Indictment for forging a silver coin of Spain, called a "head
pistareen," which the indictment alleged was, by law, made current
in the United States.
Held that the head pistareen is no
part of the Spanish milled dollar. That such pistareen or piece of
coin is not a silver coin of Spain made current by law in the
United States.
At October term 1835, the defendant was indicted in the circuit
court for that he,
"Joseph Gardner, late of the Township of Bloomfield, in the
County of Essex and in the District of New Jersey, on 15 June in
the year of our Lord 1835, with force and arms, &c., at the
Township of Bloomfield, in the County of Essex, in the District of
New Jersey aforesaid and within the jurisdiction of this court, did
falsely and feloniously make, forge, and counterfeit one hundred
pieces of false and counterfeit coin, each piece thereof in the
resemblance and similitude of a foreign silver coin, to-wit, a
silver coin of Spain, called a 'head pistareen,' which by law was
then and still is made current in the United States of America,
against the form of the statute of the United States of America in
such case made and provided."
The second count in the indictment charged that the
defendant
"did feloniously and willingly aid and assist in falsely and
feloniously making, forging and counterfeiting one hundred pieces
of false and counterfeit coin, each piece thereof in the
resemblance and similitude of a foreign silver coin, to-wit, a
silver coin of Spain, called a 'head pistareen,' which by law was
then and still is made current in the United States of America,
against the form of the statute of the United States of America in
such case made and provided."
The jury found the following special verdict:
"That the said defendant, Joseph Gardner, did make, forge, and
counterfeit four pieces of false and counterfeit coin, each piece
thereof in the resemblance and similitude of a foreign silver coin,
to-wit, a silver coin of Spain, called a 'head pistareen,' in
manner and form as stated in the said indictment. That genuine coin
of the description of the said head
Page 35 U. S. 619
pistareen has for many years last past been in common
circulation in the country. That the same has commonly passed at
the rate of 20 cents each; that few of them are now in circulation.
That they are still received and paid at the said rate of 20 cents
each; that they have been sometimes sold at the rate of 22 cents
each. That their average value by weight is between 22 1/4 cents,
and 22 1/2 cents each; that their average value by assays at the
mint of the United States is 19 cents 7 mills each. That the said
genuine coin, called 'head pistareens,' have on their face the same
characters as one class or kind of the Spanish dollar and half
dollar, excepting the letter and figure '2 R' on said pistareens,
'4 R' on the said half dollar, and '8 R' on the said dollar, and
thus purport to be quarters of said dollar. That said dollar is of
the weight of seventeen pennyweights and seven grains, and the said
half dollar is the one-half of the weight of said dollar. That the
said dollar is of the weight required by law, is a Spanish coin,
genuine and milled, and passes current as a dollar. That the said
half dollar is commonly circulated at the rate of 50 cents each,
and that the said false and counterfeit pieces of coin made by the
said defendant, with the said dollar and half dollar, with other
Spanish coin given in evidence to the said jury, are now presented
to the said court as a part of this their finding. But whether or
not upon the whole matter aforesaid, by the jurors aforesaid, in
form aforesaid found, the said Joseph Gardner is guilty in manner
and form as he stands charged in the said indictment, the jury are
altogether ignorant, and therefore they pray the advice of the said
court."
"And if upon the whole matter aforesaid it shall seem to the
said court that the said Joseph Gardner is guilty in manner and
form as he stands charged in said indictment, then the jurors
aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, say that the said Joseph
Gardner is guilty thereof in manner and form as he stands charged.
But if upon the whole matter aforesaid it shall seem to the said
court that the said Joseph Gardner is not guilty in manner and form
as he stands charged in said indictment, then the jurors aforesaid,
upon their oath aforesaid, say that the said Joseph Gardner is not
guilty in manner and form as he stands charged in the said
indictment."
The judges of the circuit court were opposed in opinion on the
following questions involved in this special verdict:
1. Whether the head pistareen so called is a part of a Spanish
milled dollar.
Page 35 U. S. 620
2. Whether such pistareen or piece of coin is a silver coin of
Spain, made current by law in the United States.
These questions were, at the request of the district attorney of
the United States, stated under the direction of the judges
aforesaid, and ordered by the court to be certified under the seal
of the court to the Supreme Court of the United States at their
next session to be held thereafter, to be finally decided by the
said supreme court, and the court being further of opinion that
further proceedings could not be had in said cause without
prejudice to the merits of the same cause, did order that all
further proceedings on the said indictment be stayed until the
decision of the Supreme Court shall be remitted to the said circuit
court, and then entered of record.
