<p>No single person or group discovered silver and left a record of it in history. It appears in the archaeological record as early as the fourth millennium BC, with the oldest securely dated pieces coming from Tepe Sialk in Iran.</p>
<p>Early metalworkers learned to pull silver out of lead ore. Later, people weighed it out as money and struck it into coins. Silver paid for the fleet Athens took to war at Salamis. Nations measured their money in silver for centuries.</p>
<p>In the United States, silver was built into the currency from the nation’s start. The Coinage Act of 1792 ensured that silver existed alongside gold. Following a recommendation from Alexander Hamilton, the law enshrined a gold to silver ratio of 15 to 1. It remained in everyday coins until 1965. We will explore how that story unfolded in this guide, with a source behind each step of the journey.</p>
<h2>Silver as Money: A Timeline</h2>
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<th class="p-3 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Date</th>
<th class="p-3 text-left text-sm font-semibold">What happened</th>
<th class="p-3 text-left text-sm font-semibold">Source</th>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">4th millennium BC</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The oldest known silver objects appear at Tepe Sialk, Iran.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://d-nb.info/1234989212/34">Pernicka</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Before coins</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Silver is weighed out as money in Mesopotamia.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://coinweek.com/origin-specie-gold-silver-became-money">CoinWeek</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">6th century BC</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Lydia learns to split electrum into pure gold and pure silver.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://www.lbma.org.uk/wonders-of-gold/items/croesus-stater">LBMA</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">483/2 BC</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Miners strike a rich vein of silver at Laurion, near Athens.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://2500years.culture.gov.gr/en/chapters/i-gennisi-tis-nautikis-dinamis">Hellenic Ministry of Culture</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">480 BC</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The new Athenian fleet helps win the Battle of Salamis.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Salamis">Britannica</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1066 to 1087</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">England’s pound of 240 silver pennies takes shape under William I.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/journal/history/pounds-shillings-and-pence/">Royal Mint Museum</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1500s</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Silver from Potosí, in today’s Bolivia, becomes Spanish coins.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1920-0907-382">British Museum</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1792</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The US defines its dollar in silver and also authorizes gold coins.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/coinage-act-of-april-2-1792">US Mint</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1859</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Prospectors find the Comstock Lode in Nevada.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://shpo.nv.gov/nevadas-historical-markers/historical-markers/the-comstock-lode">Nevada SHPO</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1873</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Congress ends the coining of standard silver dollars from private silver.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1873">Coinage Act of 1873</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1900</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The Gold Standard Act makes the gold dollar the US standard.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://www2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ355/choi/1900mar14.html">Act text</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1935</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">China leaves the silver standard.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://newbooksnetwork.com/china-and-the-end-of-global-silver-1873-1937">Austin Dean</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1965</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">The Coinage Act of 1965 starts clad dimes, quarters and half dollars.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-79/pdf/STATUTE-79-Pg254.pdf">P.L. 89-81</a></td>
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<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">1967</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700">Congress gives silver certificate holders one last year to trade them for silver.</td>
<td class="p-3 text-sm text-slate-700"><a href="https://usc-cdn.house.gov/statutes/pl/90/29.pdf">P.L. 90-29</a></td>
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<h2>Who Discovered Silver?</h2>
