Visit: MeTee.com Support this Youtube channel and Design & Publish a T-Shirt using the link above. This channel is brought to you by MeTee T-Shirts: The place for on-demand t-shirts. T-shirt design in seconds & always free shipping. - Saturday July 30 2011 5:33 am www.msnbc.msn.com In economics, bimetallism is a monetary standard in which the value of the monetary unit is defined as equivalent both to a certain quantity of gold and to a certain quantity of silver; such a system establishes a fixed rate of exchange between the two metals. In the United States, along with establishing the mint, Alexander Hamilton proposed the adoption of bimetallism, 'in order not to abridge the quantity of circulating medium.' With its acceptance, Sec. 11 of the Coinage Act of 1792 established: 'That the proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall by law be current as money within the United States, shall be as fifteen to one, proportional value of gold to silver. according to quantity in weight, of pure gold or pure silver;' the proportion had slipped by 1834 to sixteen to one. The merits of the system were the subject of debate in the late 19th century. If the market forces of supply and demand for either metal caused its bullion value to exceed its nominal currency value, it tends to disappear from circulation by hoarding or melting down. In the United States, bimetallism became a center of political conflict toward the end of the nineteenth century. During the civil ...