Today is an anniversary that fills the hearts of American numismatists with joy, for it was on April 2, 1792, that President Washington signed into law what has become known as the Coinage Act of 1792. It set up our monetary system, stating that our unit of currency would be called a dollar and would be divided into tenths and hundredths and thousandths (dimes and cents and milles, although no milles were ever minted or even designed). A decimal system of this sort was in itself revolutionary among the world currencies of the time.
The Act called for the building, equipping and staffing of a mint, to be located in our nation's capital. Our primary mint is located in Philadelphia because that was our capital at the time. A few years later, when the District of Columbia was established as the seat of government, the lawmakers of the day, in a rare display of common sense that modern politicians would do well to emulate, decided the mint was doing just fine where it was and that there was no point in moving it.
Specifications were given for the denominations of coins to be produced by the mint, with explicit specifications as to their size, weight, and metal content. The Act even addressed itself, in broad terms, to the general design of the coins. The obverse of gold and silver coins, for instance, was to bear a design "emblematic of liberty" while the reverse was to show a "representation" of an eagle. To this day, it takes an act of Congress to change the general design of a coin.
Well, happy birthday to the United States Mint. Any many happy returns of the day, for all our sakes.
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