Friday, November 11, 2011

What is a Dollar?

The word dollar appears two times in the Organic Constitution of the United States of America. The first is at Article I, Section 9, Clause 1:

“The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.”

The other is at Amendment VII:

“In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”

The word dollar has a definite and fixed meaning. [Footnote 1] A dollar, as used in the Constitution, is a Spanish Milled dollar coin, or its equivalent, in coin form, containing 371.25 grains of fine silver.

Read the rest here