the said mint, on the last Monday in July in each year) or under the inspection of any three of them, in such manner as they or a majority of them shall direct, and in the presence of the director, assayer and chief coiner of the said mint; and if it shall be found that the gold and silver so assayed shall not be inferior to their respective standards herein before declared more than one part in one hundred and fortyfour parts, the officer or officers of the said mint whom it may concern shall be held excusable; but if any greater inferiority shall appear, it shall be certified to the president of the united states, and the said officer or officers shall be deemed disqualified to hold their respective offices. [Altered, see postea 27 and 42.]

19. SECT. XIX. If any of the gold or silver coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint, shall be debased or made worse as to the proportion of fine gold or fine silver therein contained, or shall be of less weight or value than the same ought to be pursuant to the directions of this act, through the default or with the connivance of any of the officers or persons who shall be employed at the said mint, for the purpose of profit or gain, or otherwise with a fraudulent intent, and if any of the said officers or persons shall embezzle any of the metals which shall at any time be committed to their charge for the purpose of being coined, or any of the coins which shall be struck or coined at the said mint, every such officer or person who shall commit any or either of the said offences, shall be deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death.

20. SECT. XX. The money of account of the united states shall be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and milles or thousandths, a disme being the tenth part of a collar, a cent the hundredth part of a dollar, a mille the thousandth part of a dol lar; and all accounts in the public offices, and all proceedings in the courts of the united states, shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation.

ACT of May 8, 1792. (Vol. II. p. 120.)

21. SECT. I. The director of the mint, with the approbation of the president of the united states, shall be authorized to contract for and purchase a quantity of copper, not exceeding one hundred and fifty tons, and the said director, as soon as the needful preparations shall be made, shall cause the copper by him purchased to be coined at the mint into cents and half cents, pursuant to "the act establishing a mint, and regulating the coins of the united states ;" and the said cents and half cents, as they shall be coined, shall be paid into the treasury of the united states, thence to issue into circulation.

22. SECT. II. After the expiration of six calendar months from the time when there shall have been paid into the treasury by the said director, in cents and half cents, a sum not less than fifty thousand dollars, which time shall forthwith be announced by the treasurer in at least two gazettes or newspapers, published at the seat of the govern ment of the united states for the time being, no copper coins or pieces whatsoever, except the said cents and half cents, shall pass current as

money, or shall be paid, or offered to be paid or received in payment for any debt, demand, claim, matter or thing whatsoever; and all copper coins or pieces, except the said cents and half cents, which shall be paid or offered to be paid or received in payment contrary to the prohibition aforesaid, shall be forfeited, and every person by whom any of them shall have been so paid or offered to be paid or received in payment, shall also forfeit the sum of ten dollars, and the said forseiture and penalty shall and may be recovered with costs of suit for the benefit of any person or persons by whom information of the incurring thereof shall have been given.

ACT of January 14, 1793. (Vol. II. p. 158.)

23. Every cent shall contain two hundred and eight grains of copper, and every half cent shall contain one hundred and four grains of copper; and so much of the act, entitled "An act establishing a mint, and regulating the coins of the united states," as respects the weight of cents and half cents, shall be, and the same is hereby repealed. [See antea 9, and postea 36.]

ACT of February 9, 1793. (Vol. II. p. 161.)

24. SECT. I. From and after the first day of July next, foreign gold and silver coins shall pass current as money within the united states, and be a legal tender for the payment of all debts and demands, at the several and respective rates following, and not otherwise, viz. The gold coins of Great-Britain and Portugal, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains of the actual weight thereof; the gold coins of France, Spain and the dominions of Spain, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains and two fifths of a grain, of the actual weight thereof. Spanish milled dollars, at the rate of one hundred cents. for each dollar, the actual weight whereof shall not be less than seventeen penny weights and seven grains; and in proportion for the parts of a dollar. Crowns of France, at the rate of one hundred and ten cents, for each crown, the actual weight whereof, shall not be less than eighteen penny weights and seventeen grains, and in proportion for the parts of a crown. But no foreign coin that may have been, or shall be issued subsequent to the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, shall be a tender, as aforesaid, until samples thereof shall have been found, by assay, at the mint of the united states, to be conformable to the respective standards required, and proclamation thereof shall have been made by the president of the united states. [Sec Duties, collection of, 61.]

