e notes would maintain them at par in coin, and
justify their use as reserves of banks and for the redemption of
bank notes.

As to the fractional currency I said the resumption act provided
for the exchange and substitution of silver coins for such currency.
To facilitate this exchange, the joint resolution, approved July
22, 1876, provided that such coin should be issued to an amount
not exceeding $10,000,000, for an equal amount of legal tender
notes. It also provided that the aggregate amount of such coin
and fractional currency outstanding should not exceed, at any time,
$50,000,000. That limit would have been reached if the whole amount
of fractional currency issued and not redeemed, had been held to
be "outstanding." It was well known, however, that a very large
amount of fractional currency issued had been destroyed, and could
not be presented for redemption, and could hardly be held to be
"outstanding." The Treasurer of the United States, the Comptroller
of the Currency, and the Director of the Mint concurred in estimating
the amount, so lost and destroyed, to be not less than $8,083,513.

As it was evident that Congress intended to provide an aggregate
issue of $50,000,000 of such coin and currency in circulation, I
directed the further issue of silver coin, equal in amount to the
currency estimated to have been lost and destroyed.

I recommended that the limitation upon the amount of such fractional
coin, to be issued in exchange for United States notes, be repealed.
The coin was readily taken, was in great favor with the people,
its issue was profitable to the government, and experience had
shown that there was no difficulty in maintaining it at par with
United States notes. The estimated amount of such coin in circulation
in the United States in 1860, at par with gold, was $43,000,000.
Great Britain, with a population of 32,000,000, maintained an
inferior fractional coin to the amount of $92,463,500, at par with
gold, and other nations maintained a much larger _per capita_
amount. The true limit of such coin was the demand that might be
made for its issue, and if only issued in exchange for United
States notes there was no danger of an excess being issued.

By the coinage act of 1873, any person might deposit silver bullion
at the mint to be coined into trade dollars of the weight of 420
grains, troy, upon the payment of the cost of coinage. This
provision had been made at a time when such a dol