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Message:: [QUOTE="Morgan1878, post: 786721, member: 17869"]For a workable standard you would include silver, copper and nickel along with gold, to have a reasonable, quantifiable supply of metal to back paper currency. Oil might be considered as well. When the Morgan dollar came out, it was used far more in the "Wild West" than the East. Paper currency was more convenient to carry and store. The U.S. Treasury was constantly looking for space to store Morgans, and most sat in bags for years. As for the principle of fiat currency (no gold standard a la Bretton-Woods) I think the idea definitely has advantages, especially in terms of flexibility to deal with the ups and downs of business cycles. I think what is missing in the present equation is the responsible use of the fiat currency concept. Some of this irresponsibility is due to poor executive and legislative leadership, but some of the malaise is clearly the fault of voters who ask government for more than it is able to provide. In such a scenario, voters will generally elect officials who will "promise them the moon" rather than the candidate who will only offer the "tough love" of spending cuts, higher taxes and a lower standard of living to cure the present cycle of deficit spending.[/QUOTE]