Currency of Venezuela copper centavos dated 1852 were minted at Birmingham and London. Birmingham Mint Ltd.: Royal Mint, London: Venezolano (Peso) = 10 Reales = 100 Centavos Conversion: 1 venezolano = 5 francos A new monetary law, April 1, 1854, provided for a mint in Caracas to produce a national coinage based on both gold and silver. The gold coins would be: onza, media onza, doblón (1/4 onza), escudo (1/8 onza), and venezolano de oro (1/16 onza or peso de oro). Silver coins were: peso fuerte or venezolano de plata, medio peso, peseta (1/4 peso), real (1/8 peso), and medio real (1/16 peso).
Cross of Gold speech caused by the Napoleonic Wars caused United States gold coins to be worth more as bullion than as money, and they vanished from circulation. Governmental response to this shortage was hampered by the fact that officials did not clearly understand what had happened. In 1830, Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham proposed adjusting the ratio between gold and silver in US currency to 15.8:1, which had for some time been the ratio in Europe. It was not until 1834 that Congress acted, changing the gold/silver ratio to 16.002:1. This was close enough to the market value to make it uneconomic to