At the beginning of the fiscal year 1887 there was on hand at the mints at Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco, silver bullion purchased for the silver dollar coinage amounting to $2,960,969.02. There was delivered at the mints on purchases of all kinds during the year, as above, 29,433,342.27 standard ounces, at a cost of $25,988,620.46, making the total amount of silver available during the fiscal year for the silver dollar coinage 32,691,837.93 standard ounces, costing $28,949,589.48. The price paid by this Bureau on November 1, 1887, for silver purchases for the silver dollar coinage was $0.9580.80 per ounce fine. The production of silver, notwithstanding the large depreciation in the market value of that metal, has steadily increased from $115,000,000 in 1883 to $130,000,000 in 1886. The production of the world for the calendar years 1883, 1884, 1885 and 1886 is exhibited in the following table: World’s Production of Gold and Silver. ---------+-----------------------+------------------------ | Gold. | Silver. Calendar +----------+------------+----------+------------- Years. |Kilograms.| Value.[23] |Kilograms.| Value.[24] ---------+----------+------------+----------+------------- 1883 | 143,533 | $95,392,000| 2,769,197| $115,088,000 1884 | 153,017 | 101,694,000| 2,804,725| 116,564,000 1885 | 154,942 | 102,975,000| 3,062,009| 127,257,000 1886 | 147,097 | 97,761,000| 3,137,175| 130,383,000 ---------+----------+------------+----------+------------- The United States still maintains first rank among the nations of the world as the largest producer of the precious metals, having produced during the calendar year 1886 gold and silver of the coining value of $86,000,000. Mexico retains second rank, with a production of $33,614,000, of which $33,000,000 was silver. Australia has a production of $27,647,000, of which $26,425,000 was gold. Russia is credited with a production of $21,046,000, of which $20,518,000 was gold. Circulation of Standard Silver Dollars at the end of each six months, from July 1, 1885, to July 1, 1887, and on October 1, 1887.