Note 427 — Chapter XI

In January, 1782, the Financier made a report, which was officially signed by him, but which Mr. Jefferson says was prepared by his Assistant, Gouverneur Morris. It embraced an elaborate statement of the denominations and comparative value of the foreign coins in circulation in the different States, and proposed the adoption of a money unit and a system of decimal notation for a new coinage. The unit suggested was such a portion of pure silver as would be a common measure of the penny of every State, without leaving a fraction. This common divisor Mr. Morris found to be one 1440th of a dollar, or one 1600th of the crown sterling. The value of a dollar was therefore to be expressed by 1,440 units, and that of a crown by 1,600, each unit containing a quarter of a grain of fine silver. Nothing, however, was done, until 1784, when Mr. Jefferson, being in Congress, took up the subject. He approved of Mr. Morris's general views, and his method of decimal notation, but objected to his unit as too minute for ordinary use. Mr. Jefferson proposed the dollar as the unit of account and payment, and that its divisions and subdivisions should be in the decimal ratio. This plan was adopted in August, 1785, and in 1786 the names and characters of the coins were determined. The ordinance establishing the coinage was passed August 8, 1786, and that establishing the mint, on the 16th of October, in the same year. (Jefferson's Autobiography, Works, I. 52-54. Life of Gouverneur Morris, I. 273. Journals of Congress, XI. 179, 254.)