By 1850, America's supplies of silver had been nearly exhausted as the mother lodes of silver ore discovered out west had been mined dry. The majority of existing American silver dollars were being melted down and sold back to the mint at greatly inflated prices in order to provide it with silver bullion with which it could mint new coins. Therefore, financial expert Louis Anicharsis Garnett proposed the striking of an American "Trade Dollar" or "Commercial Dollar" in the 1850's.