It was passed and promulgated during my recent absence on leave and has
only just now come to my attention.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
The National Congress, in the name of the Republic and by the
initiative of the Executive power, the three constitutional readings
being had and urgency declared, considering that it is well for the
country to fix definitely the value of the national money in order
that it may circulate as a fraction of gold money, decrees:
Article 1. All transactions and payments
made in the Republic shall be effected upon the single base of gold
money, taking as the universal standard coined American gold.
Art. 2. From and after the publication of
the present decree, under the name “peso” shall be understood only
the American “dollar.”
Art. 3. In order to facilitate small
transactions there shall also be in circulation silver coins and,
for the very small, nickel and copper coins.
Art. 4. The gold value of the national coin
already in circulation is the following:
- (a)
- The coin of silver alloy marked “5 francs,” emission of
1891, is worth and shall be worth 40 cents gold, and the
fractions of said emission in proportion.
- (b)
- The coin of silver alloy marked “1 peso,” emission of
1897, is and shall be worth 20 cents in gold; the fractional
coins of the same emission in proportion.
- (c)
- The coin of nickel alloy marked “2.5 cents,” of various
emissions, is and shall be worth 0.5 cent gold; that marked
“1.25 cents” is and shall be worth 0.25 cent gold.
- (d)
- The coin of copper alloy, emission of 1891, marked
“ten-hundredths of a franc” is and shall be worth 1 cent
gold; that marked “five-hundredths of a franc” is and shall
be worth 0.5 cent gold.
Art. 5. The payments to be made in fiscal
and municipal offices, or which result from a judicial instrument on
account of obligations between private individuals, shall be made in
American coined gold, but the person paying has the option of making
said payment in the proportion of 70 per cent in American coined
gold and 30 per cent in national silver money, or in American coined
silver.
§ Among these thirty units of national money there may be admitted
five units of national nickel or copper.
[Page 413]
§§ The Executive remains authorized to receive in fiscal offices
American paper money or silver at the same value and proportion as
coined gold, as long as it may judge such action advisable.
Art. 6 In no specie payment for a greater
sum than 50 pesos shall the creditor be obliged to receive more than
30 per cent in national or American silver, nor of nickel and copper
more than 5 per cent, except in case of a contrary agreement between
the parties.
Art. 7. The present decree does not affect
at all obligations contracted between private individuals before its
promulgation, and repeals all provisions in contradiction with
itself.
§ It shall be sent to the Executive for the constitutional
purposes.
Done in the Palace of Congress on the 19th day of June,
1905, sixty-second year of Independence and forty-second of
the Restoration.
- J. E. Otero Nolasco,
President.
- J. D. Alfonseca H.,
- A. Acevedo,
Secretaries.
Let it be executed, communicated by the proper department, and
published in all the territory of the Republic for its
fulfillment.
Done in the National Palace of
Santo
Domingo, capital of the
Republic, on the 21st day of the month of June,
1905.
Morales L.
Countersigned:
Federico Velasquez
H.,
Minister of Finance and
Commerce.
