THE BANK WAR: Jackson v. Biddle (The History of Wealth & "Money," from Ancient Coins to the Perils of Paper "Money" in America)

American Minute ^ | July 9, 2020 | Bill Federer

[Perseverando]

Money supply has a mixed history.

Originally, wealth was measured in precious metals of gold, silver, or copper.

Exodus 25:3 "And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and copper."

Items of gold, silver, or copper had to be weighed.

A "shekel" was a fixed unit of weight.

Shekels were placed on one side of a scale and on the other side were placed the items of gold, silver, or copper to be weighed.

The Bible admonished not cheat, Deuteronomy 25:13 "Do not have two differing weights in your bag -- one heavy, one light." (NIV)

In the 6th century BC, King Croesus of Lydia is credited with being the first to mint coins, a mix of gold and silver called "electrum," which had a specific weight and image stamped on it.

Croesus, who was associated with the legend of King Midas' gold, asked Greek leader Solon who was the happiest man.

Solon, because of the fickleness of fortune, responded, "Count no man happy till he be dead."

Croesus later lost his wealth and his life when Lydia was conquered by King Cyrus of Persia in 546 BC.

Other kingdoms began minting coins, such as the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, and Romans, whose coin was called denarius.

“'Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?' ... Jesus said to them 'Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?' They said, 'Caesar's.' And He said to them, 'Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.'” (NASB Luke 20:22-25)

Methods of cheating developed.

One was clipping off the edges of coins.

Another, used by Egyptian and Roman governments, was

[Perseverando]

Time for another great American (and world) history lesson from American Minute.

[CharlesOConnell]

A sreng verboten, a strongly forbidden issue, for you to discuss or even think about, is that usury was forbidden to Christians and Muslims, but allowed for a 3rd group. Who then set up the current system, in which sterile gold, which you can't eat, copulates to increase sterility. The Croesus faction which runs this world, decided that when reformed-badboy Muammar Khadafi, tried to start a Pan-African currency on Muslim principles against usury, only allowing administrative fees, he had to be taken out by a drone strike while travelling in a convoy with a white flag.

[hanamizu]

One very early ‘coin’ was a chunk of copper valued as worth one cow. It was in the shape of a cowhide and about the size of a school-desk top. Very heavy and inconvenient to carry around. Change could be made by cutting the copper into halves and quarters. Silver, being more valuable than copper made for smaller coins of the same value and gold even more so.

I think the first precious metal coins were made of a naturally occurring gold/silver alloy, electrum.

[LS]

I have a different take. In my 1988 article, “Jacksonian Ideology, Currency Control, and `Central Banking': A Reappraisal,” The Historian, LI, November 1988, pp. 78−102, I showed with previously unseen papers that Jackson's actions had nothing at all to do with "gold" or "paper money." It was a power grab by Jackson to replace the WHIG BUS with his OWN BUS and he ordered (yes, I found the order) his Sec Treas Woodbury to begin setting up his DemoKKKrat BUS.