Would it be feaseable to have circulating silver?

It could be done, in combination with a revalued dollar. Chop two zeros off so the New dollar has the same purchasing value as the current $100. That makes silver 18 cents an oz. A 90% silver new quarter would have the purchasing power of $25 in current dollar with .18oz of silver worth 4.5 new cents or $4.50 current dollars Spot price of silver would have to almost quintuple before the metal was worth more than the face value of the coin.

The objection would come from the flip side. A revaluation like this means a two place decimal point shift in incomes as well. If you made $50,000 a year, you would now be earning $500. Sounds bad, but the change applies to all your expenses as well. Got a $500 per month car payment? It's now $5.

 

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But import would not lose the two zeroes and most of our consumption is of imported goods.

 

Could we go to the movies for a nickel again? I need stories like that for eventual grandchildren.

 

I think the comparison you're looking for is "use a pay phone for a dime".

"Go to the movies"? Gram-pa...

 

You don't still go? I do. We even have a video rental store. What we DON'T have is enough bandwidth to stream video. Even audio sometimes spools.

 

People will still hoard it at $1 silver melt value, which is what war nickels, and a little more with the 90% silver dimes, hover at. People still hoard and CRH them to this day. Right now, as you speak even.

Even if you up the FV to $10, at current trends and all else constant, a bimetallic silver piece with $1 melt of silver won't come any time soon... maybe half a century from now.

 

The $10 example was purely shown for its design potential for a figurative bimetallic issue. At current trends and markets, it's not possible to circulate silver without huge consequences.

 

i guess it's like how people hoarded shield cents in 2010

 

People hoard war nickels and silver dimes because the melt value is greater than the FV not because it's worth a dollar in silver. And could you please elaborate on your other comments?

 

Yes, that was my point. At $1 FV for a bimetallic silver coin that's put into circulation today, people will still hoard it at $1 melt value. As mentioned afterwards, if you increase the FV to $10, with only $1 melt value, it won't work today because there's a dissonance between the collectible FV ASE and the figurative circulation FV bimetallic silvers.

Does FV matter? Yes. If you put only $1 worth of silver melt value in a $10 FV coin, then aren't you saying that silver is worth so much more, equivalent to nearly a 10x premium? All of the silver ASEs and other silver holdings will be worth how many of those bimetallic silvers worth $10 FV? Just $20 FV or balloon up to an inflationary price of $200? But would the US Mint even want to produce ASEs or any other silver coin if the return per bimetallic coin is nearly 10x the melt value? More of those would be churned out and that has some serious consequences, not just for the numismatic hobby, but for the economy. Do we then set a low mintage cap? Then you won't have sufficient numbers for commerce, and would defeat the intent of circulation.

 

And people claim Germans have no sense of humor...

 

Interesting story I know just a bit about was the Japanese 100,000 yen coin. Issued in 1986, it had a face value of about $690 but a gold value of $420. Initially offered to Japanese citizens, my mother-in-law got me one as a gift. Apparently the difference in value, and the willingness of the Bank of Japan to accept the coins at face value led to widespread counterfeiting...read up on it... http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/08/business/fake-coins-embarrass-the-japanese.html

 

The counterfeiting story ended up fading out and there was some additional speculation that a person involved ended up being compensated when it turned out there wasn't a crime. It all stopped getting talked about as either way it was an embarrassment. I was a little skeptical but Google fu did show a dearth of information on the outcome when I did some looking.

Edited for a link. Not exactly a complete investigative report but this is what drew my attention to the issue initially.

https://taxfreegold.co.uk/japanchrysanthemumcoinsaffair.html

 

Actually they would because you would be paying for them with "new dollars" that have 100 times the purchasing power of the old dollar,.

Probably not, but maybe a dime. Here I could even get some of my concessions as well for that dime.

 

If the US devalues the dollar by 99% by knocking two zeroes off then China will raise their prices by 100 times. They will still want the same as they did before.

 

If they did then they would be asking their customers to pay 100 times as much today than they did yesterday and they would get nothing. And why would they raise the price? They would still be getting the exact same purchasing power in the new dollars that they had been getting in the old ones. So they would still be getting the same as they did before.

 

Interestinger and interestinger...

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/20/b...n-in-the-case-of-the-chrysanthemum-coins.html

 

Just when you think you've read the stupidest thing ever, along comes sakata to top it.

 

Hmmm, I wonder what the outcome of that was?

 

Something to think about with circulating larger value coins is that they are fairly easy to forge. In more recent times Japan has had to update the 500 yen coin with a hologram to deter counterfeiters. Britain just released the new 12 sided bimetallic pound on 28 March to deter counterfeiters, it is reported that 1 in 40 pound coins is a forgery.