Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="doug444, post: 2690490, member: 38849"]It's worth noting that the first global (silver) bullion coin, the Maria Theresa thaler, was nowhere near sterling fineness.  It was struck at dozens of mints from its initial issue in Austria, in 1780, through the 1950s, always with the same date, 1780. It was the favorite store of wealth in the Middle East for many decades, and the date "1780" was maintained because holders would have been suspicious of subsequent "actual" dates and refused them. Emperor Haile Selassie (1892-1975) of Ethiopia, was said to have 600,000+ on hand.  They were 0.833 silver, 28.0000 grams total weight, 0.7516 ASW. You can still buy plenty of Maria Theresa's on eBay, 1780 prooflikes, for $30-40 or so, but that's a huge premium over silver content. ==========="It simply was not favorable/too expensive to have silver content in circulating coinage..."  This begs the question of why the U.S. adopted 90% instead of (British) sterling 92.5%. There's not much difference between 92.5% and 90%. In the U.K., the term "sterling" has been around about 800 years.[/QUOTE]