25. SECT. II. Provided always, That at the expiration of three years next ensuing the time when the coinage of gold and silver, agreeably to the act, entitled, "An act establishing a mint, and regulating the coins of the united states,"* shall commence at the mint of the united states, (which time shall be announced by the proclamation of the pre

See the first act under this head.

sident of the united states) all foreign gold coins, and all foreign silver coins, except Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars, shall cease to be a legal tender, as aforesaid. [See postea 38.]

26. SECT. III. All foreign gold and silver coins, (except Spanish milled dollars, and parts of such dollars) which shall be received in payment for monies due to the united states, after the said time, when the coining of gold and silver coins shall begin at the mint of the united states, shall, previously to their being issued in circulation, be coined anew, in conformity to the act, entitled "An act establishing a mint and regulating the coins of the united states.”

SECT. IV. repeals part of another act.

27. SECT. V. The assay, provided to be made by the act, entitled, "An act establishing a mint, and regulating the coins of the united states," shall commence in the manner as by the said act is prescribed, on the second Monday of February, annually, any thing in the said að to the contrary notwithstanding. [See antea 18, and postea 42.]

ACT of March 3, 1794. (Vol. III. p. 7.)

28. SECT. I. From and after the passing this act, it shall be the duty of the treasurer of the mint, to receive and give receipts for all metals which may lawfully be brought to the mint to be coined; and for the purpose of ascertaining their respective qualities, shall deliver from every parcel so received, a sufficient number of grains to the assayer, who shall assay all such of them as may require it. And the said treasurer shall from time to time deliver the said metals to the chief coiner to be coined in such quantities as the director of the mint may prescribe.

29. Sect. II. The assayer and chief coiner of the mint, previous to entering upon the execution of their respective offices shall each be come bound to the united states of America with one or more sureties to the satisfaction of the secretary of the treasury, the said assayer in the sum of one thousand dollars, and the said chief coiner in the sum of five thousand dollars, with condition for the faithful and diligent performance of the duties of his office.

SECT. III. is a repealing clause.

ACT of March 3, 1795. (Vol. III. p. 221.)

30. SECT. I. For the better conducting of the business of the mint of the united states, there shall be an additional officer appointed therein, by the name of the melter and refiner, whose duty shall be to take charge of all copper, and silver or gold bullion, delivered out by the treasurer of the mint after it has been assayed, agreeably to the rules and customs of the mint already directed and established, or which may hereafter be directed and established, by the accounting officers of the treasury, and to reduce the same into bars or ingots fit for the rolling mills, and then to deliver them to the coiner or treasurer, as the director shall judge expedient; and to do and perform all other duties belonging to the office of the melter and refines, or which shall be ordered by the director of the mint.

31. SECT. II. The melter and refiner of the said mint, shall, before he enters upon the execution of his said office, take an oath or affirmation before some judge of the united states, faithfully and diligently to perform the duties thereof. And also shall become bound to the united states of America, with one or more suretics, to the satisfaction of the secretary of the treasury, in the sum of six thousand dollars, with condition for the faithful and diligent performance of the several duties of his office.

32. SECT. III. There shall be allowed and paid to the said melter and refiner of the mint, as a compensation for his services, the yearly salary of fifteen hundred dollars.

SECT. IV. Temporary.

