Lyndon Johnson was the man and he did it because the cost of making the coins exceeded the value of the coin because of the silver contained. People or groups were melting down the coins to make a profit on the silver.
I don't really know enough about it. I remember reading about some guys who tried to corner the silver market though, and it didn't work out so well. :)
Are you talking about the Hunt brothers from Dallas? They tried to corner the market and drove up the price of silver artificially. I think they ended up in court, maybe even in jail.
http://articles.sun-sentinel....
His name was Lyndon Baines Johnson and he signed the Silver Coinage Act of 1965 changing the standard of money put forth in the original Coinage Act of 1792.
The key point according to LBJ was this reasoning:
[..]Now, all of you know these changes are necessary for a very simple reason--silver is a scarce material. Our uses of silver are growing as our population and our economy grows. The hard fact is that silver consumption is now more than double new silver production each year. So, in the face of this worldwide shortage of silver, and our rapidly growing need for coins, the only really prudent course was to reduce our dependence upon silver for making our coins.
We should reduce our use of silver, it's needed elsewhere. It has useful antibacterial qualities, and being a rare transition metal it's likely a useful catalyst as well...
Not when you need as much money as we do... It is useful as money when the limited supply doesn't drive up value of the coins to the point where it is more profitable to sell the coins rather than spend them...
The value of coins today go up because of inflation, which is manageable because we can create more of it, with silver coins inflation would be around 15%... There isn't enough silver to create a monetary system of the scale of the countries in the western world.
A silver money supply would not fall. It just does not grow as fast as paper can be printed, or digital money can be magically brought into existence with nothing backing it.
You might want to ask every nation who has experienced hyper inflation before you make that assumption.
Not to mention Germany and Hungary. http://www.cnbc.com/id/415324... "As it turns out, hyperinflation generally coincides with wars and a series of ill-advised and inflammatory fiscal policy decisions, but at the core is a result of a rapid increase in the money supply that is not supported by growth in the economy. "
And if you have a stable amount of money, you end up with another great depression. So you propose using all silver that is found to make coins? There isn't enough Silver to make the money you need, unless you set the value of the coins way above the value of the silver, Which would kind of defeat the purpose of having a stable monetary system... A better idea would be to not allow banks to print or make electronic money, and have the central bank make enough money to keep inflation below 2% whilst being able to pay down the debts, because at the moment there is more debt than money in the system...
who said anything about "stable amount" .... I'm speaking about stable money ... the amount is not fixed. No and I do not propose its exclusivity be confined to coinage either. It can circulate freely along side of paper fiat just as easily but you will find people will prefer it as a means to save rather than rapidly depreciating paper.
Why do you support the central banks robbing you of purchasing power? That is the entire reason we have this problem today, thatis the entire reason the U$D has lost 98% of its value, that is the entire reason silver costs to damn much to use as coinage, and you support this theory?
is not from TX btw
http://articles.sun-sentinel....
http://www.presidency.ucsb.ed...
The key point according to LBJ was this reasoning:
[..]Now, all of you know these changes are necessary for a very simple reason--silver is a scarce material. Our uses of silver are growing as our population and our economy grows. The hard fact is that silver consumption is now more than double new silver production each year. So, in the face of this worldwide shortage of silver, and our rapidly growing need for coins, the only really prudent course was to reduce our dependence upon silver for making our coins.
But that was not the true reason.
And then let me lead you to the next, "What is going down because of it?"
You might want to ask every nation who has experienced hyper inflation before you make that assumption.
http://www.munknee.com/2011/0...
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/w...
Not to mention Germany and Hungary.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/415324...
"As it turns out, hyperinflation generally coincides with wars and a series of ill-advised and inflammatory fiscal policy decisions, but at the core is a result of a rapid increase in the money supply that is not supported by growth in the economy. "
No and I do not propose its exclusivity be confined to coinage either. It can circulate freely along side of paper fiat just as easily but you will find people will prefer it as a means to save rather than rapidly depreciating paper.
Why do you support the central banks robbing you of purchasing power? That is the entire reason we have this problem today, thatis the entire reason the U$D has lost 98% of its value, that is the entire reason silver costs to damn much to use as coinage, and you support this theory?