<p>There is no discoverer of silver that the historical record could name. No ancient records tell us about who first found it. What we know about the history of silver comes from digs, rather than written records. Even the Royal Society of Chemistry’s <a href="https://periodic-table.rsc.org/element/47/silver">periodic table</a> names no discoverer.</p>
<p>There is a good reason no name survives. Most early silver was not picked up as shiny metal. Instead, it had to be cooked out of lead ore and refined into what we would recognize as silver. So, rather than a single discovery, there was more of a discovery process.</p>
<p>You may see a date of 5,000 BC online. There are no digs that support such an early date. The evidence points to a much later start.</p>
<p>Silver is also a chemical element with the symbol Ag. People used it in ancient times, so no chemist ever “discovered” it. If you’re interested in silver’s scientific aspects, check out our guide on <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/science">silver as an element</a>.</p>
<h2>When and Where Was Silver First Made?</h2>
<p>Silver shows up in the fourth millennium BC, sometime between 4000 and 3000 BC. <a href="https://d-nb.info/1234989212/34">Ernst Pernicka</a>, an expert on ancient metals, dates its first clear signs to this period.</p>
<p>The oldest objects seem to come from Tepe Sialk, an ancient mound in central Iran. Pernicka dates them to “the first half of the fourth millennium BC if not slightly earlier.”</p>
<p>Other sites show people were refining silver in the same era. Workers left behind litharge, a waste product of silver refining. It has turned up in eastern Anatolia, in today’s Turkey. It has also turned up at Habuba Kabira in northern Syria. Litharge findings from Arisman and Tepe Sialk show the same work occurred in Iran.</p>
<p>Gold came before silver. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/radiocarbon/article/ams-dating-of-the-late-copper-age-varna-cemetery-bulgaria/706A7F638D010BB6C943FBDFC1062749">Graves at Varna, Bulgaria</a>, hold gold objects dated to roughly 4600 BC. That is centuries before the earliest estimated date for silver. You can read more in our <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/history-of-gold">history of gold</a> guide.</p>
<p>If you are looking for the oldest silver coin, the story starts thousands of years later. We cover that history in greater detail in our guide to <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/oldest-coin-in-the-world">the oldest coin in the world</a>.</p>
<h2>How Was Silver Discovered? Cupellation Explained</h2>
<p>Silver came late because nature hides most of it. Pure silver “rarely forms big lumps of metal in nature,” <a href="https://d-nb.info/1234989212/34">Pernicka</a> notes. It mostly occurs as thin wires. Most silver sits inside lead ore instead. From ancient times until the 1700s, he writes, most silver came from silver-bearing lead ore.</p>
<p>Cupellation is how early metalworkers got the silver out. It works in three steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Smelt silver-bearing lead ore, such as galena, into lead metal.</li>
<li>Heat that lead with plenty of air flowing over it.</li>
<li>The lead and other base metals react with the air. The lead becomes litharge, a lead oxide, and the silver is left behind.</li>
</ol>
<p>Litharge is the clue archaeologists look for. It does not form in nature, so it serves as “a secure proof of cupellation,” according to Pernicka. When it turns up at a dig, it shows silver was made there.</p>
<h2>How Silver Became Money</h2>
<p>Silver was money long before coins. In ancient Mesopotamia, prices were often set in shekels of silver. Buyers paid by weight, with silver “weighed out as chunks of metal,” as <a href="https://coinweek.com/origin-specie-gold-silver-became-money">CoinWeek</a> explains.</p>
<p>Coins came next. Rulers in Lydia, in today’s western Turkey, first struck coins from electrum. Electrum is a natural blend of gold and silver. Later, the metalworkers of King Croesus found a way to <a href="https://www.lbma.org.uk/wonders-of-gold/items/croesus-stater">split electrum into pure gold and pure silver</a>. That let Lydia strike coins of each metal. Read more in <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/history-of-money">the history of money</a>.</p>
<p>Silver soon paid for more than trade. In Athens, it built one of the strongest navies of the ancient world.</p>
<h2>Laurion and Athens: The Silver That Won Salamis</h2>
<p>Athens owned rich silver mines at Laurion, south of the city. In 483/2 BC, miners there found “a rich vein of silver,” says <a href="https://2500years.culture.gov.gr/en/chapters/i-gennisi-tis-nautikis-dinamis">Greece’s Ministry of Culture</a>.</p>
<p>The city first planned to share the windfall among its citizens. The general Themistocles talked them out of it. <a href="https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg0016/tlg001/perseus-eng2/7.144.1-7.144.3">Herodotus</a> says he convinced Athens “to use the money to build two hundred ships.”</p>
<p>Another ancient text tells it a bit differently. The <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0046%3Achapter%3D22%3Asection%3D7">Constitution of the Athenians</a> says the strike earned “a hundred talents.” According to the Constitution, the money paid for “a fleet of a hundred triremes.”</p>
