can someone supply me with a link to a site with accurate info on the Scandal of 1893?

GoldenEyeNumismatics

Pretty please?

MrEureka

While you're at it, send me a link to info on the Scandal of 2008!

dcamp78

Which scandal are you referring to? There were several...

GoldenEyeNumismatics

<< <i>Which scandal are you referring to? There were several... >>



I'm not really sure which one I'm referring to... Perhaps the one that played the biggest role in shutting down the CC Mint??

dcamp78

Try this

Remember, Google is your friend!!!

CaptHenway

Wasn't there also something in the early 1890's involving the Series of 1890 and 1891 Treasury or Coin Notes, which were redeemable at the Treasury in either gold or silver? As I recall, some speculators obtained a bunch using silver coins, and then demanded that the Treasury redeem them in gold. The run on gold almost exhausted the Treasury's gold reserves, and nearly bankrupted the country. This eventually led to the Panic of 1893. Nowadays we would call it a Depression.

The country survived, but was so strapped for cash that when the World's Columbian Exposition asked for a $5,000,000 federal subsidy it was only given $2,500,000. Some genius decided that if this $2,500,000 was received in the form of 5,000,000 Columbian half dollars that it could sell for $1 each, the subsidy problem would be solved. Of course, the Exposition was held during the depression year of 1893, and sales were but a small fraction of the five million coins.

TD

Writersblock

The Capt has most of it. The start of the problem was the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 that increase the government mandated purchases of silver from two million dollars worth of silver a month to 4.5 million oz of silver a month. And the silver was to be paid for with the new 1890 Treasury notes which were redeemable in either gold or silver, at the Treasury Secretary's option, on demand. (In practice though the redemption was almost always in gold.) The Treasury notes were then reissued. and just a promptly came back to the Treasury again for yet more gold. (in a book I have on the gold and silver debates of 1896, at one point it is pointed out that of all of the tens of millions of dollars worth of Coin Notes issued since 1890, less than 1% of the amount was still outstanding. The rest having been redeemed for gold.) So silver was flooding into the Treasury and gold was flowing out. By 1893 the amount of gold still in the Treasury was approaching the legally mandated minimum of 100 million dollars worth. At that point the government was obligated to cease issuing gold certificates (and possibly redeeming them) and it as it then fell through that point and it finally dropped to around 66 million and it began to look like the government might be forced to default on obligations that HAD to be paid in gold. This uncertanty had a devestating effect on the finacial markets which led to runs on banks, bank failures and a cascading effect that led to the Panic of 1893 and a depression that lasted for some three years. What finally restored confidence was a deal in 1895 between the government and J P Morgan's syndicate that guaranteed the government gold supply.