Coinage Clause Law and Legal Definition
Coinage clause is a provision of the U.S. Constitution granting Congress the power to coin money. Article I, section 8, Clause 5 of the Constitution says that “Congress shall have power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures.”
One of the purposes of inserting the coinage clause was to impose on the government a special trust to create and maintain a national metallic currency, to the exclusion of any other. [Metropolitan Bank v. Van Dyck, 27 N.Y. 400, 484 (N.Y. 1863)]
