Dan Hamelberg writes:

Sale 2344 Lot 144

THE DOLLAR BECOMES THE COIN OF THE LAND--SIGNED BY JEFFERSON JEFFERSON, THOMAS. An Act Establishing a Mint, and Regulating the Coins of the United States. Document Signed by Jefferson as Secretary of State. 5 printed pages on 3 disbound folio sheets, 15 x 9 3/4 inches; folds, minor dampstaining in upper right margin; uncut. [Philadelphia]: [Francis Childs and John Swaine], 2 April 1792

First printing of the coinage act, which defined the American currency system--and established the dollar as legal tender.

The ninth clause lists the denominations of coins which can be produced by the new mint. The most important was "Dollars or Units--each to be the value of a Spanish milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three hundred and seventy one grains and four sixteenths of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver." The other denominations, ranging from ten-dollar gold "Eagles" down through quarter dollars, "dismes," cents, and half cents, are all defined in relation to the dollar. The tenth clause dictates that each coin bear the word "Liberty," and that the gold and silver denominations read "United States of America" and bear an eagle on the reverse. The final clause dictates that "the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and milles or thousandths." We have operated on a decimal system ever since, although the "mille" in the third decimal place fell by the wayside very quickly.

The act also authorizes the hiring of a director, assayer, chief coiner, engraver, and treasurer, and sets the salaries for each. Other provisions have been superseded by later acts. For example, we private citizens can no longer bring our own bullion to be minted into coins.

This printing is certified with the signature of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson at the bottom of the final page. It is also signed in type by Jonathan Trumbull as Speaker of the House, John Adams as Vice President, and George Washington as President. The act is printed on paper made by Henry Schutz in Pennsylvania, with his "HS Sandy Run" watermark--the same paper favored by George Washington for his private correspondence (see Gravell, American Watermarks 164 and image 308).

Evans 24886. Copies traced at only two institutions in ESTC and OCLC, neither of them signed; no complete signed copies known at auction since at least 1917. This may be the only extant complete signed copy.

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