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Silver coin content pre 1965
[B]Hi there,
in the US of A the government removed the silver content (+-90%) of coins after 1965,could any one enlighten me as to why in the U.K this was done first in 1919,it was +-90% pure until then,they then reduced it to +-50% and then changed again in I think 1945 and removed all the silver content. My question is why did the U.S wait so long to remove the silver? did they have such vast stores? and did not consider it quite so valuable. It would have made some sense if some Brits maybe who became aware of the future scarcity of silver,once the content was removed in the U.K ,gone snapping up the coinage on the States....I mean after all they did have years and years to have done that. Anyone have any interesting articles or books on this subject to recommend? Cheers Leo (Norfolk,U.K)[/B] |
Re: Silver coin content pre 1965
Hey Greybuffalo:
Welcomd to GIM! :spam4: Oops, sorry I meant :yippee: . I am kidding about the spam. Good question. I don't know all the answers nor can I recommend any books, but part of the answer lies in each countries monetary policy. WWI had just ended, and England was massively in debt; they had to water down their coinage to keep up with all the fiat paper pounds floating around. The United States by contrast had only recently, 1913, started playing around with the money supply, and the US came out of the war as a creditor. So its finances were superb. It took only 46 years for the US to water down its money supply with all the fiat dollars making silver to damned expensive. In short that is what happened to both countries. The Great Ag |
Re: Silver coin content pre 1965
Why did the US wait so long ?
Probably because the US was sitting on 2-4 billion ounces ( depending on whose figures you read ) up thru the 50's, and inflation/deficit spending didn't really get ramped up until the 60's when Johnson declared war on "poverty"......read that as massive govt spending.....at the same time he was trying to run a war in Vietnam. As to why UK folks didn't snap up US coinage, my guess is SOME did.....but just like today, the silver story is largely unknown. IF it were common knowledge that if EVERYBODY wanted a couple ounces of silver, the known world supply couldn't provide it, then there would be a run on silver right now. Welcome to the forum. |
Re: Silver coin content pre 1965
Took Canada and Australia even longer I believe....
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