Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.

Excerpt from History of American Coinage The fourth period was from 1853 to 1873. The Act of 1853 reduced the weight of the subsidiary silver coins and limited their coinage to the pleasure of the Government, and limited their legal-tender power to five dollars, but the silver dollar was not affected by the act. The effect of this act was the abandonment of the double standard. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

"Money may seem hopelessly mundane and culturally meaningless, but it has dominated--and documented--world history since the time of the ancient Greeks. This heavily illustrated book provides a spirited account of the first coinages and their living descendants in our pockets and purses. It explains how people from Jesus to The Beatles have used numismatics to explore the social, political, economic, and religious history of the world"--