A Chronology of Important Events in the Monetary History of the United States of America

1690: The Colony of Massachusetts emits the first "bills of credit" (money substitutes in the form of paper currency) in the British Empire. (Image: see Money, page 53.)

1692: Massachusetts declares her "bills of credit" a legally recognized (as valid) currency.

1704: Queen Anne declares the silver Spanish milled dollar coin to be the standard for all foreign silver coins in the Colonies.

1712 - 1751: The Colonies emit various "bills of credit," some legally recognized and some not. Most of these paper currencies are redeemable in silver or gold.

1751: Parliament requires New England "bills of credit" to be called in, and no new emissions of paper currency to be made, with limited exceptions.

1764: Parliament extends the statute of 1751 to all the Colonies, outlawing the emission of legally recognized "bills of credit."

1773: Parliament allows Colonial "bills of credit" to be used to discharge obligations to the public treasuries, but not legally recognized as valid in other transactions.

1775 - 1779: The Continental Congress authorizes emission of "bills of credit" in the form of the paper "Continental Currency." The States then legally recognize the Continental Currency as valid for the discharge of private obligations. Alexander Hamilton, after contacts with European bankers who were visiting Canada, proposes a strictly non-redeemable paper currency for the United States. The idea is summarily rejected by the Continental Congress. However, Hamilton’s advocacy, using the bankers’ misleading terminology, may have begun public confusion about monetary concepts and monetary words and phrases.

1780: The Continental Congress reduces the specie backing of Continental Currency to one fortieth (1/40th) of its par value, and calls upon the States to repeal their laws recognizing paper currency as acceptable for discharging obligations.

1776 - 1786: President George Washington privately expresses grave concern about a new and growing secret society in Europe. On the recommendation of Thomas Jefferson inter alia, the Continental Congress adopts the silver Spanish milled dollar coin, the dolaro, as the monetary unit of the United States.

1787: The United States Constitution gives Congress the power "To coin Money, and regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign coin," withholds from Congress the power to "emit bills," prohibits the States from "coin[ing] Money; emit[ting] Bills of Credit; [or] mak[ing] any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts," and refers specifically to the silver coin weighed in "dollar" units.

1791: Congress creates the first Bank of the United States as a private corporation empowered to emit paper currency that is not legally recognized for discharge of obligations.

1792: The ("Mint") Act of April 2, the first US coinage act, defines the "dollar" coin as one containing 371.25 grains of fine silver, declares the "dollar" weight the unit of the monetary system, and creates a set of gold coins ("Eagles") valued (weighed) in "dollars" of silver.

1793 - 1843: Congress declares various foreign silver and gold coins to be legally recognized for their values (weights) in precious metals.

1811: Congress refuses to renew the charter of the first Bank of the United States, which then ceases operations.

1816: Congress creates the second Bank of the United States as a private corporation empowered to emit paper currency, but without legal recognition of its character.

1826?: US President John Adams (1735-1826) said: “All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise ... from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”

1831: President Andrew Jackson vetoes extension of the charter of the second Bank of the United States. Within a few years, the bank fails and ceases operations.

1834: Congress reduces the gold content of the "Eagle" [coin] in order to properly "regulate [its] Value [weight and purity]" as against (in terms of the weight and purity of) the constitutional (silver) dollar coin.

1848: A small group of wealthy Britons hire Karl Marx to pen a how-to manual for a new “socialist” world order: The Communist Manifesto.

1849: Congress creates the first statutory "gold dollar" coin, "regulate[d in] Value" as against (in terms of the market value of the weight and purity of) the constitutional silver dollar coin.

1853: Congress creates subsidiary silver coinage–fifty cents, twenty-five cents, and ten cents–with limited legal recognition of its character.

1857: Congress repeals the legal recognition of the character of foreign silver and gold coins.

1861: Congress authorizes emission of Treasury Notes payable on demand, but without legal recognition of their character. These paper currencies are the first governmental "bills of credit" since the War of Independence. The US issues its first paper currency, the United States Note, the “Greenback.” (Image: see Money, page 59.)

1862 - 1863: Congress authorizes emission of Treasury Notes with legally recognized character but suspends redemption of those Notes in gold. In 1862, the US issues a new design of its United States Note paper currency, the first official display of the the illogical phrase, “A LEGAL TENDER.” The phrase soon becomes a vulgarism. (Image: see Money, page 76.)

1863: Congress creates private corporations known as "national banks" and empowered to emit paper currency ("National Currency") on the security of ("backed" by) United States bonds. (Image: see Money, page 74.)

1869: Congress pledges to redeem the United States Notes ("Greenbacks") "at the earliest practicable period."

1870: The US Supreme Court in Hepburn v. Griswold declares the legally recognized Treasury Notes unconstitutional.

1871: The US Supreme Court in the "Legal-Tender Cases" (Knox v. Lee) overrules Hepburn v. Griswold and declares (legally recognized) Treasury Notes constitutional as a war measure.

