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dom1971
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August 8, 1893 : The Repeal of the Silver Act

- History of Silver -

Hmmm... no coins for 600 years? Historians generally agree that the dark ages was the period between the end of the roman empire (5th C) until the beginning of feudalism in Europe (9th C) so that's 400 years, not 600.

http://www.numsoc.net/darkages.html

This article sites many examples of existing coinages at the time and gives us a window of no more than 190 years where coinage was not minted. Gold coins were used by Britain for trade with Europe during the dark ages, though they may not have minted them.

Other stuff I find shows me there was a lot of trade and gold coining going on with China, the Visigoths, Byzantine empire and so on during this time. Just because much of Europe was in turmoil doesn't mean that gold lost its value in a historical sense. The man holding the gold coin need only board a ship to realise the value of what he holds. Patchy trade continued although much diminished in size and infrastructure - as one would expect within a devastated population. This entire situation would have been imminently and catastrophically deflationary.... so quite understandable that no new coinage was needed or created during that time.

If somebody took away all government, burnt down your town and left you and your family with the plague I would hope that money and gold become much less important.... you may even forget to go to the bank and check your account balance! At least for a while until things were back to normal. Of course some things will always be more important than money.

Lets acknowledge the dark ages as being a real and lasting crisis for Europeans. If they abandoned money to any great degree it was in favour of more pressing urgencies - like basic survival. Much as one would expect if an asteroid hit the Earth today. Life would change for a while, but as soon as people were able to produce more than they consumed then trade - and with it money - would reappear to fill the void.

If you can find a way to preserve wealth through a major "asteroid" event like the dark ages then you're doing better than most... and yet gold managed this feat. It had value before the event, it had value during the event (admittedly with much reduced demand and throughput) and it had value after the event when productivity and trade returned. If anything the example of the dark-ages supports my case as much as it may invalidate it. For a massive, multi-century financial reset like this to occur and gold to survive it... well its a testament to its strength rather an example of its weakness.

Commented 3903 days ago

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Beginning of the headline :President Cleveland Message on the Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (August 8, 1893) The existence of an alarming and extraordinary business situation, involving the welfare and prosperity of all our people, has constrained me to call together in extra session the people's representatives in Congress, to the end that through a wise and patriotic exercise of the legislative duty, with which they solely are charged, present evils may be mitigated and dangers threatening the future may be averted... Read More

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