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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cladking, post: 50931, member: 68&quot;]Small change has never been made of silver or gold and never will be unless silver or gold ever become far less valuable.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Virtually all coins ever issued have been junk inasmuch as their face value always exceeds the value of the metal in the coin.&nbsp; Consider that the value of the copper and nickel in a clad quarter are nearing the value of the silver in a silver quarter during the great depresssion.&nbsp; Money has value because people believe it has value.&nbsp; When this belief ends then coins only are worth the value of their metal.&nbsp; Of course there can also be collector value but this does not arise from metallic value or an 1804 dollar would be worth less than $7 and Kennedy half dollars could not sell for more than $10,000.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If precious metal coins were issued today then they would not only have to be junk but they could not be small change.&nbsp; It wouldn&#039;t make sense to save the junk because one&#039;s money would buy much more silver or gold than the amount of metal in the money itself.&nbsp; Coins are an extremely convenient way to save precious metals so there would be at least some hoarding but this will simply mean more coins have to be produced than would otherwise need to be to facilitate commerce.</p><p><br /></p><p>There were base metal coins used in the early days of the republic and these are avidly collected today.&nbsp; Not only are there cents and half cents but various states issues and colonial and token issues.&nbsp; Most of these are copper or bronze but there are other metals involved.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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