Legislation to Allow Foreign Coins as Legal Tender

Act of February 9, 1793

An act regulating foreign coins, making them legal tender, and establishing their value, etc.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the first day of July next, foreign gold and silver coins shall pass current as money within the United Sates, and be a legal tender for the payment of all debts and demands, at the several and respective rates following, and not otherwise, viz: The gold coins of Great Britain and Portugal, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains of the actual weight thereof; the gold coins of France, Spain and the dominions of Spain, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven grains and two-fifths of a grain, of the actual weight thereof. Spanish milled dollars, at the rate of one hundred cents for each dollar, the actual weight whereof shall not be less than seventeen pennyweights and seven grains; and in proportion for the parts of a dollar. Crowns of France, at the rate of one hundred and ten cents for each crown, the actual weight whereof shall not be less than eighteen pennyweight and seventeen grains, and in proportion for the parts of a crown. But no foreign coin that may have been, or shall be issued subsequent to the first day of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, shall be a tender, as aforesaid, until samples thereof shall have been found, by assay, at the Mint of the United States, to be conformable to the respective standards required, and proclamation thereof shall have been made by the President of the United States.

SEC. 2. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That at the expiration of three years next ensuing the time when the coinage of gold and silver, agreeably to the act, entitled “An act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States,” shall commence at the mint of the United States, (which time shall be announced by the proclamation of the President of the United States,) all foreign gold coins and all foreign silver coins, except Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars, shall cease to be a legal tender, as aforesaid.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That all foreign gold and silver coins, (except Spanish milled dollars, and parts of such dollars,) which shall be received in payment for monies due to the United States, after the said time, when the coining of gold and silver coins shall begin at the Mint of the United States, shall, previously to their being issued in circulation, be coined anew, in conformity to the act, entitled “An act establishing a Mint and regulating the coins of the United States.”

SEC. 4. And be if further enacted, That from and after the first day of July next, the fifty-fifth section of the act, entitled “An act to provide more effectually for the collection of the duties imposed by law on goods, wares, and merchandise imported into the United States,” which ascertains the rates at which foreign gold and silver coins shall be received for the duties and fees to be collected in virtue of the said act, be, and the same is hereby repealed.

SEC. 5. Fixes the annual time for making assays.

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