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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ewomack, post: 25263991, member: 15588&quot;]This is what I find so fascinating about the 1928 series, the last series printed before the <a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/gold-reserve-act" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/gold-reserve-act" rel="nofollow">1934 Gold Reserve Act</a>. Did people actually turn in their &quot;certificates&quot; for metal? Probably, because the US Treasury had a room called &quot;<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/the-treasury-building/treasury-cash-room" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/the-treasury-building/treasury-cash-room" rel="nofollow">The Treasury Cash Room</a>,&quot; in which, according to the Treasury&#039;s own site, &quot;services were also offered to the public, including cashing of government checks, exchanging new money for old, redeeming silver certificates and gold certificates, and selling U.S. Treasury bonds.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>So the government, at least, apparently expected people to turn in their paper for metal or at least considered it possible. Other sources I&#039;ve read add that gold didn&#039;t really seem to circulate much in everyday financial transactions. Given that, making such an exchange might seem superfluous to many people. I think the entire point was that one <i>could</i>, in principle, make such an exchange and that gave confidence and weight to the value of the currency under the gold standard. In other words, the paper <i>could </i>convert into gold whether or not it made sense to actually do so. The practicality, at least for many people, probably remained questionable. But that past reality, and how the government worded its execution, makes early US paper money fascinating.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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