Act June 8, 1872.

That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to receive United States notes on deposit without interest from banking associations, and to issue certificates therefor. The certificates issued may be held and counted by national banks as part of their reserve.

That nothing contained in this act shall be construed to authorize any expansion or contraction of the currency; and the United States notes for which such certificates are issued, or other United States notes of like amount, shall be held as special deposits in the treasury and used only for the redemption of such certificates.

Act December 17, 1873.

That for the purpose of redeeming the bonds called the loan of 1858, it is hereby declared to be the pleasure of the United States to pay all the coupon bonds of said loan on the first day of January, 1874. That the Secretary of the Treasury may issue an equal amount at par of principal and interest of five per cent bonds of the funded loan under the act for refunding the national debt, approved January 20, 1871, for any of the bonds of the loan of 1858, which the holders thereof may, on or before the 1st of February, 1874, elect to exchange.

Specie Resumption Act of January 14, 1875.

§ 1. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and required, as rapidly as practicable, to cause to be coined at the mints of the United States, silver coins of the denominations of ten, twenty-five and fifty cents, of standard value, and to issue them in redemption of an equal number and amount of fractional currency of similar denominations, or, at his discretion, he may issue such silver coins through the mints, the subtreasuries, public depositories and post-offices of the United States; and upon such issue he is hereby authorized and required to redeem an equal amount of such fractional currency until the whole amount of such fractional currency outstanding shall be redeemed.

§ 2. That so much of section 3524 of the Revised Statutes of the United States as provides for a charge of one sixth of one per centum for converting standard gold bullion into coin is hereby repealed, and hereafter no charge shall be made for that service.

§ 3. That section 5777 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, limiting the aggregate amount of the circulating notes of the national banking associations, be, and is hereby, repealed, and

each existing banking association may increase its circulating notes in accordance with the existing law, without respect to said aggregate limit; and new banking associations may be organized in accordance with the existing law, without respect to the aggregate limit; and the provisions of the law for the withdrawal and redistribution of national-bank currency among the several States and Territories are hereby repealed; and whenever and so often as circulating notes shall be issued to any such banking association, so increasing its capital or circulating notes, or so newly organized as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to redeem the legal-tender United States notes in excess only of $300,000,000 to the amount of eighty per centum of the sum of nationalbank notes so issued to any such banking association as aforesaid, and to continue such redemption as such circulating notes are issued until there shall be outstanding the sum of $300,000,000 of such legal-tender United States notes, and no more. And on and after the 1st day of January, A.D. 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury shall redeem in coin the United States legal-tender notes then outstanding on their presentation for redemption at the office of the assistant treasurer of the United States, in the city of New York, in sums of not less than $50. And to enable the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and provide for the redemption in this act authorized or required, he is authorized to use any surplus revenues from time to time in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to issue, sell and dispose of, at not less than par in coin, either of the description of bonds of the United States described in the act of Congress approved July 14, 1870, entitled "An act to authorize the refunding of the national debt," with like privileges and exemptions, to the extent necessary to carry this act into effect, and to use the proceeds thereof for the purposes aforesaid. And all provisions of law inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

Subsidiary Silver Coin Law, Joint Resolution of Congress July 13, 1876.

§ 1. That the Secretary of the Treasury, under such limits and regulations as will best secure a just and fair distribution of the same through the country, may issue the silver coin at any time in the treasury, to an amount not exceeding $10,000,000, in exchange for an equal amount of legal-tender notes, and notes so received in exchange shall be kept as a special fund, separate and apart from all other money in the treasury, and be issued only upon the retirement

and destruction of a like sum of fractional currency received at the treasury in payment of dues to the United States, and said fractional currency, when so substituted, shall be destroyed and held as part of the sinking fund, as provided in the act approved April 17, 1876.

§ 2. That the trade dollar shall not hereafter be a legal tender, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to limit from time to time the coinage thereof to such an amount as he may deem sufficient to meet the export demand for the same.

§ 3. That in addition to the amount of subsidiary silver coin authorized by law to be issued in redemption of the fractional currency, it shall be lawful to manufacture at the several mints, and issue through the treasury and its several offices, such coin to an amount that, including the amount of subsidiary silver coin and of fractional currency outstanding, shall in the aggregate not exceed at any time $50,000,000.

§ 4. That the silver bullion required for the purposes of this act shall be purchased from time to time at the market rate by the Secretary of the Treasury with any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, but no purchase of bullion shall be made under this resolution when the market rate for the same shall be such as will not admit of the coinage and issue as herein provided without loss to the treasury, and any gain or seigniorage arising from this coinage shall be accounted for and paid into the treasury as provided under existing laws relative to subsidiary coinage, provided that the amount of money at any time invested in such silver bullion, exclusive of such resulting coin, shall not exceed $200,000.

NATIONAL BANKS AND BANK CURRENCY.

LAWS IN FORCE AUGUST, 1876.

HE following compilation embraces all the laws in

THE

force August, 1876, governing the organization and management of national banks and the issue and redemption of national-bank currency, under the following heads, viz.:

Chapter I. Organization and Powers of National Banks.

II. Obtaining and Issuing Circulating Notes.

III. Regulation of the Banking Business.

IV. Dissolution and Receivership.

V. Tax on Circulation and on Bank Checks.

VI. Crimes and Misdemeanors.

VII. Interest Laws.

The numbers of the sections are the same as in the Revised Statutes.

CHAPTER I.

ORGANIZATION AND POWERS OF NATIONAL BANKS.

of national

associations.

(SEC. 5133.) Associations for carrying on the business Formation of banking under this title may be formed by any num- banking ber of natural persons, not less in any case than five. They shall enter into articles of association, which shall specify in general terms the object for which the association is formed, and may contain any other provisions, not inconsistent with law, which the association may see fit to adopt for the regulation of its business and the conduct of its affairs. These articles shall be signed by

Articles of tion.

associa

Organization certificate.

Name of association.

Place of business.

Capital stock.

Shareholders.

Object of certificate.

Acknowledgment of organization certificate.

Corporate powers of associations.

2 Abb.,U.S., 416.

Seal.

Succession.

the persons uniting to form the association, and a copy of them shall be forwarded to the Comptroller of the Currency, to be filed and preserved in his office.

(SEC. 5134.) The persons uniting to form such an association shall, under their hands, make an organization certificate, which shall specifically state:

First. The name assumed by such association; which name shall be subject to the approval of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Second. The place where its operations of discount and deposit are to be carried on, designating the State, Territory, or district, and the particular county and city, town, or village.

Third. The amount of capital stock and the number of shares into which the same is to be divided.

Fourth. The names and places of residence of the shareholders, and the number of shares held by each of them.

Fifth. The fact that the certificate is made to enable such persons to avail themselves of the advantages of this title.

(SEC. 5135.) The organization certificate shall be acknowledged before a judge of some court of record, or notary public; and shall be, together with the acknowledgment thereof, authenticated by the seal of such court, or notary, transmitted to the Comptroller of the Currency, who shall record and carefully preserve the same in his office.

(SEC. 5136.) Upon duly making and filing articles of association and an organization certificate, the association shall become, as from the date of the execution of its organization certificate, a body corporate, and as such, and in the name designated in the organization certificate, it shall have power:

First. To adopt and use a corporate seal.

Second. To have succession for the period of twenty years from its organization, unless it is sooner dissolved according to the provisions of its articles of association, or by the act of its shareholders owning two-thirds of its stock, or unless its franchise becomes forfeited by some violation of law.