United States Statutes at Large/Volume 3/14th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 139

United States Statutes at Large, Volume 3
United States Congress
Public Acts of the Fourteenth Congress, 1st Session, Chapter 139
2623326United States Statutes at Large, Volume 3 — Public Acts of the Fourteenth Congress, 1st Session, Chapter 139United States Congress


April 29, 1816.
Chap. CXXXIX.—An Act regulating the currency within the United States, of the gold coins of Great Britain, France, Portugal, and Spain, and the crowns of France, and five-franc pieces.[1]

Act of March 3, 1819, ch. 97.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from the passage of this act and for three years thereafter, and no longer, the following 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,Regulations as to the currency. and not otherwise, videlicet: the gold coins of Great Britain and Portugal, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every seventy-seven grains, or eighty-eight cents and eight-ninths per pennyweight; the gold coins of France, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven and a half grants, or eight-seven and a quarter cents per pennyweight:Act of March 3, 1821, ch. 53. the gold coins of Spain, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-right and a half grains, or eighty-four cents per pennyweight; the crowns of France, at the rate of one hundred and seventeen cents and six-tenths per ounce, or one hundred and ten cents for each crown weighing eighteen pennyweights and seventeen grains; the five-franc pieces at the rate of one hundred and sixteen cents per ounce, or ninety-three cents and three mills for each five-franc piece, weighing sixteen pennyweights and two grains.

Assays of gold and silver currency 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 foregoing gold and silver coins, made current by this act, to be had at the mint of the United States, at least once in every year: and to make report of the result thereof to Congress.

Approved, April 29, 1816.


  1. The provisions of the acts of Congress in relation to the value of foreign coins will be found vol. i. pp. 167, 168, 300, 539, 673, 680.