Pittman Act
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The Pittman Act was a
United States federal law The law of the United States comprises many levels of Codification (law), codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the supreme law is the nation's Constitution of the United States, Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the ...
sponsored by
Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
Key Pittman Key Denson Pittman (September 19, 1872 – November 10, 1940) was a United States senator from Nevada and a member of the Democratic Party, serving eventually as president pro tempore as well as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. ...
of
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
and enacted on April 23, 1918. The Act authorized the conversion of up to 350,000,000 standard silver dollars into
bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from ...
and its sale or use for subsidiary silver coinage, and directed purchase of domestic silver for recoinage of a like number of dollars. For each silver dollar converted into bullion, the Act also called for the temporary removal from circulation of an equivalent value of Silver Certificates. These certificates were to be temporarily replaced with a new issuance of
Federal Reserve Bank Note Federal Reserve Bank Notes are legal tender banknotes in the United States that were issued between 1915 and 1934, together with United States Notes, Silver Certificates, Gold Certificates, National Bank Notes and Federal Reserve Notes. They we ...
s, including and denominations for the first time. Under the Act, 270,232,722 standard silver dollars were converted into bullion (259,121,554 for sale to
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
at per
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ounce The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight, or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement. The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States ...
, plus mint charges, and 11,111,168 for subsidiary silver coinage), the equivalent of about 209,000,000 fine ounces of silver. Between 1920 and 1933, under the Pittman Act, the same quantity of silver was purchased from the output of American
mines Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun Mi ...
, at a fixed price of per ounce, from which 270,232,722 standard silver dollars were recoined. The fixed price of per ounce was above the market rate and acted as a federal subsidy to the
silver mining Silver mining is the extraction of silver by mining. Silver is a precious metal and holds high economic value. Because silver is often found in intimate combination with other metals, its extraction requires the use of complex technologies. In ...
industry.Burdette, R. W., ''Renaissance of American Coinage, 1916-1921'' (
Great Falls, VA Great Falls is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population at the 2020 census was 15,953. History Colonial farm settlements began to form in the area as early as the late 1700s. Early on, the village ...
: Seneca Mill Press, 2005), p. 185.
The passage of the Pittman Act led to most coins of lesser value having much lower mintages in 1921, and no mintages at all, in 1922 — echoing what happened after the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 was passed, which also resumed the coinage of silver dollars. Further provisions relating to silver coinage were contained in the Thomas Amendment to the
Agricultural Adjustment Act The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) was a United States federal law of the New Deal era designed to boost agricultural prices by reducing surpluses. The government bought livestock for slaughter and paid farmers Subsidy, subsidies not to plant ...
of 1933.


See also

*
Executive Order 6102 Executive Order 6102 is an executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the hoarding (economics), hoarding of gold coin, gold bar, gold bullion, and Gold certificate (United States), gold certificat ...
*
Executive Order 6814 On August 9, 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented the seizure of all silver situated in the continental United States with Executive Order 6814 - Requiring the Delivery of All Silver to the United States for Coinage. Executive O ...


References


External links


The Pittman Act
{{Federal Reserve System 1919 in American law United States federal currency legislation 1918 in American law