Member-only story
Why We Should Be Paid In Silver
I Know You’re Sick Of The Dreaded “I” Word But Hear Me Out
Before 1964, quarters and dimes contained 90% silver. You might think, “so what?” However, it was incredibly significant because it limited the amount the Federal Reserve could create.
Common laborers could save their earnings and know their wealth would hold its value over time. Now, everyone is in a perpetual crunch to invest their limited profits because the dollar loses value every passing second. Last month alone, we experienced 6% inflation.
But it’s not always been like this.
Before I go into what I mean below, we need to go over something: Most people measure an asset’s “value” in terms of U.S. Dollars. We say that something is “worth” $1,000,000 because we’ve always used the dollar to compare the value of goods and services
But there is a problem with this mindset. This assumes that you can measure something’s worth in the same amount of dollars over a long period of time. Unfortunately, this can’t be further from the truth.
My great-grandmother used to give me $4 every birthday growing up, and I used to wonder why. Once I was old enough to understand inflation, I realized that when she was 16 years old, $4 could buy what $82 could purchase today.
Instead of measuring value in terms of dollars, I think it should be measured in terms of precious metals like gold or silver. Both of these have immense industrial value, but perhaps more importantly, they have intrinsic worth across cultures.
Below, I will measure the value of goods and services in precious metals like gold and silver, not the unstable and rapidly devaluing U.S. dollar. In fact, throughout history, a full day’s wage for an unskilled laborer was considered one-tenth of 1 troy ounce of silver.
Quarters and Dimes
Before 1965, quarters and dimes were made of 90% silver, meaning coins had about 0.72 ounces of silver per dollar. If you’re wondering how I got this calculation, this is how: A 1964 quarter has about 0.18 ounces of silver per…
