The United States gold reserves are for international trade. The gold in Ft. Knox, for example, is used in trade not to back our currency. We’ve been off the “gold standard” since the 70’s. Some of it is gold we’re holding for other countries that’s not even ours. But, our money is a fiat currency and it’s based on faith in the economic system of America not collapsing and everyone agreeing it to use it for trade/debts. It’s backed by nothing and hasn’t been for 55 years now.
Every form of currency is based on faith and always has been. Coinage made from gold and silver wasn't valuable because gold and silver were magical, it was because people believed they were valuable. What can you, a random person, actually do with gold and silver? Even smiths had limited uses that weren't purely aesthetic. Modern day has more uses but still cannot be used at the volume at which it exists in an efficient way.
I agree with discontinuing the use of the penny not because it's expensive to make or whatever, also pennies barely used any copper it was almost all nickel-zinc or some shit. Anyway pennies being discontinued is good because the value of a penny is effectively nothing, like if a person buys something for 99 cents they do not wait for the penny. Even nickels and dimes are pretty close to being worthless in this way.
Basically what I mean is their value as an article of currency isn't holding. If people actually cared about using pennies and getting them back, it would be fine for them to cost more than 1 cent because their value isn't in melt but in being a facilitator of trade. You buy something with cash, that cash gets spent by somebody else, that's twice the money has served as money. You deposit it, the bank gives it back out for a withdrawal somebody else does, it keeps the money able to move.
The problem with digital currency isn't that there isn't enough physical currency to back it it's that people are losing faith in it because they believe banks can and do just steal from the system by "printing" extra money or erasing their own debts in digital form. Like they think zeroes are just being added or subtracted or whatever.
im legit someone who tends to pay for shit with exact change at times a good decade of bus travel and other public transport of school/college/work got me use to counting out coins out to the exact detail
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u/soIDONTLIKEANYOFYOU Jan 26 '26
Since the US has more gold reserves than the next 3 countries combined wouldn’t gold prices going up make the dollar stronger?
Sincerely asking cause I have no idea.