Q. David Bowers
"Amounts and sources of dollars converted into bullion for sale to Great Britain:
"Sources of coin converted to bullion:
"Mint stock from the Philadelphia Mint: $58,534,554. "Mint stock from the San Francisco Mint: $39,001,000. "Transferred from the Treasury at Washington to the Philadelphia Mint: $87,686,000.
"Transferred from the Treasury at Washington to the San Francisco Mint: $25,000,000.
"Transferred from Subtreasury at New York to the New York Assay Office: $26,500,000.
"Transferred from the New Orleans Mint to the Philadelphia Mint: $12,400,000.
"Transferred from the New Orleans Mint to the San Fran-cisco Mint: $10,000,000.
"Face value of dollars converted for sale from the Philadelphia Mint: $158,620,554.
"Face value of dollars converted for sale from the SanFrancisco Mint: $74,001,000:
"Face value of dollars converted for sale from the New York Assay Office: $26,500,000.
"Fine ounces sold to the British government at $1 per ounce from the Philadelphia Mint: $122,527,558.54
"Fine ounces sold to the British government at $1 per ounce from the San Francisco Mint: $57,176,287.40
"Fine ounces sold to the British government at $1 per ounce from the New York Assay Office: $20,328,479.70
"Loss by conversion and sale (all mints): $59,089,228.36 "Weight and value of ll,111,168 silver dollars assigned for subsidiary coinage, and the mints to which they were assigned:
"September 1918, San Francisco Mint (Uncirculated coin at $1 per ounce) Fine ounces: 772,997.89; Face value: $1,000,000.
"November 1919, Philadelphia Mint (Uncirculated coin at face value, $l.29+ per fine ounce): Fine ounces: 7,734,375.00; Face value: $10,000,000.
"November 1920, Denver Mint (circulated coin at $1.29+ per fine ounce): Fine ounces: 82,357.24; Face value: $111,168.
"Total: Fine ounces: 8,589,730.13; Face value: $11,111,168.
"The total number of silver dollars melted, including the 11,111,168 assigned for subsidiary coinage, was 270,232,722. Many of the dollars melted had been in circulation and had become reduced below legal weight by abrasion! and an appropriation to cover this loss was made in the act of April 23, 1918.
"Purchase of silver bullion.- The purchase of domestically produced silver bullion for replacing the silver dollars converted to bullion and sold to Great Britain was commenced in May 1920, and all purchases of silver required to replace the silver dollars so sold were completed in June 1923, with the exception of about 190,000 ounces representing incomplete deliveries of amounts accepted up to June 1923. Deliveries on account of 190,000 ounces were completed in July 1927.
"The quantity of silver required for recoining 259,121,554 silver dollars of exact legal silver content, disregarding the question of operative losses, was 200,414,327.07 fine ounces. Monthly receipts of purchased silver by the mint service insti-tutions during the three-year period from May 1920 to June 1923, averaged approximately five million ounces, the pur-chases absorbing practically the entire silver production of the United States for this period. These purchases were made at the fixed price of $1 per fine ounce, while the market rate during this time was usually below 70 cents.
"In October and December, 1920, a total of six million fine ounces of silver bullion purchased under section 2 of the act of April 23, 1918, were assigned to the subsidiary coinage. However, 4,341,753.61 ounces of this silver were not used for that purpose, and the orders assigning that amount for sub-sidiary coinage were revoked in February 1922, and the silver bullion was restored to the Pittman silver account. The order covering the balance of the six million ounces of bullion, that is 1,658,246.39 ounces, and also the order assigning 11,111,168 silver dollars to the director of the Mint for conversion into subsidiary silver coins were revoked in December 1922, on the authority of a decision of the Comptroller General of the United States, dated November 29, 1922, which was subsequently affirmed by him in his ruling of September 4,1923, addressed to Hon. Key Pittman, vice chairman of the Senate Committee of Gold and Silver Inquiry.
"When the 11,111,168 silver dollars and the six million ounces of silver bullion referred to, were assigned to the sub-sidiary coinage accounts, and at all times during the period that this silver was so assigned, there was on hand in the mint service institutions, in the subsidiary silver accounts of the Mint service, a sufficient quantity of silver bullion procured for subsidiary coin manufacture to take care of the subsidiary coinage requirements of the government. At the time of such assignments, the bullion was either not located in the institu-tions where required for use or it was in an unrefined state, although, as stated, there was a sufficient quantity on hand in the subsidiary coinage accounts. By canceling the orders as-signing the 11,111,168 silver dollars and the 1,658,246.39 ounces of bullion for subsidiary coinage, the government avoided purchasing more silver than was actually needed for subsidiary coinage and for carrying out the provisions of the Pittman Act.
"Recoinage.-Recoinage of the 270,232,722 silver dollars melted, which amount includes the 11,111,168 silver dollars assigned for subsidiary coinage, was completed in April 1928. Such recoinage was begun in February 1921, which was as soon as postwar demands for other coins that were in active circulation permitted, and continued whenever the mint fa-cilities were available for the purpose, until April 1928, when, as stated, all of the silver dollars melted had been recoined. The currency situation is now the same as before the passage of the act of April 23, 1918, so far as operations under that act are concerned, and the monetary stock of United States silver dollars was neither decreased nor increased by that act.