I came across an old political cartoon which has this exchange
It shows Cleveland putting money in Hanna’s Republican campaign fund.
I’ve heard the term before, but I can’t find a source that gives a plain explanation. I’d assume that it meant the money is readily accessible and reliable- ie it is sound. But something tells me it may be idiomatic.
It is money backed by gold and/or silver which has a relatively fixed value. i.e. the old silver centificates redeemable in silver on demand, hard currency.
Gold or silver coin.
I knew a fellow in the 1940 who NEVER spent a silver coin in all the time I knew him. Pennies and nickels but nothing larger which were all coil silver, (10% Cu and 90% Ag.) He had more that one foot locker full and moved them somewhere else in the country when filled. Must have left a fortune for someone.
“Beware of the Cog”
It is money backed by gold and/or silver which has a relatively fixed value. i.e. the old silver centificates redeemable in silver on demand, hard currency.
Gold or silver coin.
I knew a fellow in the 1940’s who NEVER spent a silver coin in all the time I knew him. Pennies and nickels but nothing larger which were all coil silver, (10% Cu and 90% Ag.) He had more that one foot locker full and moved them somewhere else in the country when filled. Must have left a fortune for someone.
“Beware of the Cog”
More specifically, Grover Cleveland pursued what he called a “sound money policy”…that US currency would be backed by gold, and he was one of the few notable Democrats to do this. The Democratic Party in the South and West at the time, tended to endorse “free silver” or bimetallism…that money would be backed by either silver or by both silver and gold. Some big free silver Democrats included William Jennings Bryan, “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, and James Weaver.
The backers of the Free Silver movement supported it because they hoped it would lead to inflation, which would decrease the debt of farmers in the South and West, which was a major constituency of the Democrats. It was Cleveland’s repudation of free silver that probably cost him the 1896 Democratic nomination.
Mark Hanna was the Republican political consultant “par excellence”, and was instrumental in getting William McKinley elected president. What it looks like the cartoon is saying is that Cleveland’s strict “Solid money” stance assured/will assure Republican victory in the '96 election, because of the way it split the Democrats.