How would you go about reintroducing gold and silver backed currency in the USA?

With lots of people saying that the fact that US money is backed by nothing and that it needs to be change, I'm curious to see how you would change it. So the situation is you are the Secratary of the Treasury and you have been tasked with reintroducing gold and silver backed money. How do you do it?

Thanks for any input

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Can't be done. It's too late. Silver and Gold would have to come waaaay down in price or else everyone would just hoard it and we would still be where we are today. Just without coins.

 

So your saying it's impossible. Two things one I don't think its impossible. Two of it is then all these people need to stop complaining

 

You don't. Both are now considered commodities and as such, have very volatile pricing. Up one day and down the next.

Do you REALLY think that this is something that ANY country would want even "if" they could do it?

Additionally, regardless of what the typical American may think, our currency and coins MUST be in alignment with other countries. The US was not the only country that went off the gold standard and thinking that somehow, through some miracle, that gold and silver will become the basis for monetary standards for any country in the future is just ignorant folly which simply does not fit into today's "global" economy.

 

I don't think there's enough gold to create the amount of dollars we have today. The reason we came off the gold standard is because we didn't have enough gold in reserves when Europe starting withdrawing money owed in gold/silver. I have a hard time believing we will ever go back to the gold/silver standard. Sometimes I think it's a shame we left it and then I ask myself why Gold and Silver are so important to begin with?

 

Stop using gold and silver to make collectible coins & medals.

Chris

 

We could if we did it right. First step would be to designate silver coins the size of quarters as worth $100, silver coins the size of half dollars worth $500 and silver coins the size of silver dollars worth $1,000. The government can designate any size coin of any material worth however much they want it to be worth; how else could one explain how they designate an 1 oz. Silver Eagle worth a dollar, or 10 cents worth of copper in an Ike Dollar worth a dollar? Likewise we could make a half ounce gold coin designated worth a million dollars and a two ounce gold coin designated worth a billion dollars. There is no law or reason anywhere that mandates the coins have to have a melt value equal to its value.

You go to a bank today you can't take out even worthless $100 paper cash from your own account, as most banks force you to take checks for larger amounts. Do you think a foreign government would take a check? Probably not. But given the option of a check, a wire transfer in their currency, a hundred canvas bags of quarter sized coins, trunks or suitcases full of $100 bills, or a 10 ounce Platinum coin designated $1 Trillion Dollars, no other precious metal option, I believe they'd take the wire transfer, and there we have taken the option of being paid in precious metals off the table.

Just think outside the box and there are many ideas one could come up with. In fact someone suggested designating sand as worth a dollar and paying the Federal Reserve off with it, then re-designate sand worthless and go on with a clean slate.

 

I think what you're describing is akin to fiat currency as we know it already... Why not take plastic coins and do the same thing?

 

Perfect! I have a dollar store up the street that could make me a rich man with all those plastic coins

 

Money is backed by something. Otherwise it would be worthless. So long as it still pays my bills and buys me things, I don't see any need to needlessly back it by anything else.

 

Is that not the same idea as paying off the Federal Reserve debt with sand? Where do you think our brilliant congress came up with the idea of a Trillion Dollar coin? Getting rid of the debt will do nothing unless there is a mind set change that goes with it, since well just spend our way right back. But this response is not all that was asked in how can we get back to having precious metals back our currency... if the US did even this small step with inflated-value, precious metals based currency, our currency would still have more value than any other modern currency in use in the world.

 

Reintroducing precious metals into coinage is a dead idea.

The moment when the price of precious metals go higher than face value would mean that the public will hoard it and melt them down for scrap. That might be good for you if you hold onto them but for the general public, a lack of change can cause a lot of repercussion.

The biggest threat is counterfeits. These days there's just an absurd amount of gold plated counterfeits. If nickel coins are worth to be counterfeited, what are the chances of gold coins? Sounds like a perfect ground for counterfeiters to ramp up their production line.

 

It's only backed by faith. We use what's called FIAT money. It's only good because the government says it's good. As long as everyone has faith in the government then we're OK. But as people lose faith in the government they also lose faith in the money; that's commonly called inflation. If you're a young person you probably haven't seen a whole lot of the eroding of your buying power. As for me, I've seen my dollars go from buying a 4 year old used car in 1968 for $100 to buying a 4 year old used car in 2014 $19,500; a price that was equal to the first new home I bought in 1971. So one must ask themselves what will I get for $100 in 40 years? It could be a single gum ball.

 

There are lots of counterfeiters. I have been looking into a box of coins over the past few days for a customer who thought he had a good collection. A good 15% of the ones I've looked at so far are counterfeit. This is due to people not knowing how to tell good coins from duds. A little education should be sought by everyone on this subject, but the most common sense start I can offer to start with is: if you see a coin that is for sale well below its value, don't think, "o, lucky me!", think, "Run, baby, run away fast!" Close behind that lesson is: If you know a coin only had 5 minted, don't buy the four you found for sale on line. Use some common sense!

 

I think this is a great idea. And if you set it up right you won't have a problem with the rising price of silver/gold for a while. Anyone see any holes with this plan.

 

In the event of an apocalyptic scenario, i would rather have a case of water, slim Jim, pack of matches, machete, hi-deet bug spray (for zombie mosquitoes, i call em zomskeeters) a dog, or many other things. In that event, gold and silver would have no real purpose other than something pretty to look at.

 

Just a question, but would it be legitimately acceptable or legal to spend a silver eagle or commemorative coin at a store for FV? Not that I or anyone here would do it, just curious...

 

Yes it is and I'm not sure the difference between sand and the nickel we're using now except that one holds better.

 

Yes it is legal tender in the United States Of America. You may have a tough time spending it as most people would think its fake/ not know what it is and not accept it but yes if you can find someone who will take it you can spend it.

 

Yes you're right. I read a while back about a guy who used 4 silver eagles to buy a gallon of gas to get him home. And here we think gas is outrageously high when it was $3.85 a gallon, just think what he actually paid. But you're also right when you say everyone doesn't know what they are, so some people might have to be convinced they're even money or have value before you can use them in a store.