Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="kaparthy, post: 29989, member: 57463"]This is why governments should not mint coins, for the same reasons that they should not operate steel mills.  By defnition, a government has a monopoly on force within a geographic area.  (Yes, there are exceptions, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Masons, if not Physicians Without Borders, all of which operate across, over and through political territories, and which also have attributes of government-ness.  In the main, however, the easy definition can stand for now.)  As long as a government is the most powerful armed force in an area, it is only a matter of time until their money starts to slip.  However, their control does not extend beyond some limit and therefore "international" commerce forces them to maintain a higher standard.  Even when gold was nominally removed from the American dollar for Americans (1933-1974), it was still convertible into gold by foreign governments.  Also, if we agree that "true" coins are "true" coins only when they circulate beyond the borders of the government that issued them, we have a lot of problems in identifying "coins" from "non-coins."  In fact, it is historically one of the goals of a government to find some level of purity that is high enough for local acceptance but low enough to prevent export.  So, again, the requirement that a "real" coin leaves its realm has problems. For these and other reasons, I prefer to look at a definition that does not require "government."  Would we define "doctor" as a medical worker who is licensed by a government to practice medicine?  Would we define "horse" or "table" or "sunlight" the same way?[/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches