Posted on 07/21/2015 10:13:21 PM PDT by george76
The Coinage Act of 1965 marked the end of silver coins, contrary to what LBJ promised. July 23 marks the 50th anniversary of the Coinage Act of 1965, which stripped U.S. coins of silver and made legal tender out of base metal slugs. Its an anniversary that comes at an apt time, as Congress considers monetary reform.
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The anniversary of the 1965 Coinage Act is a reminder of why reform is needed. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, President Lyndon B. Johnson called the law he signed a very rare and historic occasion. It certainly was; it superseded the coinage act drafted by Alexander Hamilton and passed by Congress in 1792.
The original coinage act established the United States Mint and declared the dollar as the money of account for the new republic. It defined the dollar as 3711/4 grains of silver or the equivalent in gold; the penalty for debasing coins struck under the law was death.
When LBJ signed the 1965 act, the value of a dollar was almost exactly the same as it had been in 17920.77 ounces of silver. Despite some downs and ups, on average it had been remarkably steady for the long span.
That was because since Hamiltons day, as the president noted, our coinage of dimes, and quarters, and half dollars, and dollars have contained 90% silver. Not any more: The new dimes and quarters would contain no silver.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Over the past five years I’ve had the job of cleaning out the homes of deceased elder relatives. In each and every house, I found at least one wine jug filled with silver coins from 1963-64.
Now I have five jugs of silver coins from 1963-64.
(I’ve been able to sell some of the good examples of old quarters from the 20s for $15-20. Just crazy.)
Clearly those coins were willed to you, because you would never have stolen them from the estates of the deceased relatives.
I used to get those back when I had my paper route.
Yes, they were actually left to my wife.
I used to a the odd quarter or dime when I worked at the parking garage in my high school years. I always traded them out with my own change.
And, my grandfather left me a whole box of civil war era half dimes and dimes. Not worth a ton, but most of those are 90% silver as well.
Beautiful coins back then.
The only answer I have ever read to that question is no. How could it even be attempted? I don’t have a clue. I was in France as a young sailor at a time when they actually had two currencies in circulation at the same time, “old francs” and “new francs” I believe the ratio was five to one with one new being worth five old. Everything was priced in new francs and if you only had old francs you paid five times as many for the same thing. When converting dollars to francs you might get old or new but if new you would get only one fifth as many as old. It all worked out to the same thing in the end, I never figured out what the point of it all was.
I love to tell people I can remember when coins were made out of (90%) silver.
They look at me like I’m ancient or crazy (I’m both).
I often tell young grocery store clerks to look out for the 90 percent silver coins.
They are always shocked as other clerks are often listening, too.
In January 1960 the French franc was revalued, with 100 existing francs making one nouveau franc.
To offset massive inflation due to government money printing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_franc#New_franc
Did they have coinage for both? Or just printed bills?
21 How the faithful city has become a harlot, She who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, But now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross, Your drink diluted with water.
23 Your rulers are rebels And companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe And chases after rewards. They do not defend the orphan, Nor does the widows plea come before them. 24 Therefore the Lord God of hosts, The Mighty One of Israel, declares, Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries And avenge Myself on My foes. 25 I will also turn My hand against you, And will smelt away your dross as with lye And will remove all your alloy. 26 Then I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning; After that you will be called the city of righteousness, A faithful city.
I was on liberty in France in ‘64 and in ‘65, I know there were two values, it’s been a long time so I guess I didn’t recall the ratio correctly.
I’d better not say, that’s a long time to remember things, I was there in ‘64 and ‘65 as a young drunken sailor on liberty.
Yes, the old designs were beautiful. Most of what silver I have collected over the years (I was only 10 when the coins changed, but I have saved silver from my change since about 1970) is newer coins, Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters and such. I did get a Mercury dime or two, and one Liberty half dollar.
I usually run ‘Duck Duck Gone’, but had to use Google to get the page to fully display.
But who anticipated that eventually the 50 cent piece would someday actually contain 50 cents worth of copper? FREE COPPER! LOL,
One person certainly anticipated it: Irwin Schiff.
Actually, a lot of hard-money people would have predicted it. Any fiat money eventually sinks until it is worth exactly what the commodity it is made of is worth. That’s why you hear that “the dollar will eventually be worth paper.”
I think it was Mises who said: “Only government has the power to make a valuable commodity like paper completely worthless by slapping some ink on it.”
What exactly are dimes and quarters made of now? I know that they have some copper.
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