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<p>[QUOTE="900fine, post: 778509, member: 6036"]I hope not. That would make things worse. Such large coins are heavy, bulky, and unwieldy. People don't like to carry 'em, and banks don't like the extra shipping cost.</p><p> </p><p>The Silver Dollar holds a very special place in our consciousness, like some legend of the Wild West. We have this image of John Wayne sliding a cartwheel down the bar for a bottle of red-eye.</p><p> </p><p>But the truth is silver dollars were not all that popular, even in the old days.</p><p> </p><p>One can see this in the mintage numbers. The Mint stopped making S$1s entirely in 1804 and didn't resume regular issue until 1840. In the meantime, they were cranking out millions and millions of half dollars and large cents - the workhorses of commerce.</p><p> </p><p>We stopped in 1873. When we resumed in 1878, it was mainly to prop up the price of silver after discovery of the Comstock Lode.</p><p> </p><p>Again, we stopped in 1935 and didn't start again until 1971. The resumption was done not for commerce, but to honor Dwight Eisenhower.</p><p> </p><p>One of the reasons silver dollars were unpopular in the old days was their weight and bulkiness. For large amounts of money, it's better to carry gold - 16x the "dollar density" relative to silver.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><font size="1">(Side note: I still remember the act of Congress to create the Ike dollar. The vote was almost unanimous. Yes, that's right... these two parties actually <i>agreed</i> on something, and <i>worked together </i>! Sounds crazy, I know...)</font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="900fine, post: 778509, member: 6036"]I hope not. That would make things worse. Such large coins are heavy, bulky, and unwieldy. People don't like to carry 'em, and banks don't like the extra shipping cost. The Silver Dollar holds a very special place in our consciousness, like some legend of the Wild West. We have this image of John Wayne sliding a cartwheel down the bar for a bottle of red-eye. But the truth is silver dollars were not all that popular, even in the old days. One can see this in the mintage numbers. The Mint stopped making S$1s entirely in 1804 and didn't resume regular issue until 1840. In the meantime, they were cranking out millions and millions of half dollars and large cents - the workhorses of commerce. We stopped in 1873. When we resumed in 1878, it was mainly to prop up the price of silver after discovery of the Comstock Lode. Again, we stopped in 1935 and didn't start again until 1971. The resumption was done not for commerce, but to honor Dwight Eisenhower. One of the reasons silver dollars were unpopular in the old days was their weight and bulkiness. For large amounts of money, it's better to carry gold - 16x the "dollar density" relative to silver. [SIZE=1](Side note: I still remember the act of Congress to create the Ike dollar. The vote was almost unanimous. Yes, that's right... these two parties actually [I]agreed[/I] on something, and [I]worked together [/I]! Sounds crazy, I know...)[/SIZE][/QUOTE]
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