Interesting comment regarding legal tender & the government
mrpotatoheadd
Posts: 7,576 ✭✭
According to Q. David Bowers, in the August Numismatist:
"Uncle Sam would not accept his own Legal Tender notes at face value [in the mid 1860's] for the purchase of proofs from the Mint. Payment was reckoned in terms of gold and silver coinage..."
"Uncle Sam would not accept his own Legal Tender notes at face value [in the mid 1860's] for the purchase of proofs from the Mint. Payment was reckoned in terms of gold and silver coinage..."
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I'd like to hear more about that
<< <i>According to Q. David Bowers, in the August Numismatist:
"Uncle Sam would not accept his own Legal Tender notes at face value [in the mid 1860's] for the purchase of proofs from the Mint. Payment was reckoned in terms of gold and silver coinage..." >>
It makes sense. There was a shortage of gold and silver in the marketplace during the Civil War and gold, silver, and even copper coins were hoarded. At its lowest point, a gold dollar could buy $2.86 in paper from the currency brokers. Merchants had different prices for their merchandise depending on whether you are paying with gold, silver, or paper. It didn't make much sense for the mint to sell gold and silver proof coins (even with their small mark-ups for handling) for paper money.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
"Interest rates, the price of money, are the most important market. And, perversely, they’re the market that’s most manipulated by the Fed." - Doug Casey
<< <i>It makes perfect sense that the Mint would not want them for purchasing gold, silver and minor Proof sets. >>
Of course it does. Why would any seller want to accept pieces of paper that cannot be redeemed for anything as payment for a sale?
$4.35 for 87 octane yesterday.