I was recently accepted into the steem-silver-gold group, so it is about time I post something about shiny stuff! So many people do not understand HOW the "precious" metals go so designated, they think it was fairly random. People saw something shiny and liked it an now it is "precious." That is what the people peddling fiat will tell you. Let me offer a little lesson in why the precious metals became currency, our ancestors were not idiots unlike our Federal Reserve Chairpeople.
Before I dive into that, let me cover why currency is even needed. I know there are many people who think we should just "do away with money" but even if we declared money obsolete tomorrow morning, by noon people will have figured out some new currency. Why? Because you have to be able to store the value of your labor. If all goes well, there will come a time when you are too old to go out and earn your daily bread. You have to earn your old age bread while you are young and healthy, but if you buy the actual bread then it will be very moldy by the time you need to eat it... So you need to store the VALUE of your labor, ideally when it is the highest, when you are young, strong, energetic.
OK, so what traits does a currency need? It has to last, not mold like the bread. The periodic table provides a full list of the options available on earth. Most business is transacted at room temperature, so every element that is a liquid or gas at room temperature is not a good currency. It must be durable, so all the very soft elements and the highly reactive ones are no good. Everything that is radioactive is a very bad idea! Your currency needs to have value that others can appreciate, so it needs to be somewhat rare. If it is so rare that very few people can have any, that is too rare. If it is so common that everyone can get all they want, that is not rare enough. If you go through that process, you will be left with the "precious metals." They are durable; they won't rust or burst into flame or dissipate into the air. They won't poison the person holding them. They CAN be scratched out of the ground while you are young and strong and you can hold onto them until you are old and weak. Here is a great little video going over the whole periodic table for you.
Of the precious metals, only three have been used as money historically. Gold, silver and copper all have a melting point that can be obtained with a simple forge. You can then make coins, give a standard value based on weight, and now you have an easy to way to buy and sell. In a future post I will discuss "intrinsic value" as that is also important, but for today I will stick with practical matters.
Of the three metals often used for currency, gold is considered the most valuable. It is the most rare and can last forever, it does not tarnish like copper and silver. Copper is much more common than silver, so it is generally the least valuable of the three. Yet in my OPINION (not financial advice!) silver is the best investment right now. We (as a species) hoard gold. We even have hoodlums who will strip the wire out of empty houses to sell the copper, much of the copper mined is still being re-purposed, plus it is abundant in the earth, there is little danger of a copper shortage. We are consuming silver. We put it in electronics that we use for a year then send to the landfill. Some of us literally consume it, it is my antibiotic of choice. All this silver just getting treated as a disposable resource, when in 1964 the US stopped making silver coins because we were about to run out - according the President!
To avert an impending supply crisis, the US stopped circulating silver coins. The move from film to digital photography also helped avoid a sudden silver squeeze. However, we are now using silver in solar panels and the medical industry. That medical industry issue could become HUGE. Those "super bugs" are too much for Pharma to handle, but silver can handle them. The hospitals DO know this, but they will hand you a prescription for Pharma's ineffective drugs if you pick up MRSA at the hospital. Once the public realizes this life-threatening scam is happening, people will begin to demand silver as medicine and THAT will burn through our supply pretty fast.
I hope I have given the metalheads some shiny food for thought, and I hope maybe someone who never understood why people like the shiny stuff realize it really is more than just a pretty trinket. But you have to admit, that shine is lovely and the messages you imprint upon your precious metal coins do not fade over time...
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