In the 1850s, the proportion of silver in the currency supply fell, and the proportion of gold rose. This is an illustration of

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Gresham's law states that "bad money drives out good." In this context, if both gold and silver are used as money and one becomes more valuable as a commodity than as money, people will hoard or export the more valuable metal and use the less valuable one as currency. This leads to the more valuable metal (gold, in this case) disappearing from circulation, which is what happened in the 1850s when the proportion of silver in the currency supply fell and the proportion of gold rose.

In the 1850s, the Proportion of Silver in the Currency