[Hallicrafters] inflation

[Peter Markavage]

I'm not referring to the value of the materials that make up the
currency. I'm referring to their stamped value in the market.  If I have
10 U.S. pennies of assorted copper/copper-zinc etc., the value is 10
cents. If you bring those 10 pennies to the bank, the cashier will give
one dime or two nickels for them. I have yet to see any cashier pull out
a scale to weigh each coin to determine its weight as a possible coin
rejection because it doesn't agree the current manufacturing
requirements. Now, if one had some wooden nickels, I suspect they
wouldn't get much consideration from the bank if one wanted to convert
them to metallic coins.
 
But, I understand your point.
 
Pete, wa2cwa
 
On Fri, 30 May 2008 00:37:33 -0400 "Duane Fischer, W8DBF"
<dfischer at usol.com> writes:
> Peter,
> 
> Remember the United States went off the gold standard about 1974! 
> Prior to 
> that, the treasury had to have an equal amount of Silver in reserve 
> to mint 
> dimes, quarters and half dollars, as well as paper Silver 
> Certificates. The 
> treasury also had to have an equal amount of gold in reserve to back 
> all the 
> paper money printed. Since the United States had a fixed per Troy 
> ounce 
> price of gold, and the rest of the world had dropped their fixed 
> price, the 
> USA had to drop the fixed price of gold, and drop the gold and 
> silver 
> standard system altogether, so the value of our gold was the same as 
> it was 
> in other countries.
> 
> I do not recall the exact value, but the USA was at about $44 per 
> troy ounce 
> for Gold and the rest of the world was double or triple!
> 
> When this happened, our coins and paper money were no longer backed 
> by "cash 
> on hand" or you can only mint and print coins and bills equal to the 
> gold 
> and silver value in the treasury! We used the GNP and all sorts of 
> other 
> worthless devices to give the worthless coins and bills "value".
> 
> The only coin worth face value after the .90% Silver was removed 
> from the 
> dime, quarter and half dollar starting with January of 1965, was the 
> Lincoln 
> Memorial Cent. The penny was actually worth a penny!
> 
> When people saw this coming, guess what? The Lincoln Wheat Cent of 
> 1909 
> through 1958 and the Lincoln Memorial Cent of 1958 through 1961, 
> weighed 
> 4.11 grams. It consisted of 95% Copper and 5% Tin and Zinc. Then in 
> 1962, 
> they left the 95% Copper alone, but used most Zinc with a little 
> Tin! The 
> weight of the coin dropped slightly, but it still contained 95% 
> Copper.
> 
> Then as Copper rose in value, the treasury changed the Lincoln 
> Memorial Cent 
> again in 1982. Now they removed all but 4.6% of the Copper! The penny 
> now 
> contained 95.4% Zinc and a little Tin! The weight dropped a lot this 
> time. 
> Hence, the Copper penny was now not only worth less then a penny, it 
> was 
> worthless!
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Peter Markavage" <manualman at juno.com>
> To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 10:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] inflation
> 
> 
> > The value of a printed stamp, in this case 5 cents, doesn't change 
> with
> > inflation. If they printed a 5 cent today, it's value is still 5 
> cents. I
> > will agree that the paper and printing costs have gone up from 
> 1965 to
> > 2008 but the value of the stamp in real dollars (or cents in this 
> case)
> > hasn't changed. What has changed is what you can "buy" for 5 cents 
> today
> > verses what you could buy for 5 cents in 1965. Same goes for 
> money. A 5
> > dollar bill in 1965 is still a 5 dollar bill in 2008 unless of 
> course you
> > have one where Lincoln's portrait is printed upside down or some 
> other
> > strange rare printing anomaly.
> >
> > Pete, wa2cwa
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