MR. JUSTICE THOMPSON delivered the opinion of the Court.
The prisoner was indicted for falsely making and forging one
hundred pieces of false and counterfeit coin, each piece in the
resemblance and similitude of a foreign silver coin, to-wit, a
silver coin of Spain called a "head pistareen," which by law is
made current in the United States of America, against the form of
the statute in such case made and provided.
This indictment is founded on the twentieth section of the Act
of Congress of 1825, 7 Laws U.S. 400, which makes it felony,
punishable by fine and imprisonment at hard labor, to forge and
counterfeit any coin in the resemblance or similitude of any
foreign gold or silver coin which by law now is or hereafter may be
made current in the United States. Upon the trial of the prisoner,
the jury found a special verdict. And the judges were opposed in
opinion upon the following questions arising on the special
verdict: 1. whether the head pistareen, so called, is a part of a
Spanish milled dollar; 2. whether such pistareen, or piece of coin,
is a silver coin of Spain made current by law in the United States.
And these questions have been certified to this Court for
decision.
That the coin commonly called a "head pistareen" may be a part
of a dollar, in reference to its divisibility only and when
understood in the same sense as any other subdivision of a Spanish
dollar, may be
Page 35 U. S. 621
admitted without affecting the main question in this case if
such part has not been made current by law.
But it is presumed that this first question is to be taken in
reference to the offense charged in the indictment and the facts
found by the special verdict, and with this understanding of it,
the two questions may be considered together, and involve the same
inquiry,
viz., whether such pistareen is a silver coin of
Spain made current by law in the United States. Such is the
description of foreign coin the counterfeiting of which the law has
declared to be a felony. The special verdict finds that genuine
coin of the description of the head pistareen has for many years
last past been in common circulation in the country, and has
generally passed at the rate of 20 cents each; that few of them are
now in circulation; that they are still received and paid at the
rate of 20 cents each; that their average value by weight is
between 22 1/4 cents and 22 1/2 cents each; that their average
value by assays at the mint of the United States is 19 cents 7
mills each. The jury present with their verdict certain silver coin
of different denominations, with the following description and
remarks:
"That the genuine coin called 'head pistareens' have on their
face the same characters as one class or kind of the Spanish dollar
and half-dollar, excepting the letter and figure '2 R' on said
pistareens, '4 R' on the said half-dollars, and '8 R' on the said
dollar, and thus purport to be quarters of said dollars. That said
dollar is of the weight of seventeen pennyweights and seven grains,
and that said half-dollar is the one-half of the weight of said
dollar. That the said dollar is of the weight required by law, is a
Spanish coin, genuine and milled, and passes current as a
dollar."
Thus it will be seen that the pistareen passes for 20 cents, or
one-fifth of a dollar, although it purports to be a quarter of a
dollar or 25 cents, so that its current, as well as its real value
is uncertain. And whether it is to be considered as a coin made
current by law is only to be ascertained by a reference to the laws
of Congress on this subject.
By the act of 1792, 2 Laws U.S. 263, sec. 9, establishing a mint
and regulating the coin of the United States, the several
denominations of silver coin are declared to be dollars,
half-dollars, quarter-dollars, dimes and half-dimes, and the value
of each is established. The Spanish milled dollar, as the same was
then in current use, was assumed as the standard. And the
subdivision or parts of the dollar, according to the above
denominations, are
Page 35 U. S. 622
adopted as the most convenient division of the dollar. And in
the following year, 1793, 2 Laws U.S. 328, an act was passed
regulating foreign coin by which, among other things, it is
declared that foreign silver coin shall pass current as money
within the United States and be a legal tender for the payment of
all debts and demands at the rates therein fixed. The Spanish
milled dollar at the rate of 100 cents for each dollar, the actual
weight whereof shall not be less than seventeen pennyweights and
seven grains, and in proportion for the parts of a dollar. The
dollar and parts of the dollar are here made current by law. What
is here meant by "parts of a dollar?" The parts of a dollar having
been recently fixed and defined in our domestic coin, it is no more
than reasonable to conclude that the parts of a dollar here adopted
in relation to foreign coin are referable to the same denomination
in the subdivision, as established in the domestic coin. The value
of the foreign dollar is fixed in cents at 100 cents, according to
the denomination at the mint, and the same rule would apply to the
parts of a dollar when valued in cents; and there is no
denomination of silver valued at 20 cents, the value of the
pistareen found by the jury. By this act, no foreign coin issued
after 1 January, 1792 shall be a tender until samples thereof shall
have been found, by assay at the mint of the United States, to be
conformable to the respective standards required. And it is also
declared by this act that at the expiration of three years next
ensuing the time when the coinage of gold and silver, agreeably to
the act establishing the mint, shall commence at the mint of the
United States, all foreign gold coin and all foreign silver coin
except Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars shall cease
to be a legal tender. And it would be incongruous to suppose that
if these foreign coins, if not a legal tender, would be considered
as made current by law. And it is also provided by this act, in
order to fix the time when foreign coin should cease to be a
tender, that the President shall make proclamation of the time when
such coinage shall commence. The President, accordingly, on 22
July, 1797, issued his proclamation announcing the time when the
coinage commenced at the mint and declaring that all foreign silver
except Spanish milled dollars and parts of such dollars will cease
to pass current as money on 15 October then next.