<p>The mentions of 100 ships or 200 ships seem like a discrepancy, but there is a way both numbers can be true. Greece’s Ministry of Culture says Athens built 100 new triremes over three years. By 480 BC, it had 200 ships. That made it the largest navy in Greece.</p>
<p>That fleet played a major role in the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Salamis. The ministry says Laurion’s silver “contributed decisively” to that incredible 480 BC victory.</p>
<p>Athens also turned its silver into coins. Rome followed suit as it rose to power, building its money around a silver coin known as <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/roman-denarius">the Roman denarius</a>.</p>
<h2>The Silver Standard</h2>
<p>Under a silver standard, a country defines its money as a set weight of silver. Coins made from that metal, known as <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/what-is-specie">specie</a>, derive their value from their metal content.</p>
<h3>Silver as the Measure of Money</h3>
<p>England shows how far back the silver standard goes. Its pound began as a count of silver pennies. Under King William I, who conquered England and ruled from 1066 to 1087, silver pennies became steady in weight. The <a href="https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/journal/history/pounds-shillings-and-pence/">Royal Mint Museum</a> traces the pound of 240 pence to that era.</p>
<p>Spain carried silver money around the world. In the 1500s, silver from Potosí, in today’s Bolivia, became Spanish coins like this <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1920-0907-382">one in the British Museum</a>. Learn how those coins became famous as <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/pieces-of-eight">pieces of eight</a>.</p>
<h3>The World Moves to Gold</h3>
<p>In the late 1800s, many nations moved from silver to gold. The United States took a key step in 1873, a move critics later called <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/crime-of-1873">the Crime of 1873</a>.</p>
<p>China held on to silver far longer. In the late 1800s, it was “the most populous country still using silver.” It “went off the silver standard in 1935,” notes historian <a href="https://newbooksnetwork.com/china-and-the-end-of-global-silver-1873-1937">Austin Dean</a>. He calls it “a key moment not just in Chinese history but in world history.” US silver buying played a part, as our page on <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/silver-purchase-acts">the silver purchase acts</a> explains.</p>
<h2>Silver in the United States, 1792 to 1900</h2>
<h3>Was the US Ever on a Silver Standard?</h3>
<p>The United States was never on silver alone. The <a href="https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/coinage-act-of-april-2-1792">Coinage Act of 1792</a>, also called the Mint Act, defined the dollar in silver. It also authorized gold coins and set a legal ratio between the two metals. That system, in which the dollar was built on both gold and silver, was called <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/bimetallism">bimetallism</a>.</p>
<p>In 1873, Congress ended the right to bring silver to the mint and have it made into standard silver dollars. Gold holders kept that right. In practice, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1873">the law</a> made gold the standard by default. You can see the full story in our guide to <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/crime-of-1873">the Crime of 1873</a>.</p>
<p>Silver’s backers fought back for the next twenty years. Congress passed laws to buy silver, which we cover in our guide to the <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/silver-purchase-acts">silver purchase acts</a>. The <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/free-silver-movement">Free Silver movement</a> took over the Democratic Party platform with William Jennings Bryan as its leader, and it pushed hard to restore silver coinage.</p>
<p>The fight to restore silver ended in 1900 when the <a href="https://www2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ355/choi/1900mar14.html">Gold Standard Act</a> was passed. That law made the gold dollar “the standard unit of value.”</p>
<h3>The Comstock Lode (1859)</h3>
<p>Nevada’s great silver boom began in 1859 with the discovery of the Comstock Lode. <a href="https://shpo.nv.gov/nevadas-historical-markers/historical-markers/the-comstock-lode">Nevada’s state historic marker</a> says Virginia City boomed for about 20 years. That boom helped bring Nevada into the Union in 1864. Stories credit several different men with the find. The state’s marker names none of them.</p>
<h2>The Coinage Act of 1965: Why Silver Left US Coins</h2>
