Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress three related powers over the nation’s money and measurements: to coin money, to regulate the value of that money and of foreign coin used in the United States, and to fix uniform standards for weights and measures. It is the constitutional source of the dollar, the Mint, federal legal tender laws, and, through later delegation, the Federal Reserve’s authority over monetary policy.
What the Clause Says and Why It Is There
The full text reads: “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.”1Constitution Annotated. ArtI.S8.C5.1 Congress’s Coinage Power One sentence, three powers.
The framers wrote it to fix a specific problem. Under the Articles of Confederation, individual states printed their own paper money, known as bills of credit, and each state’s currency traded at different values. Some states deliberately inflated their currencies to pay debts cheaply. Merchants recalculated exchange rates from one state to the next; creditors could not tell whether repayment would come in sound money or worthless paper. A functioning national economy needed one monetary authority, not thirteen. Clause 5 created that authority, and Article I, Section 10 (discussed below) closed the door behind it by forbidding the states from doing the same thing.
The Power to Coin Money
“To coin Money” originally meant the physical striking of metal coins, and that function still belongs to the United States Mint, which remains the nation’s sole manufacturer of legal tender coinage.2United States Mint. United States Mint Hosts Historic Ceremonial Strike for Final Production of the Circulating One-Cent Coin Congress created the Mint in 1792 and moved it under the Department of the Treasury in 1873.
Federal statute controls exactly what the Secretary of the Treasury may produce, down to diameter and weight. Current law authorizes the dollar coin, half dollar, quarter, dime, nickel, and cent, along with several gold and palladium bullion coins.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 U.S. Code 5112 – Denominations, Specifications, and Design of Coins No coin enters circulation without a statutory basis, because Congress holds the power.
Paper currency is a separate operation. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, also part of Treasury, prints the Federal Reserve notes Americans use every day.4Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Currency The Mint handles coins; the BEP handles bills. Both exist because Congress created them under its Clause 5 authority.
The Power to Regulate the Value of Money
The second phrase, “regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin,” is where the real sovereignty sits. Striking coins is mechanical. Deciding what those coins are worth, and requiring everyone to accept them, is an act of the sovereign.
Congress exercises this power mainly through legal tender laws. Under current federal statute, United States coins and currency, including Federal Reserve notes, are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 U.S. Code 5103 – Legal Tender A creditor generally cannot refuse payment in U.S. dollars and demand gold, cryptocurrency, or some other form of value in its place. The same statute expressly provides that foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts in the United States.
The authority over foreign coin had an immediate practical use. In the early republic, Spanish dollars, British pounds, and French coins circulated alongside American money. Congress needed the power to set official exchange rates so that foreign coins used in domestic transactions carried a defined, uniform value rather than shifting from town to town.
Does Clause 5 Let Congress Print Paper Money?
The clause says “coin Money,” and coins are metal. That produced the most dramatic constitutional fight over Clause 5: could Congress issue paper money at all? During the Civil War, Congress passed the Legal Tender Acts authorizing Treasury notes, or “greenbacks,” and declared them valid for paying debts.
The Supreme Court first said no. In Hepburn v. Griswold (1870), the Court held that making paper promises legal tender for pre-existing debts was “not a means appropriate, plainly adapted, really calculated to carry into effect any express power vested in Congress” and was “inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution.”6Legal Information Institute. Hepburn v. Griswold
A year later, in Knox v. Lee (1871), the Court reversed itself and upheld the Acts for debts incurred before and after passage, reasoning that the power to issue currency as a circulating medium was inherent in the government’s broader constitutional authority.7Legal Information Institute. Knox v. Lee
The question returned in peacetime and was settled in Juilliard v. Greenman (1884). Congress has the constitutional power to make Treasury notes legal tender in payment of private debts “in time of peace as well as in time of war,” and whether the circumstances justify doing so is a political question for Congress, not a judicial one.8Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Legal Tender Cases, 110 U.S. 421 (1884) After Juilliard, the authority of Congress to create paper legal tender was beyond dispute.
Gold, Fiat Currency, and Congress’s Grip on the Dollar’s Definition
For most of American history, the dollar was defined in terms of precious metal. Congress cut that link in stages, each one an exercise of Clause 5.
