Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/746

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said gold coins shall be receivable in all payments, when of full weight, according to their respective values; and when of less than full weight, at less values, proportioned to their respective actual weights.

Gold and silver deposited for coinage to be paid for within five days.
Proviso.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all standard gold or silver deposited for coinage after the thirty-first of July next, shall be paid for in coin under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, within five days from the making of such deposit, deducting from the amount of said deposit of gold and silver one-half of one per centum: Provided, That no deduction shall be made unless said advance be required by such depositor within forty days.

Rate at which gold coin shall be receivable.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That all gold coins of the United States, minted anterior to the thirty-first day of July next, shall be receivable in all payments at the rate of ninety-four and eight-tenths of a cent per pennyweight.

Gold coins to be set apart for assay.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the better to secure a conformity of the said gold coins to their respective standards as aforesaid, from every separate mass of standard gold which shall be made into coins at the said mint, there shall be taken, set apart by the treasurer and reserved in his custody, a certain number of pieces, not less than three, and that once in every year the pieces so set apart and reserved shall be assayed under the inspection of the officers, and at the time, and in the manner now provided by law, and, if it shall be found that the gold so assayed, shall not be inferior to the said standard hereinbefore declared, more than one part in three hundred and eighty-four in fineness, and one part in five hundred in weight, 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 if he shall so decide, the said officer or officers shall be thereafter disqualified to hold their respective offices:Proviso. Provided, That if, in making any delivery of coin at the mint in payment of a deposit, the weight thereof shall be found defective, the officer concerned shall be responsible to the owner for the full weight, if claimed at the time of delivery.

Act to be in force after July 31, 1834.Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That this act shall be in force from and after the thirty-first day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.

Approved, June 28, 1834.

Statute Ⅰ.



June 28, 1834.
Chap. XCVI.—An Act regulating the value of certain foreign gold coins within the United States.[1]

Act of June 25, 1834, ch. 71.
Rates at which gold coins shall be receivable after July 31, 1834.
Coins of Great Britain, Portugal, and Brazil.
France.
Spain, Mexico, and Colombia.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, from and after the thirty-first day of July next, the following gold coins shall pass as current as money within the United States, and be receivable in all payments, by weight, for the payment of all debts and demands, at the rates following, that is to say: the gold coins of Great Britain, Portugal, and Brazil, of not less than twenty-two carats fine, at the rate of ninety-four cents and eight-tenths of a cent per pennyweight; the gold coins of France nine-tenths fine, at the rate of ninety-three cents and one-tenth of a cent per pennyweight; and the gold coins of Spain, Mexico, and Colombia, of the fineness of twenty carats three grains and seven-sixteenths of a grain, at the rate of eighty-nine cents and nine-tenths of a cent per pennyweight.

Annual assays to be made.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to cause assays of the aforesaid gold coins,

  1. Notes of the acts which have been passed relative to foreign coins, vol. ii. p. 374.