<p>By the 1960s, the US had a silver problem. <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-signing-the-coinage-act">President Lyndon B. Johnson</a> explained it when he signed the Coinage Act of 1965 on July 23, 1965. “Silver is a scarce material,” he explained, but silver use was “more than double new silver production each year.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-79/pdf/STATUTE-79-Pg254.pdf">law</a> created a new kind of coin. Dimes, quarters, and half dollars became clad coins. These coins, which are still made today, are made of layers of metal bonded together. The old silver coins could be made for a short time only, and “in no event later than five years” after the law passed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.numismaticnews.net/archive/clad-coins-welcomed-coolly-by-collectors">Collectors</a> soon called the new coins “sandwich” coins because of their layers. Some still call them “Johnson sandwiches.”</p>
<p>Johnson also made a promise. “Our present silver coins won’t disappear and they won’t even become rarities,” he said. Today, many of those older coins trade as <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver/junk-silver">junk silver</a>. To see which coins and years contain silver, read which <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/bullion/what-coins-are-silver">US coins are silver</a>.</p>
<p>One common mix-up: the 1965 act did not end the trade of silver certificates for silver. A <a href="https://usc-cdn.house.gov/statutes/pl/90/29.pdf">1967 law, P.L. 90-29</a>, did. It gave holders “one year” to trade their certificates for silver bullion. Learn more about <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/silver-certificates">silver certificates</a>.</p>
<h2>Silver as Money Today</h2>
<p>Silver left everyday US coins more than half a century ago. Even so, many people still hold it as a store of value.</p>
<p>To see how silver has moved over time, browse our <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/silver-price-history">silver price history</a> and the <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/gold-silver-ratio">gold-silver ratio</a>. For one of silver’s wildest chapters, <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/price/hunt-brothers-silver">read about the Hunt brothers</a>, who attempted to corner the silver market. When you are ready to add silver to your holdings, you can <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver">buy silver</a> from Money Metals.</p>
<h3>Frequently Asked Questions</h3>
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<p>No. People worked gold first. Graves at Varna, Bulgaria, hold the world’s earliest large group of gold objects, from about 4600 BC. Silver appears in the fourth millennium BC, because most of it had to be refined from lead ore.</p>
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<h4 class="text-xl font-semibold"><button id="controlsAccordionItemTwo" type="button" class="flex w-full cursor-pointer items-center justify-between gap-2 bg-slate-200 p-4 text-left underline-offset-2 duration-200 hover:bg-slate-100 focus-visible:bg-slate-50 focus-visible:underline focus-visible:outline-hidden" aria-controls="accordionItemTwo" x-on:click="isExpanded = ! isExpanded" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'font-bold' : 'font-medium'" x-bind:aria-expanded="isExpanded ? 'true' : 'false'"> <span>What is the oldest silver artifact?</span> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" class="size-5 shrink-0 transition" aria-hidden="true" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'rotate-180' : ''"> <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M19.5 8.25l-7.5 7.5-7.5-7.5"></path> </svg> </button></h4>
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<p>The oldest known silver objects come from Tepe Sialk in Iran. They date to “the first half of the fourth millennium BC if not slightly earlier,” <a href="https://d-nb.info/1234989212/34">Pernicka</a> writes. For the oldest silver coins, see the <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/history/oldest-coin-in-the-world">oldest coin in the world</a>.</p>
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<p>The US was never on silver alone. It used both silver and gold from 1792. It ended the free coining of silver dollars in 1873. The <a href="https://www2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ355/choi/1900mar14.html">Gold Standard Act</a> made gold the legal standard in 1900.</p>
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<h4 class="text-xl font-semibold"><button id="controlsAccordionItemFour" type="button" class="flex w-full cursor-pointer items-center justify-between gap-2 bg-slate-200 p-4 text-left underline-offset-2 duration-200 hover:bg-slate-100 focus-visible:bg-slate-50 focus-visible:underline focus-visible:outline-hidden" aria-controls="accordionItemFour" x-on:click="isExpanded = ! isExpanded" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'font-bold' : 'font-medium'" x-bind:aria-expanded="isExpanded ? 'true' : 'false'"> <span>When did the US stop putting silver in coins?</span> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewbox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke-width="2" stroke="currentColor" class="size-5 shrink-0 transition" aria-hidden="true" x-bind:class="isExpanded ? 'rotate-180' : ''"> <path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" d="M19.5 8.25l-7.5 7.5-7.5-7.5"></path> </svg> </button></h4>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-79/pdf/STATUTE-79-Pg254.pdf">Coinage Act of 1965</a>, signed July 23, 1965, started clad coinage. To find which coins and years hold silver, see <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/bullion/what-coins-are-silver">which US coins are silver</a>.</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://shpo.nv.gov/nevadas-historical-markers/historical-markers/the-comstock-lode">Comstock Lode</a> was found in 1859. Virginia City boomed for about 20 years, and the boom helped Nevada become a state in 1864.</p>