The first major break came during the Great Depression. On June 5, 1933, Congress passed a Joint Resolution declaring that contract clauses requiring payment in gold coin were “against public policy” and void. Every obligation, past or future, could be satisfied “dollar for dollar, in any coin or currency which at the time of payment is legal tender.” In Norman v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. (1935), the Supreme Court upheld this action, ruling that Congress’s power to regulate currency authorized it to override existing private contracts when those contracts interfered with monetary policy: “Private contracts must be understood as having been made subject to the possible exercise of the rightful authority of the Government.”9Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Norman v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co.
The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 went further. It transferred ownership of all monetary gold in the United States to the Treasury, barred the Treasury and financial institutions from redeeming dollars for gold, and set the gold price at $35 per ounce, which devalued the dollar to 59 percent of its former gold value. Private ownership of gold coins was banned, and possession of gold bars was restricted to approved industrial uses. A $2 billion Exchange Stabilization Fund was created from the profits of the devaluation.
The final thread was cut in 1971, when President Nixon directed the suspension of the dollar’s convertibility into gold for foreign governments, ending the Bretton Woods system.10U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian. Nixon and the End of the Bretton Woods System, 1971-1973 The dollar has been pure fiat currency since, backed by the authority of the federal government rather than by metal.
What States Cannot Do
Clause 5 empowers Congress to create currency. A separate provision, Article I, Section 10, denies that power to the states. States cannot coin money, issue bills of credit, or make anything other than gold and silver coin a legal tender for debts.11Constitution Annotated. Article I Section 10 Clause 1
The two provisions work as a pair. Clause 5 centralizes monetary authority in Congress; Section 10 keeps any state from setting up a rival currency and undermining it. A companion provision, Clause 6 of the same section, authorizes Congress “to provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States,” which gives the federal government enforcement tools to protect what it creates under Clause 5.12Constitution Annotated. Article I Section 8 Clause 6
How Clause 5 Operates Today: The Federal Reserve
Congress holds the monetary power, but it has delegated much of the daily management to the Federal Reserve System. The constitutional path to that delegation runs through McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), where the Supreme Court upheld Congress’s power to charter a national bank even though banks are not mentioned in Article I. Chief Justice Marshall held that a bank was an appropriate means of carrying out the enumerated powers, including the coinage power, and that the Necessary and Proper Clause covers any “appropriate and legitimate” method of executing them.13Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. McCulloch v. Maryland
Building on that precedent, Congress created the Federal Reserve System in 1913 “to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system.”14Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Federal Reserve Act In practical terms, the Fed is how Congress regulates the value of money now. Rather than setting the gold content of a coin, the Fed manages the dollar’s purchasing power through open market operations, the discount window, interest on reserve balances, and repurchase agreement facilities.15Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Policy Tools When the Fed raises or cuts rates, that is the modern exercise of the constitutional power to regulate the value of money.
The Supreme Court has read Clause 5 broadly enough “to authorize Congress to regulate every phase of currency,” which is what makes this kind of institutional delegation constitutionally sound.1Constitution Annotated. ArtI.S8.C5.1 Congress’s Coinage Power
A Note on Central Bank Digital Currency
Whether Clause 5 would support a Federal Reserve-issued digital dollar became a live question in recent years. The Fed explored the concept of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), defined as “a digital liability of a central bank that is widely available to the general public,” while stating it had “made no decisions on whether to pursue or implement” one.16Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) In January 2025, an executive order prohibited federal agencies from taking any action to “establish, issue, or promote CBDCs” and directed that ongoing CBDC-related plans “shall be immediately terminated.”17The White House. Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology Congress could revisit the question at any time through new legislation.
The Standard of Weights and Measures
The last phrase of the clause is often overlooked: Congress may “fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.” The framers grouped this with the coinage power for a reason. Honest commerce needs uniform standards. A pound of flour in Virginia had to mean the same thing as a pound of flour in Massachusetts, just as a dollar in one state needed to equal a dollar in the other.
Congress first exercised this power in 1836, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to distribute a complete set of standard weights and measures to every state so that “a uniform standard of weights and measures may be established throughout the United States.”18National Institute of Standards and Technology. A Brief History of OWM The responsibility today sits with the Office of Weights and Measures at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which coordinates with state and local agencies to keep commercial transactions accurate and consistent.19National Institute of Standards and Technology. Weights and Measures Economic Index
Congress used the same authority to pass the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, which designated the metric system as “the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce.”20U.S. Government Publishing Office. Metric Conversion Act of 1975 The Act made the shift voluntary, which is why Americans still buy gasoline by the gallon, but the legal power behind the policy comes from these five words in Clause 5.