Older collectors will well remember the problems of the mid-1960s when coins were in short supply and silver coins were being sold for a profit to bullion dealers. Within a reasonably short time the problem was under control with the great amounts of “sandwich” coins being struck by the mints beginning in 1965.
There was a similar crisis in the mid-19th century, but that one took time to solve. It all began, oddly enough, with the discovery of gold in California in early 1848. Within a matter of months, great quantities of the yellow metal were finding their way into the monetary systems of several countries, but especially the United States.
One would think that this outpouring of gold would be beneficial to the country but instead it was a mixed blessing. Prices began to rise but wages, as always, did not go up as quickly as necessary. The major problem, however, was that the fresh supplies of gold upset the delicate balance between gold and silver in the American monetary system.
The basic Mint law, passed in April 1792, established a bimetallic system of coinage, where the two metals, gold and silver, were both used in the marketplace. Because of shifting international values of the two metals, bimetallism did not work well in the United States until 1834, when a new law established a ratio of about
