The Roman Empire had minted gold coins called the aureus and solidus acquired during the expansion across Europe. They also minted a silver coin called the denarius. One denarius was paid as the daily wage for unskilled labor and for the Roman soldiers.
Late in the Empire, the aureus, solidus and denarius were all debased by mixing the gold and silver with base metals such as copper, zinc and tin,. The decline of the Roman Empire went hand in hand with the decline of sound money when the Roman soldiers refused to fight and die for a currency that only contained 5% of the original silver content.
In the early 9th century AD, Emperor Charlemagne greatly expanded silver coinage to the empire to compensate for the known shortage of gold. He was successful in stimulating the economy of the Holy Roman Empire. If you look back on recent history, Charlemagne was the first to implement quantitative easing at over 1,000 years ago. Silver was his preferred form of money, widely used due to the gold shortage.
You can see, from the decline of the silver content, how the durability of the coin also deteriorated.
Now fast forward to the current USA Empire
Up until 1935, U.S. silver coins were 90% pure silver with 10% copper alloy added for durability of the coin. The U.S. Coinage Act of 1965 mandated that the silver content of half-dollars, quarters and dimes were to be reduced from 90% to 40% silver. As the price of silver increased at that time in history, people started hoarding the valuable silver coins minted prior to 1965.
The 1965 law signed by President Johnson marked the end of true silver coinage by U.S.A. Additional legislation in 1968 ended the redeem ability of old “silver certificates” (actually paper Treasury notes) for silver bullion.
After that, U.S.A. coinage consisted of debased metal coins, (No Silver) and paper money that was not convertible into silver; (gold convertibility ended back in 1933). It only costs the Federal Reserve $0.11 to print a $100 Federal Reserve Note, even with all the security features built in.
Let’s hope that the U.S.S.A is not following the footsteps of the Roman Empire in terms of a political decline (We’re very close) coinciding with the substitution of base metals (copper, zinc) for true gold and silver coinage. People will realize soon that printed fiat currency is not worth the paper it is printed on and may refuse to use and accept this currency for a days work, just like the Roman soldiers.
In 1986, the U.S.A. reintroduced silver coinage with a 0.999 pure silver one-ounce coin called the American Silver Eagle. However, this coin is not legal tender, even though it is stamped as “one dollar” face value. The silver eagle is a bullion coin is recognized internationally by investors and collectors for its silver content. But it is not pure money.
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