Although the Massachusetts Bay Colony began issuing paper money in 1690, the British Currency Act of 1764 made it illegal for any of the colonies to print their own money.

As a result, many foreign currencies were circulated in America prior to the Revolutionary War.   Coins from Europe, especially the Spanish silver dollars known as “pieces of eight,”  were relatively common.   And these coins, minted in Mexico from Central and South American silver, were legal tender in the United States until 1857.

The British Currency Act also required colonists to pay their taxes to Britain in gold or silver, a hardship which contributed to the unrest that led to the war.   By 1774, the colonists were dumping tea in Boston harbor.  And by 1775, the Continental Congress began issuing paper money — the Continental — in order to finance the war.

Because of public and political mistrust of paper money — even Jefferson went on record against it — and the absence of solid financial backing, the Continental was never widely adopted.  The French promised to send silver bullion for the production of American coins, and printing of the one-dollar notes ceased.

But the bullion never arrived from France.   And in 1776, the Continental Congress authorized production of the first silver coin.  The financial strain of the war sidelined the initiative and a circulating silver coin was not produced at that time.

During the 1780s, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, and Connecticut were all producing copper coins.   By 1792, the currency situation in the newly formed states was a disaster.  So one of Congress’s first orders of business was tackling it.

The Coinage Act of 1792 authorized a salary for the Director of the Mint and established standards for new coins, such as inclusion of the words “United States of America” and the year of the coinage.  The first stone was laid for the first American mint that summer in Philadelphia.

Without a steady supply of bullion, coin production and circulation was spotty.   But on October 15, 1794, the Mint released the first 1,758 U.S. silver dollars.   The silver dollars minted between 1794 and 1795 are known as the Flowing Hair variety.  Those produced between 1795 and 1804 are the Draped Bust variety.

They were produced in varying quantities until 1806 when President Thomas Jefferson suspended production.

Since 1794, the United States has produced five other silver dollars: The 1804 Silver Dollar — one of the rarest coins in the world, the Seated Liberty Silver Dollar, the Trade Dollar, the Morgan Silver Dollar, and the Peace Dollar.

Read more about U.S. Trade silver dollars here.