CoinClinic: Monetary Unions
Did any of the $4 gold coins actually circulate? You would think that after it became apparent the $3 gold coins weren’t going to circulate, it would be obvious a…
Did any of the $4 gold coins actually circulate?
You would think that after it became apparent the $3 gold coins weren’t going to circulate, it would be obvious a $4 wouldn’t either. Nonetheless, the $4 Stella was struck with the intention of tying it to the standard of the Latin Monetary Union. Both a proposal to join the LMU and the $4 coin were eventually rejected. The 1879 and 1880 $4 coins are patterns never meant to circulate. Survivors likely escaped via the back doors of the halls of Congress, perhaps through the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures?
What were they thinking when the 20-cent piece was issued, then flopped?
The 20-cent coin was too close in diameter and appearance to the more mainstream quarter, although the quarter has a reeded edge while the edge of the 20-cent is smooth. The same mistake would be made a century later with the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. Recently elected Nevada Senator John P. Jones, looking to make a name for himself, proposed the ill-fated 19th-century coin using the logic that the new denomination would solve the small change shortage being experienced in the West. Jones survived in the Senate for 30 years, while his coin proposal failed after four. Not by coincidence, Jones made his fortune in silver mining.
What was the Latin Monetary Union and why would the U.S. want to be part of it?
The Latin Monetary Union is one of many monetary unions that ensures the currencies of the nations involved are on par with each other. Monetary unions are of use for trade between two or more nations. These unions work especially well when specie money is involved since the weight and purity of the precious metal coins of each party can be traded between the participating nations. The U.S. saw the LMU as a way to simplify international trade.
Are there monetary unions that exist today?
There are a number of monetary unions that are active worldwide. The most prominent of these is the European Union. Others include the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union, West African Economic and Monetary Union, and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community. Russia attempted to form a monetary union with some of the countries born from the fracture of the Soviet Union during the 1990s. Several Arab countries have been attempting to form a currency union for years.
What countries use the U.S. dollar rather than a currency of their own?
Panama has used our currency system since 1904. Ecuador has been using the U.S. dollar exclusively since 2000, this having been started due to a domestic currency crisis. Due to inflation, Zimbabwe dropped its domestic currency in favor of the dollar in 2009; however, now backed by gold, Zimbabwe is cautiously once more beginning to use a domestic currency system. There are foreign territories and municipalities that also use the dollar as their legal tender currency.
Why don’t Canada and the United States have a monetary union?
The North American Monetary Union that would include the United States, Canada, and Mexico has been proposed for years. Each nation has a different monetary system, economy, and political system. Coin and medal designer Daniel Carr didn’t help the proposal when he designed his controversial Union of North America medallion series of fantasy one-to-1,000 denomination Amero coins.
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