That the policy of the government was to withdraw from
circulation, or at least not to recognize as a coin made current by
law, foreign coin as soon as our own coinage was sufficient to
answer the
Page 35 U. S. 623
metallic circulation is fairly to be inferred from the provision
that all foreign gold and silver coin (except Spanish milled
dollars and parts of such dollars) which shall be received in
payment for moneys due the United States after coinage shall begin
at the mint shall, previous to their being issued in circulation,
be coined anew in conformity to the act establishing the mint. And
the policy of the government being to establish a currency under
our own coinage and according to our own denominations, it is
reasonable to conclude that the parts of a Spanish milled dollar
mentioned in this law and in all the legislation on the subject
when the same language is used, is in reference to the parts of a
dollar according to the decision in the act of 1792. The act of
1793 was in part repealed in 1806, 4 Laws U.S. 29, and another law
regulating the currency of foreign coins passed, and directing at
what rate such foreign coin shall pass current, retaining the same
standard of weight, seventeen pennyweights and seven grains, as the
Spanish milled dollar, and in proportion for the parts of a dollar,
and directing the Secretary of the Treasury to cause assays of the
foreign gold and silver coin to be had at the mint for the purpose
of enabling Congress to make such alteration in the coin made
current by that act as may become necessary from the real standard
of such foreign coin, all looking to the same policy with respect
to the establishment of our own coinage and in reference to the
denominations in the law of 1792. By the Act of 1806, 4 Laws U.S.
67, for the punishment of counterfeiting the current coin of the
United States, it is made felony to counterfeit any gold or silver
coins which by law now are or hereafter shall be made current or be
in actual use and circulation as money within the United States,
clearly embracing money in circulation which was not made current
by law, and in this class or description may be embraced the small
silver foreign coin under 25 cents in circulation here. But by the
Act of 1825, 7 Laws U.S. 400, sec. 20, under which the prisoner is
indicted, this class of currency is omitted, and the offense is
confined to counterfeiting such foreign gold or silver coin which
by law then was or thereafter might be made current in the United
States. The jury by its special verdict found that the head
pistareen has for many years past been in common circulation in the
country. The counterfeiting of such coin, under the act of 1806,
would be felony, but not under the act of 1825 unless it is a coin
made current by law.
From this view of the several acts of Congress, there is at
least
Page 35 U. S. 624
reasonable grounds to conclude that when the terms "parts of a
dollar" are used in these laws, it is in reference to the division
of a dollar as established at the mint, and there being no such
part as a twenty cent piece, or fifth of a dollar, we think the
pistareen is not a coin made current by law. But if this is a
doubtful construction of the act, it ought to be adopted in a case
so highly penal as the present.
We are accordingly of opinion that the questions certified to
this Court must be answered in the negative.
This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record
from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of New
Jersey and on the questions and points on which the judges of the
said circuit court were opposed in opinion and which were certified
to this Court for its opinion agreeably to the act of Congress in
such case made and provided, and was argued by counsel, on
consideration whereof it is the opinion of this Court first, that
the "head pistareen," so called, is no part of a Spanish milled
dollar, and secondly that such pistareen or piece of coin is not a
silver coin of Spain made current by law in the United States.
Whereupon it is ordered and adjudged by this Court that it be so
certified to said circuit court.