33. SECT. V. The treasurer of the mint shall, and he is hereby directed, to retain two cents per ounce from every deposit of silver bullion below the standard of the united states, which hereafter shall be made for the purpose of refining and coining; and four cents per ounce from every deposit of gold bullion made as aforesaid, below the standard of the united states, unless the same shall be so far below the standard as to require the operation of the test; in which case, the treasurer shall retain six cents per ounce, which sum so retained shall be accounted for by the said treasurer with the treasury of the united states, as a compensation for melting and refining the same. [Sec fostea 40.]

34. SECT. VI. The treasurer of the mint shall not be obliged to receive from any person, for the purpose of refining and coining, any deposit of silver bullion, below the standard of the united states, in a smaller quantity than two hundred ounces; nor a like deposit of gold bullion below the said standard, in a smaller quantity than twenty

ounces.

35. SECT. VII. From and after the passing of this act, it shall and may be lawful for the officers of the mint to give a preference to silver or gold bullion, deposited for coinage, which shall be of the standard of the united states, so far as respects the coinage of the same, although bullion below the standard, and not yet refined, may have been deposited for coinage, previous thereto, any law to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, That nothing herein shall justify the officers of the mint, or any one of them, in unnecessarily delaying the refining any silver or gold bullion below standard, that may be deposited, as aforesaid.

36. SECT. VIII. The president of the united states shall be, and he is hereby authorized, whenever he shall think it for the benefit of the united states, to reduce the weight of the copper coin of the united states: Provided, such reduction shall not, in the whole, exceed two penny weights in each cent, and in the like proportion in a half cent; of which he shall give notice by proclamation, and communicate the same to the then next session of congress.

37. SECT. IX. It shall be the duty of the treasurer of the united states, from time to time, as often as he shall receive copper cents and half cents from the treasurer of the mint, to send them to the bank or branch banks of the united states, in each of the states where such bank

is established; and where there is no bank established, then to the collector of the principal town in such state (in the proportion of the number of inhabitants of such state) to be by such bank or collector, paid out to the citizens of the state for cash, in sums not less than ten dollars value; and the same shall be done at the risk and expense of the united states, under such regulations as shall be prescribed by the department of the treasury.

ACT of February 1, 1798. (Vol. IV. p. 62.)

38. The second section of an act, entitled, "An act regulating foreign coins; and for other purposes," shall be, and the same is hereby suspended, for and during the space of three years, from and after the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, and until the end of the next session of congress thereafter, during which time, the said gold and silver coins shall be and continue a legal tender, as is provided in and by the first section of the act aforesaid; and the same coins shall thereafter cease to be such tender. [See antea 25, and postea 43.]

ACT of April 24, 1800. (Vol. V. p. 127.)

39. SECT. I. A sum equal to the amount of the cents and half cents, which shall have been coined at the mint, and delivered to the treasurer of the united states, subsequent to the third day of March, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine, shall be, and the same is hereby appropriated for the purchase of copper for the further coinage of cents and half cents; and a sum equal to the amount of cents and half cents, which shall be hereafter coined at the mint, and delivered to the treasurer of the united states in any one year, shall be, and the same is hereby appropriated for the annual purchase of copper for the coinage of cents and half cents, which sums shall be payable out of any monies in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

40. SECT. II. There shall be retained from every deposit in the mint, of gold or silver bullion below the standard of the united states, such sum as shall be equivalent to the expense incurred in refining the same, and an accurate account of such expense on every such deposit shall be kept, and of the sums retained on account of the same, which shall be accounted for by the treasurer of the mint, with the treasury of the united states. [See antea 33.]

ACT of March 3, 1801. (Vol. V. p. 279.)

41. SECT. I. The mint shall remain in the city of Philadelphia, until the fourth day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and three.

42. Sect. II. During the continuance of the mint at the city of Philadelphia, the duties now enjoined on the chief justice of the united states, the secretary and comptroller of the treasury, the secretary for the department of state, and the attorney general of the united states, by the eighteenth section of the act, entitled, " An act establishing a mint and regulating the coins of the united states," passed the second day