This site will present you an episode of American history which is not often talked about. In the last decades of the 19th century a battle raged in the United States around a problem so arcane in nature that very few understood it at all, but so important in scope that everybody in the country has been affected during years from it. The simple change of monetary standard gave rise to a national debate that dominated the last two presidential elections of the century, and in which everybody in the country, from the humble toilers to the great East Coast magnates participated. Hundreds of popular tracts, scholarly books were published about the virtues and vices of the Bimetallic versus the Gold Standard, lectures were given and political parties were founded on this sole topic.

To understand what follows you need first to read my site on bimetallism.

The purpose of the following pages is to give you an entertaining overview of a matter sometimes left in the academic dryness of figures, formulas and austere graphs. I offer you many colorful slides, pictures and cartoons to make this chapter of American history alive.

Use the navigation bar on the left or go directly to the next slide.

NB : By clicking on words in the commentary, you will be taken to the glossary where I have defined most of the specialized terms for you. Please use your BACK button to come to the original page.