Penny Wise and Pound Foolish
August 13, 2010 at 11:29 am | Posted in Other, Theory | Leave a commentTags: Specie
Sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver alloyed with copper or other metals. King Henry II first minted coins in sterling silver in 1158 and until 1816 silver was the basis for English currency. Although there is no longer a connection between England’s currency and precious metals, the terminology remains; their main currency unit is the pound sterling (£).
Today, one troy pound of sterling silver would be worth over $200 US. However, one “pound sterling (£)” is worth just over $1.50 US. I suppose that it is good for us Americans that the Brits decided to de-value their currency too; that $200 to £1 exchange rate would make visiting England pretty pricey.
To sleep, perchance to dream
August 9, 2010 at 10:30 am | Posted in Other | 1 CommentTags: Specie
I am a dreamer. Not that I have high hopes or aspirations, I just dream a lot. My dreams are vivid and memorable and lots of fun. For example, last night I dreamt that I was given a dollar coin as change from a purchase. I was so excited to write a blog post about being on the receiving end of a transaction. However, even in the dream, things didn’t add up for me.
In the dream, the coin was a 1995 nickel dollar. Dollar coins had been made of silver and gold, so why not have one made of nickel? The problem, of course, is that nickel is not as precious as silver or gold, so the coin would have to be much larger if it were to be the same melt value. So in my dream, the nickel dollar was about the size and shape of a credit card and about as thick as a silver dollar. But in my dream, I also recognized that the US government stopped producing coins with precious metals, so this coin must have been issued by a private company. Not that the government would allow that now.
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
