patrick.net

I dream of the day when we buy and sell with 100% pure silver by weight.

No dollars. Just weight of pure silver. You can't debase that.

A dime is about 2.5 grams right now, so we could easily make a 2.5 gram coin of pure silver about that size and at the current rate of about $1/gram, it would be cost about $2.50 to make. But the word dollar should be nowhere on it! Only this: "2.5 grams of pure silver".

100% has the advantage that the density is known.

With 90%, you have to then ask what the other 10% is before you can figure out if your coin's density reflects the expected silver content.

Those transactions are credit, not cash.

I have no problem with credit, as long as it can be converted to cash.

No dollars. Just weight of pure silver. You can't debase that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_coin_debasement

That's an interesting link, but weight of silver remains weight of silver.

Clipping or "sweating" would just reduce the weight.

All you have to do is weigh the coin, calculate the density, and maybe electricatl conductivity and sound (yes, the "ping" of a coin" has a certain ability to predict its metal content).

Pure silver coins would be hard to fake. They would be a great boon for makers of scales, densitomiters, and other such devices though.

Yeah, the british currency is named the "Pound" for historical reasons, LOL.

"Peso", same thing.

As a renter in the time of QE3, I am not completely opposed to this honest-money idea, sigh.

We leveraged-up 1995-2005, and now must pay the piper somehow.

Or not.