1 Dollar "Metric Dollar" · “Metric Dollar”

The Goloid Metric Dollar: the coin that printed its own recipe

In 1878 the U.S. Mint struck a dollar with its own ingredients stamped on the back — so many grams of gold, silver, and copper, spelled out like a label. It was meant to end a war between gold and silver in one coin. It died because that war's quiet beneficiaries, the counterfeiters, would have loved it.