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Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Hoke Smith, at Jefferson, Ga;, Tuesday, August 6, 1895

In a short time it was found that 16 to 1 was not a correct ratio between the value of silver and gold, but that 16 grains of silver were worth more than 1 grain of gold. The Gresham law, the principle for which I am contending, at once came into play and Silver went out of circulation. We went to the gold standard, and silver, if coined at all, was coined for exportation, the object being simply te designate by the stamp of the Government the fact that a piece of silver bullion marked a dollar had 371} grains of silver in it. A silver dollar could be melted down and sold, when melted, for about three cents more than its value as coined money. This fact caused great scarcity in small change, because even the half dollars and the quarters were worth more for bar silver than for money at their coined value. In 1853 it became, therefore, necessary to lessen the amount of silver put in to halves and quarters so that they would not be melted into bar silver. This was done, and all Silver of denominations less than a dollar after 1853 were made subsidiary Silver. That is to say, they were good for the payment of debts only to a limited amount, namely, five dollars. NO man could compel another to accept eleven silver half dollars in payment of five dollars and a half Of debts or in payment of any sum above five dollars. In 1876 subsidiary silver was made legal tender to the amount of $10.

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