In the early days of our nation, currencies from other countries served as the de facto means of exchange. People favored these currencies because of their familiarity and stability, both important qualities for specie but ones hard to achieve in nascent monetary systems. This practice, however, in effect left the value of American property vulnerable to the vagaries of currency markets abroad. In order to preclude any foreign dependence, a notion anathema to our Founding Fathers, Congress passed the Mint Act in 1792 establishing a native US currency system with the dollar as its basic unit. The Congress did not dispense of foreign systems entirely, however, as the dollar was modeled after the Spanish 8 Reale piece.

The first dollar coin was issued in 1794 and was composed almost entirely of silver. Silver dollar production was halted by Thomas Jefferson in 1804 after it was discovered that many of the coins were being shipped to the Caribbean in order to be exchanged for foreign coins heavier in silver, such as the Spanish 8 Reale, or to be melted down. Normal production was not resumed until 1836. However, in 1834 a number of silver dollars were minted with the intention of presenting them as gifts to foreign rulers with whom the US government was seeking trading privileges. These coins have become some of the most prized in US coinage.

Beginning in 1836, the Liberty Seated design was introduced along with a flying eagle reverse. In 1840, the reverse design was changed to depict a perched eagle. These coins were produced through 1865, though with time their circulation was threatened by the rising price of silver. By 1853, the intrinsic value of the coin was greater than its face value, in part because the discovery of large gold deposits in California a few years earlier made silver seem comparatively scarce and drove up its price. In 1853, Congress decreased the silver content of silver coins, with the exception of the dollar, to combat these inflationary prices. While this helped other coins circulate more freely, it did little to reverse the trend of hoarding silver dollars.

The Trade Dollar was first minted in 1873 with the intention of developing a coin that could compete with other Western coins circulating in Asia. In 1878, The Bland-Allison Act mandated that the US Mint begin striking more coins out of the large stockpiles of silver that had developed after its de-monetization in the Coinage Act of 1873. Out of the unwanted silver, the Mint created one of the most commonly collected series of US coins, the Morgan Dollar. Morgan Dollars were produced continuously until 1904, by which time they had saturated the market. The dollar coin had also become a less popular denomination as the public tended to favor the paper note. In 1918, the series was discontinued and almost half the Morgan dollars ever minted were melted down.

In 1921, the Peace dollar was introduced to commemorate the ratification of the peace treaties ending the First World War. In 1971, the Mint altered the coin’s metal content to remove the silver, as happened to many silver coins in that period. The Susan B. Anthony dollar was produced from 1979 to 1981. With this issue, the dollar coin was reduced in size to about the size of a modern quarter. The Mint did not resume production of the coins until 1999 after supplies of the Anthony dollar had been nearly depleted. The Mint issued a new design at this time carrying a portrait of Sacagewea on the obverse. In 2007, the Mint began issuing a new series of coins bearing the likenesses of former US Presidents.