1796 DRAPED BUST 10C, SMALL EAGLE MS65

The victory of the Revolutionary War quickly wore off by the end of 1783 and now it was time to put the newly independent country together. Several orders were put into place to maintain loyalty while congress tried to piece together a single “law of the land document.” Eventually most members came to an agreement, after the Articles of Confederation failed, and the Constitution was ratified in 1788. This document included several laws laid out for all states and citizens to follow and to maintain status as a sovereign united country. Also included in the constitution was a revision to regulate U.S. currency from the previous state. Before the constitution foreign coins were widely circulated, especially Spanish Silver pieces and English Pence and Shillings. These two coin systems, obviously, did not collaborate well and confusion ran rampant; congress quickly recognized that a more rational system was necessary. Thus congress adopted the decimal system both as a way to differentiate us from Europe and to organize coins more reasonably, without intricate conversion charts. After several years of creation and revision of laws, the Act of 1792 finalized the U.S. currency system and described its use.