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I found this odd as well. The US Dollar was essentially a unit of weight for much of its early history. Much of the money circulating was in fact silver Spanish
by jstalin 13y ago
I found this odd as well. The US Dollar was essentially a unit of weight for much of its early history. Much of the money circulating was in fact silver Spanish dollars, issued by the Spanish empire as a result of the gigantic silver mines in central and southern America. Anyone could bring a unit of gold or silver to the treasury and be issued a silver or gold dollar. It was not a liability of the government in any way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_real_coin#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_real_coin#United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1792 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coinage_Act_of_1792
- bitcoin-truth 13y agoa) the treasury would take seignorage. b) money is a free-market good as in your example above. all the government was doing was weights and measures standardization. c) only fiat (paper) money is a liability of the government because the original deal (FRNs) was that the notes would be exchanged for coin. That is why the note says promise to pay the bearer a dollar (which is a denomination of weight of silver or gold).