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<ul class="mt-0">
<li><cite><a href="https://d-nb.info/1234989212/34" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Silver production by cupellation in the fourth millennium BC at Tepe Sialk</a></cite>, E. Pernicka, <em>The Potters of Sialk</em>, <time datetime="2004">2004</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/radiocarbon/article/ams-dating-of-the-late-copper-age-varna-cemetery-bulgaria/706A7F638D010BB6C943FBDFC1062749" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AMS dating of the Late Copper Age Varna cemetery, Bulgaria</a></cite>, T. Higham et al., <em>Radiocarbon</em>, <time datetime="2018">2018</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://periodic-table.rsc.org/element/47/silver" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Silver</a></cite>, Periodic Table, Royal Society of Chemistry. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://coinweek.com/origin-specie-gold-silver-became-money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How gold and silver became money</a></cite>, M. Markowitz, CoinWeek. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.lbma.org.uk/wonders-of-gold/items/croesus-stater" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Croesus Stater</a></cite>, LBMA. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://2500years.culture.gov.gr/en/chapters/i-gennisi-tis-nautikis-dinamis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The birth of the naval power</a></cite>, Hellenic Ministry of Culture. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://cts.perseids.org/read/greekLit/tlg0016/tlg001/perseus-eng2/7.144.1-7.144.3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Histories 7.144</a></cite>, Herodotus, via Perseids. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0046%3Achapter%3D22%3Asection%3D7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Constitution of the Athenians 22.7</a></cite>, Aristotle (attributed), via Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Salamis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Battle of Salamis</a></cite>, Britannica. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/254721" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Silver tetradrachm of Athens, 52.127.6</a></cite>, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/journal/history/pounds-shillings-and-pence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pounds, shillings and pence</a></cite>, Royal Mint Museum. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_1920-0907-382" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coin of Philip II, Potosí, 1920,0907.382</a></cite>, British Museum. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/coinage-act-of-april-2-1792" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coinage Act of April 2, 1792</a></cite>, US Mint. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1873" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coinage Act of 1873</a></cite>, Wikipedia. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www2.econ.iastate.edu/classes/econ355/choi/1900mar14.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gold Standard Act of March 14, 1900</a></cite>, 31 Stat. 45, Iowa State University Department of Economics. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://shpo.nv.gov/nevadas-historical-markers/historical-markers/the-comstock-lode" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marker No. 13: The Comstock Lode</a></cite>, Nevada State Historic Preservation Office. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://newbooksnetwork.com/china-and-the-end-of-global-silver-1873-1937" target="_blank" rel="noopener">China and the End of Global Silver, 1873 to 1937</a></cite>, A. Dean, Cornell University Press, <time datetime="2020">2020</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-79/pdf/STATUTE-79-Pg254.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coinage Act of 1965, P.L. 89-81, 79 Stat. 254</a></cite>, GovInfo. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-signing-the-coinage-act" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Remarks at the Signing of the Coinage Act</a></cite>, L. B. Johnson, The American Presidency Project, <time datetime="1965-07-23">July 23, 1965</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://www.numismaticnews.net/archive/clad-coins-welcomed-coolly-by-collectors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clad coins welcomed coolly by collectors</a></cite>, Numismatic News. Accessed <time datetime="2026-11-05">November 5, 2026</time>.</li>
<li><cite><a href="https://usc-cdn.house.gov/statutes/pl/90/29.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">P.L. 90-29, 81 Stat. 77</a></cite>, U.S. House of Representatives, <time datetime="1967-06-24">June 24, 1967</time>.</li>
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