1873: Congress purports to "demonetize" the constitutional silver dollar coin by terminating its mintage, and to declare the gold dollar coin the standard of value.

1875: Congress provides for the redemption of the United States Notes ("Greenbacks") in gold coin (the "resumption of specie payments").

1878: Congress provides for resumption of minting of constitutional (silver) dollar coins.

1880: Proponents of a new “socialist” world order begin arriving in the US from Europe, to promote “populism” and to found the “Populist Party.”

1882: “Skull and Bones,” a secret society, is established at Yale University.

1884: The US Supreme Court in Juilliard v. Greenman declares the emission of (legally recognized) Treasury Notes to be constitutional during times of peace as well as [times] of war. (Image: see Money, page 68.)

1893: Congress declares it the policy of the United States "to continue the use of both gold and silver [coin] as standard money, and to coin both gold and silver into money of equal intrinsic and exchangeable [market] value."

1900: Congress declares the "gold dollar" coin the standard of [market] value, and orders that all forms of money of the United States be maintained at a parity with it.

1907: The United States issues its first gold certificate. It does not display the “a legal tender” vulgarism. (Image: see Money, page 72.)

1910: Seven wealthy men meet secretly at the Jekyll Island Club, in Georgia, to draft what will become the basis of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.

1913: Congress creates the Federal Reserve System, gives it license to emit a paper currency (Federal Reserve Notes redeemable in gold) that will be an "obligation of the United States" but will not have legally recognized character. Federal Reserve Notes must be backed with a 40% gold reserve, an illogical requirement.

1914: The first Federal Reserve Note currency is issued. It does not show the “A LEGAL TENDER” vulgarism. (Image: see Money, page 73.)

1922: The new design of the US gold certificates displays the “A LEGAL TENDER” vulgarism, the first display of the vulgarism on a US gold certificate. (Image: see Money, page 77.)

1928: The newest design of the US gold certificates displays the “A LEGAL TENDER” vulgarism. (Image: see Money, page 81.)

1933: By Executive Order, President Franklin Roosevelt closes the country's banks and prohibits US citizens from "hoarding" (keeping) their own (privately-owned) gold.

1933: Congress authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to confiscate US citizen’s privately-owned gold.

1933: Congress outlaws all provisions of private and public contracts that call for payment in gold ("gold-clause contracts").

1934: Congress claims title to all monetary (coined) gold in the United States.

1934: With the issuance of the newest gold certificates, the US now has eight different types of paper currency in circulation: (Images in Money at [page number]) 1. US Notes [59, 71] , 2. US Fractional Currency [61], 3. Silver Certificates [65 et seq], 4. Gold Certificates [72 et seq], 5. Gold Coin Certificates [64 et seq], 6. Silver Dollar (coin) Certificates [65 et seq], 7. National Currency [70 et seq], and 8. Treasury Notes [63 et seq]. Only the US Notes display the “A LEGAL TENDER” vulgarism.

1934: The newest design of the US gold certificates displays the new “LEGAL TENDER” vulgarism. Few people notice that the usual preceding “A” word is missing. These gold certificates are exclusively for use in transactions between the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve System. (Image: see Money, page 81.)

1935: The US Supreme Court in the Gold-Clause Cases essentially upholds the Congressional prohibition and repudiation of gold-clause contracts, but does so without passing on [considering] the constitutionality of the 1933 - 1934 seizure of US citizen’s privately-owned gold.

1944: The Bretton Woods Agreement creates the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and effectively makes Federal Reserve Notes the world's reserve currency.

1946: President Harry Truman fires Treasury Department economist Harry Dexter White as a Soviet agent but does and says nothing about White’s two major “offspring,” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. [Nothing is ever said or done about these entities by the US Democrat or Republican political parties.]

1950: The final quasi-legitimate Federal Reserve Note is issued. (Image: see Money, page 88.)

1953 - 1971: The United States' reserves of gold–most stored at Fort Knox, Kentucky–are depleted by nearly 300 million ounces, about half its total holdings, in redemption of Federal Reserve Notes by “foreign” financial institutions.

1963: The first Federal Reserve credit token (FRT) is issued. The entire “AND IS REDEEMABLE IN LAWFUL MONEY…” phrase is removed. (Image: see Money, page 92.)

1964: The US Mint ends manufacture of US coinage that complies with the letter, spirit, and intent of the US Constitution and the Act of April 2, 1792, meaning the Mint no longer manufactures “lawful money of the United States.”

1965: Congress reduces the illogical gold-reserve requirement for “Federal Reserve Notes” from 40% to 25%.

1965: Congress suspends minting the constitutional silver dollar coin and subsidiary coin and begins minting debased “silver” coins and minor coins [nickel and cent] containing only base metals. These coins are the first industrial-metal credit tokens manufactured by the US Mint.

1967 - 1968: Congress repudiates redemption of silver certificates in silver coin (and in silver bullion and plate).

1968: Congress removes the illogical 25% gold-reserve requirement for Federal Reserve Notes.

