Coinage Act of 1873
E130640
The Coinage Act of 1873 was a U.S. federal law that effectively ended the minting of standard silver dollars, placing the nation firmly on the gold standard and sparking the later "Free Silver" political movement.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Coinage Act of 1873 canonical | 8 |
| Mint Act of 1873 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1117412 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Coinage Act of 1873 Context triple: [Coinage Act of 1853, precedes, Coinage Act of 1873]
-
A.
Coinage Act of 1849
The Coinage Act of 1849 was a United States law that authorized the minting of gold dollar and double eagle ($20) coins, expanding the nation’s gold coinage during the California Gold Rush era.
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B.
Coinage Act of 1853
The Coinage Act of 1853 was a U.S. law that significantly reduced the silver content of small-denomination coins to keep them in circulation and effectively moved the country closer to a de facto gold standard.
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C.
Coinage Act of 1834
The Coinage Act of 1834 was a U.S. law that significantly altered the gold-to-silver ratio and the gold content of coins, helping to stabilize the currency and encourage the circulation of gold.
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D.
Coinage Act of 1792
The Coinage Act of 1792 was a foundational United States law that created the national mint system and defined the country’s monetary structure, including its standard units, metal content, and coin denominations.
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E.
the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 was a U.S. law that greatly increased federal purchases of silver, expanding the money supply and contributing to financial instability in the early 1890s.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Coinage Act of 1873 Target entity description: The Coinage Act of 1873 was a U.S. federal law that effectively ended the minting of standard silver dollars, placing the nation firmly on the gold standard and sparking the later "Free Silver" political movement.
-
A.
Coinage Act of 1849
The Coinage Act of 1849 was a United States law that authorized the minting of gold dollar and double eagle ($20) coins, expanding the nation’s gold coinage during the California Gold Rush era.
-
B.
Coinage Act of 1853
The Coinage Act of 1853 was a U.S. law that significantly reduced the silver content of small-denomination coins to keep them in circulation and effectively moved the country closer to a de facto gold standard.
-
C.
Coinage Act of 1834
The Coinage Act of 1834 was a U.S. law that significantly altered the gold-to-silver ratio and the gold content of coins, helping to stabilize the currency and encourage the circulation of gold.
-
D.
Coinage Act of 1792
The Coinage Act of 1792 was a foundational United States law that created the national mint system and defined the country’s monetary structure, including its standard units, metal content, and coin denominations.
-
E.
the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 was a U.S. law that greatly increased federal purchases of silver, expanding the money supply and contributing to financial instability in the early 1890s.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
United States federal statute
ⓘ
monetary law ⓘ |
| administeredBy |
Bureau of the Mint
ⓘ
linked to:
United States Mint
United States Department of the Treasury ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Crime of 1873
ⓘ
Mint Act of 1873 ⓘ
linked to:
Coinage Act of 1873
|
| appliesTo | United States monetary system ⓘ |
| codifiedIn | Revised Statutes of the United States ⓘ |
| country |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| dateEnacted | 1873-02-12 ⓘ |
| dateSigned | 1873-02-12 ⓘ |
| effect |
authorized a trade dollar primarily for use in foreign commerce
ⓘ
created the Bureau of the Mint within the Treasury Department ⓘ demonetized silver for standard dollar coinage ⓘ eliminated the silver half-dime ⓘ eliminated the silver three-cent coin ⓘ eliminated the silver two-cent coin ⓘ ended the standard silver dollar as a legal-tender coin for unlimited amounts ⓘ placed the United States de facto on the gold standard ⓘ redefined subsidiary silver coins as tokens with limited legal-tender status ⓘ reduced the monetary role of silver in the U.S. coinage system ⓘ reorganized the structure of the U.S. Mint ⓘ restricted bimetallism in the United States ⓘ specified the gold content of the gold dollar unit of value ⓘ |
| enactedBy | United States Congress ⓘ |
| followedBy |
Bland–Allison Act
ⓘ
Sherman Silver Purchase Act ⓘ
linked to:
the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
|
| historicalContext |
post–Civil War monetary debates in the United States
ⓘ
transition from bimetallism to a gold standard ⓘ |
| inspired |
Free Silver political movement
ⓘ
linked to:
Free Silver movement
|
| legalTenderStatus |
limited legal tender for subsidiary silver coins
ⓘ
no legal-tender status for standard silver dollars coined after the act ⓘ |
| locationJurisdiction | federal ⓘ |
| longTermImpact |
contributed to deflationary pressures in the late 19th century
ⓘ
helped pave the way for formal adoption of the gold standard in 1900 ⓘ intensified political conflict over silver and gold in the 1870s and 1890s ⓘ |
| politicalReaction |
criticized by silver interests in Western states
ⓘ
denounced by agrarian and debtor groups ⓘ labeled the "Crime of 1873" by opponents ⓘ |
| precededBy | Coinage Act of 1853 ⓘ |
| purpose | to revise and codify the laws relating to the mints and coinage of the United States ⓘ |
| relatedTo | Free Silver movement ⓘ |
| shortTitle | Coinage Act of 1873 ⓘ |
| signedBy | Ulysses S. Grant ⓘ |
| signingPresident | Ulysses S. Grant ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
U.S. Mint organization
ⓘ
linked to:
United States Mint
coinage ⓘ monetary standard ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Coinage Act of 1873 Description of subject: The Coinage Act of 1873 was a U.S. federal law that effectively ended the minting of standard silver dollars, placing the nation firmly on the gold standard and sparking the later "Free Silver" political movement.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.