My AV Cavalier d'or ND Brussels Mint Philippe Le Bon 1419-67AD Duke of Brabant, Comte of Flanders/ Comte de Hollande/Comte of Namur/ Comte of Hainault He is best know for capturing French heroine Jeanne D'Arc and handing her to his allies the English. Who had her burnt alive on a stake.
Yes, Medieval coins are really nice. They were all hammered, so that took lots of skill. Back then they were a lot smarter, instead of plastic/paper they used gold/silver/copper for their money...which meant zero inflation. John
Thanks Steve, I guess we cannot blame Phillipe, since he had an alliance with England. It was really, the English who were starting to loose territory they occupied, that were to blame for finding Joan guilty of witchcraft....it was more revenge for her success in stirring up French resistance.
Uhhhh, not quite. There were several periods during the medieval era when inflation was rampant, worse than what we've ever seen today. As for type of coins you collect - love 'em ! Collected them myself for many years.
Thanks for correcting me on that, I had always thought that with precious metals, inflation would be non existant Always glad to learn... John PS: There are coins out there that I drool over when I see them in auctions, usually the ones I can never afford to ever have, still can dream....maybe win the lottery!
One of the most significant periods of inflation came about with the Spaniards discovery of the silver mines in South America. This was an extended and significant inflation, and a study of economic history makes it quite interesting (Adam Smith talked about it 1776 in his Wealth of Nations, for example). Another example would be periods after a gold rush, such as California in 1849. Modern money has made it much easier to inflate (and fiat currencies experience far more widespread and far more significant inflation, despite what Doug may claim). However, inflation is defined as either "a sustained increase in the price of goods" or "a sustained increase in the monetary supply" (and some would argue that the latter is the cause of the former). With a larger supply of precious metals, there is a larger supply of money.
My areas of interest haven't changed, I still love hammered gold and some silver, with an emphasis on French Royal, Spanish Colonial, The Low Countries, and of course ducats, particularly Netherlands ducats. But I think everybody knew that part But I no longer collect coins Steve, haven't for 10 years now. Instead my focus has been on my lifelong study of coins, teaching others about coins, and helping people with their collections in the process of that.
Well I'm glad you said "may" because Doug never claimed any such thing, nor would I. I am well aware that we have experienced significant periods of inflation in modern times. What I was trying to point out was that gold and silver being used as money does not prevent or even inhibit inflation in any way, and never has. For example right here in the US what cost you $100.00 in 1800, cost you $155.00 in 1825. And what cost you $100.00 in 1800, cost you $205.00 in 1850. That's rather severe inflation, and while gold & silver were money. Now granted, there were periods when gold and silver were money that the opposite happened, what cost you $100, 25 years later only cost you $50. But it wasn't our money being gold and silver that caused it, or had any effect whatsoever on it. And this is what I was trying to point out. This chart below shows historical inflation rates here in the US from 1914 to 2010. And yet the highest rate of inflation we experienced during that 100 years (approx) was when gold and silver were money.
I think I misinterpreted what you were saying here. I thought you were comparing hard money to fiat money (where there have been numerous periods of rampant inflation around the world - Germany, Zimbabwe, etc.). It sounds like you were instead comparing "the rest of the world" to "the US" - in which case, I agree that, while the US has experienced periods of inflation, it does not compare to some of the other periods of history. I would be interested to see a chart that went back further, however. There weren't a whole lot of gold rushes in the 20th century, and the establishment of the federal reserve to control the currency supply has (with the exception of a couple of spectacular failures), generally done a good job. The US experienced more significant inflation in the first half of our country's history.
This was the original comment - My point was simple, merely that gold and silver being used as money does not prevent inflation. That's all.
