The Coinage Act is the name given to several acts of the British Parliament that regulated the paper money issued by the colonies of British America. The laws were intended to protect British banks from paying in devalued colonial currency. This policy created financial difficulties in the colonies and resentment towards Britain. This law was the main catalyst for the American Revolution. By the mid-1700s, the colonies were well established and quite prosperous. There was no unemployment, no income tax, and prices of goods were generally stable. When Benjamin Franklin visited London in 1763, he found a completely different situation. “The streets are covered with beggars and tramps,” he wrote. (Binderup 1941) He was dismayed to find that England, with all its wealth, was suffering from poverty and unemployment. He was informed that England had too few jobs to employ larger numbers. Business owners were overburdened with taxes and were unable to pay better wages to their employees. At a meeting with merchants and bankers from the British Board of Trade, members asked Benjamin Franklin how the American colonies managed to maintain sufficient funds to support their poor. Franklin replied, “It’s simple. In the colonies we issue our own currency. It's called Colonial Scrip. We deliver it in proportion to the requirements of trade and industry so that products move easily from producers to consumers. In this way, by creating our own paper money ourselves, we control its purchasing power and we have no interest in paying to anyone. (Binderup 1941) Paper money issued by the colonial government was a concern. Some paper money could only be used to pay public debts, including military supplies or taxes...... middle of paper ......-07257-0.Ernst, Joseph Albert. Money and politics in America, 1755-1775; a study of the Coinage Act of 1764 and the political economy of the revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1973. P. 6 ISBN 0-8078-1217-X. Greene, Jack P. and Richard M. Jellison. “The Coinage Act of 1764 in Imperial-Colonial Relations, 1764-1776.” The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 18, No. 4 (October 1961), 485-518. Owen, Robert Latham. National economy and banking system of the United States. Washington: U.S. Government Print. Off., 1939. Print.Sosin, Jack M. "Imperial Regulation of Colonial Paper Money, 1764-1773". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 88, Number 2 (April 1964), 174-98. http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/currency-act.html US Representative Charles Binderup, Unrobing the Ghosts of Wall Street, July 5, 1941