1970: Congress authorizes minting of a purported "dollar" coin composed entirely of base metals, rather than silver or gold.

1971: President Richard Nixon terminates redemption of Federal Reserve Notes in gold for “foreign” financial institutions. Federal Reserve Notes and Federal Reserve Tokens become completely fiat paper currencies.

1998: "Trial balloons" call for creation of a global Federal Reserve System, ostensibly to help prevent monetary upheavals such as those seen recently in Asia, South America, Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia.

1999: The world’s central banks announce that they plan to sell their inventories of gold, saying that gold no longer serves a monetary purpose and the banks no longer want to endure the expense of storing gold. In terms of Federal Reserve tokens and other fiat currencies, the market valuation of gold declines to its lowest price in decades.

2006: The Federal Reserve System stops publishing its M3 money supply statistic, considered by many as the easiest way to monitor inflation.

2009: Europe’s top banker in 1732, Meyer Amschel Rothschild, is quoted as saying, “Let me control a nation’s supply of money and credit, and I care not who makes its laws.”

It looks as though Rothschild’s dream may have become reality–for the entire world.

Has the nightmare begun?

[Images of United States legitimate and illegitimate gold and silver coins, and “Mormon” church and private California gold coins, may be seen in Money, page 95 et seq.]

In 1999, almost all units of measure for the physical world are traceable to the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), formerly the National Bureau of Standards, Bethesda, Maryland, or to its equivalent organization in Paris, France.

For example, a yard is exactly 36 inches, there are 39.37 inches in a meter, and the meter is the length of a certain number of wavelengths of the natural resonant frequency of a hydrogen atom. The meter is easily reproduced in accuracies of plus or minus one millionth of an inch. Everyone in the world agrees to abide by this fixed length of a meter, and of every other length unit linked to the meter (such as foot, furlong, yard, fathom, etc.).

Also, one ampere of electrical current is the flow of one coulomb of electrical charge, 6.241506 x 10¹⁸ electrons, past a point in a conductor in one second, where one second is precisely established as a certain number of vibrations of a cesium atom at a certain temperature. Everyone in the world agrees to abide by this fixed measurement of an ampere, and of every other unit of electrical measure (volt, ohm, watt, etc.) linked to the ampere.

More importantly, a dollar of silver is 371.25 grains of pure silver, and the term grain is traceable to the NIST as a finite, accurately measured part of a kilogram, a mass in the form of a billet of metal at NIST and in Paris. Scales, balances, and other weight measuring equipment are calibrated to this billet in an environment where the temperature and pressure are tightly controlled. Everyone around the world agrees to abide by this fixed measurement of a kilogram, and of an ounce, pound, grain, and every other unit of mass linked to the kilogram.

Until 1968, a person owning a US Five-Dollar bill could present it to the United States Treasury in Washington, DC, or to any Federal Reserve Bank, and it would be redeemed in five dollars of silver coin, which in aggregate would be about 1,856.25 grains of pure silver. The grain, as a unit of weight, is traceable to the NIST and its counterpart entity in Paris. A cube of pure silver weighing 1,856.25 grains would be about 0.70 inches on a side and would weigh about 3.85 ounces or about a quarter of a pound avoirdupois.

Today, however, no longer is any unit of currency in the United States or elsewhere defined in terms of a physical thing, nor is any unit of currency traceable to either NIST or to its sister organization in Paris.

Today, none of the world's monetary units are defined rationally.

Indeed, of all the world's units of measure of physical things today, only monetary units are not traceable to NIST.

For example, in many dictionaries today, the US monetary unit dollar is defined as 100 cents and the US cent is defined as one hundredth (1/100th) of a dollar. These circular “definitions” are irrational because they do not link either dollar or cent to an absolute–something real such as an ounce of pure silver–at the NIST or its Paris counterpart.

For this reason, nobody can possibly know from one day to the next what the term dollar is or means. On the other hand, the purchasing power of the US dollar monetary unit is determined by a small number of people who do not permit anyone else to learn that value until long after they decide what it is to be. That advance knowledge of dollar's purchasing power gives that small number persons a phenomenal investment advantage. Do certain investment bankers have a cozy “private” relationship with these persons?

Also, were these irrational definitions of dollar and cent created by semi-skilled, low-level, and low-paid clerical workers, or were they created by highly skilled, high-level and highly-paid lawyers?

For what purpose were these irrational definitions created?

Who benefits from public confusion or ignorance of these irrational definitions?

Is anyone harmed by these irrational definitions? Have you and your family and your friends been harmed by them? Is the harm continuing?

Are these irrational definitions examples of dishonest weights and measures?

The paragraphs above were developed jointly as a public service by the National Alliance for Constitutional Money, Inc., Manassas, Virginia, and Principia Publishing, Inc., Seattle, Washington. NACM president Edwin Vieira, Jr., Ph.D., J.D., is author of Pieces of Eight: The Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the United States Constitution. PPI president James E. Ewart is author of Money: Ye Shall Have Honest Weights and Measures. For more information, please contact NACM or PPI.