1893

Sherman duty repealed

A panic year. The Sherman silver-purchase duty is repealed. This page does not pick a side.

Puck cover of 13 September 1893, titled Out of the silver flood.
Puck, 13 September 1893. The cartoon treats repeal of the Sherman purchase duty as a rescue. This page does not.Public domain.

1893 is the panic year in which the Sherman Silver Purchase Act’s duty to purchase silver was repealed. The notes of 1890 had been a way to draw gold from the Treasury.

Repeal ended that purchase obligation. It did not define the dollar as a gold unit. That statute is 1900. This page does not choose a cause or a faction.

The road back to gold