Platinum Supporter
Gold Supporter
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LOL, That is a great point.
I have bought a few 20 Mark gold coins from Lear over the past year (dated between 1888 and 1912). I've just checked the price and they are currently being sold at $345. They still have value, but not because of the now long defunct government's backing. They have value because of the gold in them. The old bank credits and paper bank notes from the same time period have been worth nothing for nearly 100 years.
In 1914 Germany went off the gold standard. Soon after their money went into the toilet. Granted, it had a lot to do with them fighting in WWI and other social upheavals of the time period. None the less, the major reason for getting off the gold standard was to finance the war and you cannot print gold, but you can print paper.
I have no idea how much buying power the 20 Mark coin had when it was in circulation, but I know that it still has quite a bit today.
Oh, and remember how I just wrote that the Germans went off the gold standard so that they could print money to finance a war? What nation can you think of that exists today, is not on the gold standard, is fighting wars and printing money as it it was confetti?
I am quite pleased to see others whom are aware and worried about this issue -- IMO, the single most pressing matter in regards to our national security. We are racking up debt at an astronomical rate, meanwhile we stretch our military too thin. I am deeply troubled by the number of people who "cheer lead" for the US's ill-conceived and ill-executed foreign mis-adventures that cost us our fine men and women in uniform, and the hard earned cash of the US tax payer. You can draw parallels to post WWI Germany, but you'd be much for accurate in comparing the US to the Roman Empire, past the time when Rome was, much like the US, a Republic. Well, of my soap box...
DJM