Act of April 29, 1816
To regulate the legal tender value of certain foreign coins within the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from passage of this act and for three years thereafter, and no longer, the following gold and silver coins shall pass current as money within the United States, and be a legal tender for the payment of all debts and demands, at the several and respective rates following, and not otherwise, videlicet: the gold coins of Great Britain and Portugal, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every seventy-seven grains, or eighty-eight cents and eight-ninths per pennyweight; the gold coins of France, of their present standard, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-seven and a half grains, or eighty-seven and a quarter cents per pennyweight; the gold coins of Spain, at the rate of one hundred cents for every twenty-eight and a half grains, or eighty-four cents per pennyweight; the crowns of France, at the rate of one hundred and seventeen cents and six-tenths per ounce, or one hundred and ten cents for each crown weighing eighteen pennyweights and seventeen grains; the five-franc pieces at the rate of one hundred and sixteen cents per ounce, or ninety-three cents and three mills, for each five-franc piece, weighing sixteen pennyweights and two grains.
SEC. 2. Provides for an assay annually of the foreign coins made current by the act, and a report of the result to Congress.