Abolish the Fed

[bobbinville]

An interesting fact about the Spanish Milled Dollar -- or, more properly, the 8 Reales piece -- is that, due to a lack of fractional coinage (there were 1/2 Real, 1 Real, 2 Real and 4 Real pieces; but most of the silver went into 8 Reales pieces (and gold into 8 Escudo pieces). If you needed change -- you took out a chisel and cut the coin into as many as 8 pieces, or "bits", each worth 1 Real. If you had a quarter of an 8 Reales piece, then, you had 2 Reales, or "two bits".

BTW -- many European countries used coins of this size as a standard. In fact, if you look at David Merrill's avatar, you will see the Maria Theresa Thaler -- so renowned for its weight and purity that it was often imitated by other countries, and was struck by the Austrians well into the 20th century because certain Arab tribes insisted on them, and only them, as a means of exchange.

[JohnnyCash]

Ah, the 1780 Maria Theresa Thaler. An estimated 800 million of these MTTs were minted continuously since 1780 all bearing the same date. Restrikes. Renowned for its weight and purity? With a fineness of only .833 silver they're heavier than our dollar yet contain less silver as the US dollar is .900 silver (although some MTTs have been minted at .999 fine).

http://www.ebay.com/gds/1780-Maria-T...1669778/g.html

[David Merrill]

Ah, the 1780 Maria Theresa Thaler. An estimated 800 million of these MTTs were minted continuously since 1780 all bearing the same date. Restrikes. Renowned for its weight and purity? With a fineness of only .833 silver they're heavier than our dollar yet contain less silver as the US dollar is .900 silver (although some MTTs have been minted at .999 fine).

http://www.ebay.com/gds/1780-Maria-T...1669778/g.html

I like the Hapsburg eagle on the obverse. This represents the dichotomy of identity inherent in pseudonomania. The suitors' Lesson Plan is:

1) Identity (capital integration)
2) Record-forming (court of competent jurisdiction)
3) Redeeming lawful money (redemption from false balances)

At the heart is a pentagram cut topaz. I used a red laser to highlight the stone as redemption being atonement of the two heads eating at the dichotomy like a poison in the stomach of the disease.

[bobbinville]

Yes, renowned for its weight and purity. The people of that era were less concerned about the fineness than they were about its consistency. Many people knew of coinage that was continually being debased; and they knew that when they got a MTT, they could rely on the fact that it was of the correct weight and fineness.

The date was never changed from 1780 because many people relied on the fact that a MTT with that date was the same as any other (any of .999 fineness are NOT circulation strikes). Other countries tried to imitate the MTT (the Italian tallero comes to mind); but none ever replaced it.

[JohnnyCash]

Consistency? The MTT started out in 1741 with a silver fineness of .875 http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces39150.html and was debased to .833 silver by 1780. In contrast the American silver dollar has never been debased.

[bobbinville]

Consistency? The MTT started out in 1741 with a silver fineness of .875 http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces39150.html and was debased to .833 silver by 1780. In contrast the American silver dollar has never been debased.

Yes, consistency. Since 1780, the fineness of the MTT, or at least the ones truck for circulation, has remained constant at .833. THAT is the coin which became so popular. It's also why the date remained at 1780, to show that it was of a higher fineness than the pre-1780 issues. Indeed, most 19th century silver coins were of a consistent fineness; and it was only after World War I that billon coinage began to appear in the UK and elsewhere, because of the need to repay war debts.

Those European countries which did adjust the fineness of their coinage did so mostly to adjust to the standards of the old Latin Monetary Union. France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Serbia and San Marino, plus others, harmoized their coinage so that, for example, in Switzerland you were likely to get French francs or Italian lire in change, instead of Swiss issues. The LMU was abolished in 1927 due to debasement in some countries, plus an overvaluing of silver in relation to gold. The Swiss coinage, through 1967, was the last kind struck to LMU standards.

[JohnnyCash]

That is some fine bovine excrement right there and spoken like an attorney, thank you.

I received these 2 quotes in the inbox today:

“The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace, and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. It denounces, as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes. I have two great enemies: the Southern Army in front of me, and the financial institutions in the rear. Of the two, the one in my rear is my greatest foe.”
– Abraham Lincoln, 1864

“The division of the United States into two federations of equal force was decided long before the Civil War by the high financial power of Europe. These bankers were afraid that the United States, if they remained in one block and as one nation, would attain economical and financial independence, which would upset their financial domination over the world. The voice of the Rothschilds predominated. They foresaw the tremendous booty if they could substitute two feeble democracies, indebted to the financiers, to the vigorous Republic, confident and self-providing. Therefore they started their emissaries in order to exploit the question of slavery and thus dig an abyss between the two parts of the Republic.”
— German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, 1876

[bobbinville]

And yet you fail to refute any of it. I'll stack my numismatic knowledge up against yours any day.

[JohnnyCash]

Ah, now we begin to see the real bobbinville. No, I do not believe you are a coin collector. Anyway my earlier quotes were the opener for an excellent piece by Michael Henry Dunn, very appropriate for today:

One hundred and fifty years ago today, tens of thousands of Americans died at a small town in southern Pennsylvania, turning back the brilliant Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg, ending his plan to march on Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C, which would likely have secured foreign recognition for the Confederacy, which would have achieved the Rothschilds’ goal of a divided and indebted American people.

With the 20/20 perfection of historical hindsight, it is common to observe that Gettysburg was the turning point of the war, that the “high water mark” of the Confederacy’s chance for victory can be pinpointed to a low stone wall called “the Angle” where Pickett’s Charge almost breached the Union line. When the breach was quickly filled by reinforcements, and the encroaching rebels killed or captured, the Confederacy’s decline was inevitable, some say, from that moment. Other historians point to a key engagement of the previous day, July 2nd, 1863, when the Confederates assaulted the lightly defended Little Round Top with three successive charges. Had they overrun this small hill, they could have rolled up the Union line with a deadly flank assault, sending the Army of the Potomac in headlong retreat toward Washington, with Robert E. Lee in hot pursuit. A bookish professor-turned-soldier named Joshua Chamberlain commanded the 20th Maine defending Little Round Top, and his men knew they held the fate of the nation in their hands. They repelled charge after charge….and then they ran out of ammunition. And the Confederates attacked once more. And as the rebels advanced uphill, Chamberlain gave the only order left to him – “Fix bayonets! Charge!” The sight of this suicidal attack of bayonet-wielding Yankees charging downhill towards them, sounding a battle-frenzied scream, broke the fabled rebel nerve, and they turned tail and ran.

http://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2013/0...n-july-3-2013/

I am bringing your cartel down [redacted], you can take that to the bank.

[bobbinville]

You can believe what you want, Johnny. That's easier than accepting the truth. As for your remark about "Jay" who is he? That's neither my name nor my handle.