The Coinage Act, passed by the United States Congress on April 2, 1792, established the United States Mint and regulated coinage of the United States. The long title of the legislation is An act establishing a mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States. This act established the dollar as the unit of money in the United States, declared it to be lawful tender, and created a decimal system for U.S. currency. Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate Dick Cheney, R, since January 20, 2001 Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R, since January 6, 1999 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of January 4, 2005 elections) Democratic Party Republican Party... April 2 is the 92nd day of the year (93rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 273 days remaining. ... 1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The United States Mint is responsible for producing and circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. ... ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Virgin Islands, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 3. ... The decimal (base ten or occasionally denary) numeral system has ten as its base. ...

By the Act, the Mint was to be situated at the seat of government of the United States. The five original officers of the U.S. Mint were a Director, an Assayer, a Chief Coiner, an Engraver, and a Treasurer (not the same as the Secretary of the Treasury). The Act allowed that one person could perform the functions of Chief Coiner and Engraver. The Assayer, Chief Coiner and Treasurer were required to post a $10,000 bond with the Secretary of the Treasury. Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia. ... The United States Secretary of the Treasury is the finance minister of the Federal Government of the United States. ...

The Act authorized production of the following coins:

The coins were to contain the following markings: A grain is a unit of mass equal to 0. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ... A pennyweight (symbol dwt) is an obsolete unit of mass which is the same as 24 grains, 1/240th of a troy pound, 1/20th of a troy ounce, or approximately 1. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Atomic mass 63. ...

• One side was to have an impression emblematic of liberty, with the inscription "Liberty", and the year of the coinage.
• The reverse side of each of the gold and silver coins was to have the figure or representation of an eagle with the inscription "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA".
• The reverse of the copper coins was to have an inscription expressing the denomination.

The Act defined the proportional value of gold and silver as 15 units of pure silver to 1 unit of pure gold. Standard gold was defined as 11 parts pure gold to one part alloy composed of silver and copper. Standard silver was defined as 1485 parts pure silver to 179 parts copper alloy.

Any person could bring gold or silver bullion and have it coined free of charge or for a nominal fee exchange it immediately for equivalent value of coin.

Quality control measures were implemented in that from each separate mass of gold or silver used to produce coins, three coins were set aside by the treasurer. Each year on the last Monday in July, under the inspection of the Chief Justice, the Secretary and Comptroller of the Treasury, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney General, the coins were to be assayed and if the coins did not meet established standards, the officers were disqualified from office. Further, the penalty for fraud or embezzlement by officers or employees of the mint was death. In engineering and manufacturing, quality control and quality engineering are involved in developing systems to ensure products or services are designed and produced to meet or exceed customer requirements. ... The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the judicial branch of the government of the United States, and presides over the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Seal of the United States Department of State. ... Seal of the United States Department of Justice The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice (see ) concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. ... An assay is a procedure where the concentration of a component part of a mixture is determined. ... Capital punishment in the United States is officially sanctioned by 38 of the 50 states, as well as by the federal government and the military. ...

The Act also specified the dollar as the "money of account" of the United States, and directed that all accounts of the federal government be kept in dollars, "dismes," cents, and "milles," a mille being one-tenth of a cent or one-thousandth of a dollar. A dime is a coin issued by the United States Mint with a denomination of one-tenth of a United States dollar, or ten cents. ... A two-cent euro coin A United States penny, or 1¢ In currency, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1/100 of the basic unit of value. ... The mill or mille(₥) (sometimes mil in the UK) is an abstract unit of currency. ...

External link

• Facsimile of the act in the Statutes at Large from the Library of Congress
• Coinage Act (1792)