presidential Campaign of 1896". White House Studies (2003). 3 (1): 41. doi : 10.2307/1917933. JSTOR 1917933.
↑ The Populist Response to Industrial America p142 Norman Pollack – 1976 "This was followed by his blistering indictment of silver: "The Free Silver movement is a fake. Free Silver is the cow-bird of the Reform movement."
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Silver Tax Stamps". Mystic Stamp Discovery Center. 2017-06-19. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
↑ https://www.stamp-collecting-world.com/taxstamps_RG1934.html Stamp Collecting World, Silver Tax Stamps retrieved March 12, 2021

External links

The Money Question of the 51st Congress: Speeches before the 51st Congress (1889-1891) regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER
The Money Question of the 52nd Congress: Speeches before the 52nd Congress (1891–1893) regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER
The Money Question of the 53rd Congress: Speeches before the 53rd Congress (1893–1895) regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER
Free silver cartoons from Judge
The full text of Free Silver and Annexation at Wikisource
The full text of Honest Money and Honesty at Wikisource
The full text of Popular Science Monthly, September 1893—Why Silver Ceases to Be Money at Wikisource
The full text of Coinage of Silver, 1934 at Wikisource
The full text of Silver Purchase Act of 1934 at Wikisource

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[1] Charles Hoffmann, "The Depression of the Nineties," Journal of Economic History (1956). Vol. 16, No. 2) 16 (2): 137–164. in JSTOR

[2] "What Prior Market Crashes Can Teach Us About Navigating the Current One". Morningstar, Inc. Retrieved 2020-07-14.

[:0-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Roark, James L.; Johnson, Michael P.; Furstenburg, Francois; Cline Cohen, Patricia; Hartmann, Susan M.; Stage, Sarah; Igo, Sarah E. (2020). "Chapter 18 The Gilded Age: 1865–1900". The American Promise: A History of the United States (Kindle). Vol. Combined Volume (Value Edition, 8th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's. Kindle Locations 13951–13983. ISBN 978-1319208929. OCLC 1096495503.

[4] Williams, 1910

[legislation-5] 1 2 3 73rd United States Congress (June 19, 1934). "Chapter 674: An Act To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase silver, issue silver certificates, and for other purposes" (PDF). The Statutes at Large of the United States of America from March 1933 to June 1934 (PDF). Vol. 48. United States Government Printing Office. pp. 1178–1181. OCLC 50860124. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-08-18.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[6] Walter T. K. Nugent, Money and American Society, 1865–1880 (1968)

[7] Milton Friedman, "Bimetallism Revisited", Journal of Economic Perspectives Vol. 4, No. 4 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 85–104 in JSTOR

[8] "Cross of Gold speech | Summary, Meaning, Audio, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-03-11.

[9] Congress, United States (1890). Congressional Record, 51 Congress, 1 Sess.: 2068-2069, March 3, 1890 . Retrieved August 7, 2017.

[10] Stevens, Albert C. The Cyclopædia of Fraternities; a compilation of existing authentic information and the results of an original investigation as to more than six hundred secret societies in the United States New York City, Paterson, N.J., Hamilton printing and publishing company p.301

[11] Preuss, Arthur A Dictionary of Secret and Other Societies St. Louis: B. Herder Book Co. 1924 p.137

[Stevens_p.322-12] 1 2 Stevens p.322

[13] Stevens p.321

[14] Russell L. Mahan, "William Jennings Bryan and the Presidential Campaign of 1896". White House Studies (2003). 3 (1): 41. doi : 10.2307/1917933. JSTOR 1917933.

[15] The Populist Response to Industrial America p142 Norman Pollack – 1976 "This was followed by his blistering indictment of silver: "The Free Silver movement is a fake. Free Silver is the cow-bird of the Reform movement."

[nationalsilver-16] 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Silver Tax Stamps". Mystic Stamp Discovery Center. 2017-06-19. Retrieved 2021-03-10.

[17] ttps://www.stamp-collecting-world.com/taxstamps_RG1934.html Stamp Collecting World, Silver Tax Stamps retrieved March 12, 2021

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v t e Monetary policy and central banking in the United States (pre–1913)
Monetary policy of the United States
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Civil War Era (1840–1870)	Free banking (1836–1865) Wildcat banking (1836–1865) Forstall System (1842–1865) Independent U.S. Treasury (1846–1913) Coinage Act of 1849 Three-cent silver (1851–1873) Coinage Act of 1853 New York Clearing House Association (1853–1863) Coinage Act of 1857 Demand Note (1861–1862) Legal Tender Act of 1862 United States Note (1862–1971) Fractional currency (1862–1876) National Bank Acts (1863; 1864) Interest bearing note (1863–1865) National banks system (1863–1913) National Bank Note (1863–c. 1930) Gold certificate (1863–1933) Compound interest treasury note (1863–1864) Coinage Act of 1864 Two-cent piece (1864–1873) Three-cent nickel (1865–1889) Contraction Act of 1866 Public Credit Act of 1869
2nd Industrial Revolution (1870–1914)	Legal Tender Cases Hepburn v. Griswold (1870) Currency Act of 1870 National Gold Bank Note (1870–1875) Knox v. Lee (1871) Coinage Act of 1873 Free silver Specie Payment Resumption Act (1875) Twenty-cent piece (1875–1878) Bland–Allison Act (1878) Silver certificate (1878–1964) Refunding Certificate (1879–1907) Juilliard v. Greenman (1884) Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890) Treasury Note (1890–1891) Gold Standard Act (1900) Aldrich–Vreeland Act (1908) National Monetary Commission (1909–1912) Federal Reserve Act (1913)