No. 5.
Department of
State,
Washington,
March 29, 1873.
To the Diplomatic and Consular Officers of the United
States:
A copy of a law of Congress approved by the President of the United States
March 3, 1873, is herewith inclosed for your information. You will observe
that it is stated that, in computations, the value of a pound sterling shall
be deemed equal to four dollars and eighty-six cents and six and one-half
mills; and this valuation shall be the par of exchange between Great Britain
and the United States. Heretofore the value of a pound sterling has been
deemed equal to $4.84; and this value has formed the basis upon which your
drafts and accounts have been adjusted. On and after the 1st day of April
you are required to regard the pound sterling as equal in value to four
dollars eighty-six cents six mills and one-half, and to employ this
valuation in the computation of your accounts.
I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant,
[General Nature—No. 96.]
AN ACT to establish the custom-house value of the sovereign
or pound sterling of Great Britain, and to fix the par of exchange.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That the value of foreign coin, as expressed in the
money of account of the United States, shall be that of the pure metal
of such coin of standard value and the values of the standard coins in
circulation of the various nations of the world shall be estimated
annually by the Director of the Mint, and be proclaimed on the first day
of January by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Sec. 2. That in all payments by or to the
Treasury, whether made here or in foreign countries, where it becomes
necessary to compute the value of the sovereign or pound sterling, it
shall be deemed equal to four dollars eighty-six cents and six and
one-half mills, and the same rule shall be applied in appraising
merchandise imported where the value is, by the invoice, in sovereigns
or pounds sterling, and in the construction of contracts payable in
sovereigns or pounds sterling; and this valuation shall be the par of
exchange between Great Britain and the United States; and all contracts
made after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-four,
based on an assumed par of exchange with Great Britain of fifty-four
pence to the dollar, or four dollars forty-four and four-ninths cents to
the sovereign or pound sterling, shall be null and void.
Sec. 3. That all acts and parts of acts
inconsistent with these provisions be, and the same are hereby,
repealed.
