Suggested reference works on bimetallism

[shirohniichan]

I'm looking for a reference work that shows relative prices for greenbacks vs. silver. vs. gold in the 1870's. Laughlin's The History of Bimetallism in the United States may have such information, but does anyone know for sure what work has it?

[shirohniichan]

I'm especially interested in graphs, charts or tables showing the relative differences in value from 1873 through 1878.

 

BTW, I already have Carother's book Fractional Money and someone else's book The Crime of 1873 . Both have some of the info I want, but it isn't detailed enough.

[GDJMSP]

shiro -

 

You can look up the price of precious metals on a hsitorical basis here - Kitco.com

[shirohniichan]

I've looked at that site before, but, unfortunately, it's London averages for the year (probably in terms of gold dollars).

 

What I need is month by month prices that show the difference between greenbacks and silver dollars in terms of gold dollars. The Crime of 1873 has a useful graph on page 181 that shows prices between Jan and July 31, 1876. If I could find a similar chart for the entire period of 1873 through 1878, I'd be a happy collector!

[Higashiyama]

Milton Friedman's Money Mischief looks like an interesting book providing an analysis of bimetallism. The full index of the book is available on Amazon. I have not read it, but am glad you mentioned it because I do plan to order it.

[DaveG]

Shiro,

 

If you haven't received an answer yet, I'd suggest that you subscribe to the E-Sylum (www.coinbooks.org) and ask Wayne Homren to ask its subscribers.

 

By the way, if you're interested in Gold/greenback prices from the Civil War, Wesley Clair Mitchell's "History of the Greenbacks" (University of Chicago, 1903) has daily (I'm not kidding) high and low prices for 1862-1865.

 

He lists his sources as "American Almanac" (e.g., issue of 1889) and "a table prepared by the Bureau of Statistics (Finance, Commerce and Immigration of the United States, Series of 1895-1896, No. 4, p. 518)" I suppose that either source could include post-Civil War prices, as well.

 

Considering that Q. David Bowers, in his Silver Dollar Encyclopedia, includes the bullion value of a silver dollar (in each year), the information must be available.