1873 - 1900

Monetary instability in the United States leading up to the gold standard

The Coinage Act of 1873 was enacted to enable the United States to gradually move from a bimet­allic system, where both gold and silver coins were in cir­cu­lation, to the gold standard. However, given the defla­tionary effects of this reform, new laws par­tially can­celed it. The debate between sup­porters of bimet­allism and sup­porters of the gold standard therefore remained open for a long time. It was only in 1900 that the Gold Standard Act enabled the United States to adopt the gold standard.