Bimetallic/Bimetallism

From the French bimétallique, it was used in the nineteenth century to describe the double standard of currency based on gold and silver. The system of bimetallism allowed the unrestricted coinage of gold and silver at a fixed price and at a fixed ratio to each other.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, as most nations switched from being on a silver standard to the gold standard, after the Californian and Australian gold rushes, the bimetallic system sometimes operated during the transition period. And in some countries, notably the United States, a strong silver lobby fought a rearguard action to preserve bimetallism.

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 secured temporary retention, decreeing: 'it being the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present ratio’ (16:1). The United States’ presidential campaign of 1896 turned on the issue of bimetallism, with the Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska, fighting to avoid a single gold standard. In his speech to the Democratic National Convention, Bryan said: ‘you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold’. He was defeated and four years later the United States abandoned bimetallism for the gold standard.