I bought a numismatic coin because I think it's beautiful. I bought a 1923 Peace Dollar, rated MS-65. Not the one in the pic, but one just like it.
"A 33-year-old Italian immigrant by the name of Anthony De Francisci won the competition and the $1,500 first-place prize. His design was selected over experienced coin designs such as Victor D. Brenner (designer of the Lincoln Cent), Herman A. MacNeil (designer of the Standing Liberty Quarter) and Adolph A. Weinman (designer of the Mercury Dime and Walking Liberty Half Dollar). The design requirements had called for a Lady Liberty redesign for the obverse, and an open-ended design that incorporated an eagle on the reverse. The Lady Liberty design de Francisci created portrayed his beautiful wife, Teresa Cafarelli as Lady Liberty wearing a crown of rays modeled after that on the Statue of Liberty. Both De Francisci and his wife were Italian immigrants and were fascinated by the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor." - U.S. Coins, Houston, TX
Libertarian666 wrote:True, but they didn't own them during the gold standard either.
Whereas they do own the printing press...
A global gold standard could work fine if mining were banned? ie new gold isnt required for "economic growth?"
The main drawback would be that its harder to stop bank runs?
No, new gold is required for economic growth. What happens on a gold standard (like during the 19th century) is that prices drop pretty consistently other than during wars or other upheavals, while economic growth is generally very strong.
Honest banks don't need to worry about bank runs, any more than Vanguard has to worry about "mutual fund runs". That's because an honest bank, just like a mutual fund, doesn't lend out assets that they promise to deliver on demand to their depositors. They can lend out money on a term loan but then they have to tell their depositors that they can't have it back until the end of the term.
Of course there are no honest banks in the US today, but that's due to government intervention, not the free market.
^ My favorite coin design of all time.
In addition to the coin's beauty, I love the history about Teddy Roosevelt and Augustus Saint Gaudens's roles in creating it.
On a somewhat related line of thought, I think that Machine Ghost used to advocate stocking up on what he called "semi-numismatic" coins, which I understood to mean circulated $20 gold pieces. Does anyone here (Libertarian666?) collect or buy them?
“Groucho Marx wrote:
A stock trader asked him, "Groucho, where do you put all your money?" Groucho was said to have replied, "In Treasury bonds", and the trader said, "You can't make much money on those." Groucho said, "You can if you have enough of them!"
jhogue wrote:^ My favorite coin design of all time.
In addition to the coin's beauty, I love the history about Teddy Roosevelt and Augustus Saint Gaudens's roles in creating it.
On a somewhat related line of thought, I think that Machine Ghost used to advocate stocking up on what he called "semi-numismatic" coins, which I understood to mean circulated $20 gold pieces. Does anyone here (Libertarian666?) collect or buy them?
Well, even uncirculated $20s aren't that expensive, assuming you are talking about common dates.
I have one 1908 No motto $20 in uncirculated, just because it is beautiful.
Now I'm confused... that's a 2009 coin? MMIX? Isn't it older?
No, 2009 is the correct date. It was a restrike of the original ultra-high-relief trial piece, which never went into circulation because it was too fragile.
So they decided to make the planchet much thicker and smaller in diameter so that the ultra-high-relief strike would work properly and result in a "usable" coin (as if anyone would ever circulate one). It's also 24k instead of coin gold, so it's softer. That helps with the strike too.
