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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;svessien, post: 7420296, member: 15481&quot;]Donna, I have enjoyed this discussion, and I’m impressed by what you are able to find in your researches, of old plates and images. Really well done!</p><p>When reading the quoted passage above, I just wanted to share a perspective on gold vs currency: You call the fixed price «low» on gold. The fixed 35$/ounce price for gold was a semi gold standard after the New Deal got rid of the old gold coins. This was the Bretton/Woods agreement from 1944:</p><p><br /></p><p>«The chief features of the Bretton Woods system were an obligation for each country to adopt a <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_policy" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monetary_policy" rel="nofollow">monetary policy</a> that maintained its external <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_rate" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exchange_rate" rel="nofollow">exchange rates</a> within 1 percent by <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard" rel="nofollow">tying its currency to gold</a> and the ability of the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund" rel="nofollow">International Monetary Fund</a> (IMF) to bridge temporary <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_payments" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_payments" rel="nofollow">imbalances of payments</a>. Also, there was a need to address the lack of cooperation among other countries and to prevent <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_devaluation" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_devaluation" rel="nofollow">competitive devaluation</a> of the currencies as well.» (Wikipedia)</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, if there is a fixed price on gold, it isn’t necessarily high or low; it just is what it is, and it rather defines the value of the currency. So the «low» price on gold (which was fixed to 20$/ounce before 1933), defined the dollar, and made the dollar strong. Other currencies were again pegged to the dollar, and this created stability. When Nixon removed the 35$ fixed price on gold, blaming international «speculators» in 1971, the currencies became less stable:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1288922[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I think this is one of the fascinating features about gold coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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