EXTRACT FROM CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

Article I., Sect. 8. The Congress shall have power ... to coin money, regulate the value thereof and of foreign coins, and fix the standard of weights and measures, ... to provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States.

Article I. Sect. 2. No State shall ... coin money, emit bills of credit, make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, ...

Coinage, fiscal year 1887.

Description. Pieces. Value.

Gold 3,724,720 $22,393,279.00

Silver 44,231,288 34,366,483.75

Minor Coins 50,166,509 943,650.65

Total 98,122,517 $57,703,413.40

Total number of Coinage Dies made during the year 1887.

Gold coinage 120

Silver coinage 359

Minor coinage 684

Proof coinage 27

Bullion for the Silver Dollar Coinage, 1887.

Mode of acquisition. Standard ounces. Cost.

Purchases, Treasury Department, Bureau of the Mint 29,018,932.12 $25,624,487.37

Purchases by mint officers 282,626.95 249,150.73

Partings, bar charges and fractions 131,783.20 114,982.36

Total delivered on purchases 29,433,342.27 $25,988,620.46

Balance on hand July 1, 1886 3,258,495.66 2,960,969.02

Available for coinage of silver dollars during the fiscal year 1887 32,691,837.93 $28,949,589.48

Value of the Gold and Silver (not including re-deposits) received at the Mints and Assay Offices during the fiscal years 1880-1887.

Fiscal years. Gold. Silver. Total.

1880 $ 98,835,096 $34,640,522 $133,475,618

1881 130,833,102 30,791,146 161,624,248

1882 66,756,652 33,720,491 100,477,143

1883 46,347,106 36,869,834 83,216,940

1884 46,326,678 36,520,290 82,846,968

1885 52,894,075 36,789,774 89,683,849

1886 44,909,749 35,494,183 80,403,932

1887 68,223,072 47,756,918 115,979,990

Silver Coins of the United States.

Denominations. Coinage commenced. Coinage ceased. Amount coined to June 30, 1884. Standard weight, grains. Amount for which a legal tender.

Standard dollars 1878 $175,355,829.00 412.5 Unlimited.

Trade dollars 1873 1878 35,959,360.00 420. Not a legal tender.

Dollars 1793 1873 8,045,838.00 412.5 Unlimited.

Half dollars 1793 122,765,735.00 192.9 Ten dollars.

Quarter dollars 1796 38,495,918.75 96.45 Ten dollars.

Twenty cents 1875 1878 271,000.00 77.16 Five dollars.

Dimes 1796 18,293,172.50 38.58 Ten dollars.

Half dimes 1793 1873 4,906,946.90 19.29 Five dollars.

Three cents 1851 1873 1,281,850.20 11.52 Five dollars.

FAC-SIMILE REPRODUCTIONS OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY.

Trade-Dollars Coined, Exported, Imported, Melted, and Redeemed (Act of March 3, 1887).

Coined:

Mint at Philadelphia $5,107,024

Mint at San Francisco 26,647,000

Mint at Carson 4,211,400

$35,965,924

Exported 28,778,862

Imported 1,706,020

Net export 27,072,842

8,893,082

Melted:

As bullion. { Previous to Redemption Act $915,346

{ Excluded from redemption (mutilated pieces, etc.) 4,113

919,459

Redeemed. { Mint at Philadelphia 3,427,369

{ Mint at San Francisco 764,263

{ Mint at New Orleans 1,871

{ Assay office at New York 3,495,533

Total redeemed 7,689,036

Total melted 8,608,495

Not accounted for and not presented for redemption; employed in the arts; specimen pieces in the hands of coin collectors, carried out by emigrants, and in miscellaneous deposits of coin remelted at mints, etc. $284,587

Gross Profits on Silver Coinage in 1887.

The seignorage or immediate gross profit on the coinage of silver dollars—that is, the difference between the cost of the bullion and the nominal value of the coins—during the fiscal year 1887, was $7,923,558.61.

The seignorage on subsidiary coin manufactured during the year was $31,704.94, of which $1,130.65 was gained from the recoinage of old subsidiary coins in the Treasury.

The total seignorage on the silver coinage during the fiscal year was $7,955,263.55.

As stated in last fiscal report, the balance of silver profits remaining in the coinage mints on the 1st July, 1886, amounted to $553,201.44.

Adding to this the seignorage of the year, the total gross silver profits to be accounted for by the mints is $8,508,464.99.

Of this there was paid for expenses of distributing silver coin $35,059.03, and reimbursed for wastage and loss on sale of sweeps $20,294.88.

The seignorage on the coinage of silver at the mints of the United States from July 1, 1878, to the close of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1887, has amounted to $39,057,566.90.

Tabulated Statement of Expenditures of the Mint at Philadelphia, for the Fiscal Year ended June 30, 1887.

Items. Amount.

Acids $7,149.28

Belting 315.07

Charcoal 1,873.42

Chemicals 832.58

Coal 16,332.20

Copper 13,585.00

Crucibles, covers, stirrers, and dippers 3,712.72

Dry goods 1,198.97

Fluxes 3,560.91

Freight and drayage 252.12

Gas 4,098.78

Gloves and gauntlets 5,930.40

Hardware 957.01

Ice 613.45

Iron and steel 205.91

Labor and repairs 3,417.82

Loss on sale of sweeps 1,301.15

Lumber 2,109.74

Machinery and appliances 2,617.49

Metal work and castings 1,697.61

Oil 1,047.12

Salt 117.56

Stationery, printing and binding 773.42

Sundries 6,230.61

Telegraphing 28.87

Washing 42.67

Wood 5,432.62

Zinc 935.57

Steam-power plant 11,464.27

Manufacture of 5-cent nickel blank 19,498.50

Total 117,332.84

Salaries 40,665.69

Wages of workmen 426,593.93

Aggregate 581,597.46

Value of the Foreign Gold Coins Deposited at the United States Assay Office at New York during the Year ended June 30, 1887.

Countries of Coinage. Denominations of coin. Total of each denomination of coin. Total by countries of coinage.

Costa Rica Mixed 257.56 $257.56

France 20 francs 1,219,351.02 1,219,351.02

Germany 20 marks 179,121.67 179,121.67

Great Britain Sovereigns 1,018,036.21 1,018,036.21

Japan Yens 18,608.37 18,608.37

Mexico 20 pesos 388,668.88

” 10 pesos 1,341.64

” Doubloons 1,178.60 391,189.12

Russia 5 roubles 155,237.39

” Roubles 2,596.80

” ½ imperials 577,223.34 735,057.53

Peru 20 soles 999.82 999.82

Spain Doubloons 3,101,388.08

” Isabellines 98,151.58

” 25 pesetas 957,276.17

” Mixed 179,863.62 4,336,679.45

U. S. Colombia Cinco pesos 709.76 709.76

Total $7,900,010.51 $7,900,010.51

The total value of both gold and silver deposited and purchased at the mints of the United States during the fiscal year 1887, not including redeposits, was $115,979,991.62, and including redeposits, $131,635,811.34.

The value of the gold and silver received at the mints and assay offices during the fiscal year 1887, was greater than any previous year since 1881.