Half-dollar

“ We do, indeed, sometimes hear of the exorbitant wages which some persons obtain, but we must remember, in most cases, these wages are great, in consequence of the currency of the district, for there are, I understand, some parts of the United States in which the dollar passes for more than its coined value; but then, if a labourer is paid at a very high nominal rate, there is reason to believe that articles of provision, and other necessaries, must be selling at high prices also. ”

“ “But I reckon it's only half the truth, for truth's like a dollar-piece, it's got two sides, and both are wanted to make it good currency. ”

“ But try never so hard, the Government found itself powerless to check the slow but steady decline in value of the people’s dollar. By midsummer, it had fallen to forty-three cents, and ere the fair Northland had wrapped itself, like a scornful beauty, in its Autumn mantle of gold, the fondly trusted coin had sunk to exactly one-third of the value of a standard gold dollar. People carried baskets in their arms, filled with the now discredited coin, when they went abroad to pay a debt or make purchase of the necessaries of life. ”

“ This is a dollar—a unit of money—part of the great instrumentality created by society to effect the multitudinous exchanges of property and services among men. The amount of its command is constant, because the increase in the volume of money is regulated by the sovereign authority of the nation, with strict regard to the increase of population and demand—hence the value of this unit remains unchanging through time. ”

“ If we have dollars of differing values, only the poorest will circulate. The farmer and the laborer, who are not in hourly touch with the ticker of the telegraph, will require, above all other classes of our community, a dollar of full value. Fluctuations and depreciations are always at the first cost of these classes of our community. The banker and the speculator anticipate, discount, and often profit by such fluctuations. It is very easy, under the impulse of excitement of the stress of money stringency, to fall into the slough of a depreciated or irredeemable currency. ”

“ It will be clear to any one who follows the reasoning and explanations in this book, [3] that the only money theory assumed is that common to all theories, and accepted universally; namely, that a large quantity of gold will buy more goods than a small quantity—a pound, than an ounce, for instance—and that an increase of the gold in a dollar will, somehow, increase the dollar's purchasing power. ”

“ Why, if we were to stop and consider the history of the dollar—the grief, misery, degradation, filth that each almighty dollar has been the means of creating—we’d be too nauseated to look at it, to say nothing of buying our daily bread with it and dropping it in the collection plates! ”

“ Under such conditions all parts of the circulating medium tend to expand or contract in unison and a change in weight of the basic gold dollar carries with it a control of the whole mechanism of exchange, cash, and credit. ”

“ Instead of great price convulsions, such as we find throughout history, the index number would run close to par, say, 101, 1001⁄2, 101, 100, 102, 1011⁄2, 100, 98, 99, 99, 991⁄2, 100, etc., seldom getting off the line more than one or two per cent.
The process of correcting the dollar has just been likened to steering an automobile. ”

“ A fairly nimble dollar had to be set down so many times in so many places, as it went from hand to hand, that we calculate in about five years it must have cost itself in ink, paper, pens, and clerk hire, let alone fret and worry. ”

“ To-day we have at Washington a Bureau of Standards where the modern yardstick is determined by a bar of metal alloy kept in a room of constant temperature, under a glass case, and not approached by the observer, lest the warmth of his body should cause it to vary, but sighted by a telescope across the room!
Except the dollar, none of the old rough-and-ready units are any longer considered good enough for modern business. The dollar is the only survival of those primitive crudities. ”

“ Suppose one of these men gets from the mint a thousand gold dollars while, for pocket money, $50 is sufficient; he is almost sure to get speedily rid of at least $950 by spending it for enjoyables, investing it in durables, or depositing it in the bank. In any case he and the hundreds of others in the same situation tend to raise prices in the community where they are expending their money, or where they and others draw checks on the banks in which it is deposited. ”

“ A. "A goods-dollar is not ideal." Doubtless this is true. But our present gold dollar is still further from the ideal! It is significant that those who offer this "objection " do not suggest some third kind of dollar which might, practically, be used.
The discussion of an ideal dollar is purely academic. It will be time enough to discuss the merits of a marginal-utility unit of value, a labor unit, or a unit consisting of a given fraction of the National income, when any of these units can be statistically fixed, that is, when an index number in terms of such a unit is forthcoming. ”

“ Every mile of track is constructed with borrowed money, worth only about sixty cents on the dollar. Yet every dollar of these borrowings must some day be paid off in gold. And in the meantime the roads must pay a high interest rate on a dollar for every sixty cents' worth of money borrowed. ”

“ A dollar goes a long way when it is the only one in the house; and when she had everything, including two cents' worth of flitter-gold, four apples, and five candles for the tree, the grocer footed up her bill on the bag that (p. 083) held her potatoes—ninety-eight cents. Mrs. Ferguson gave him the little dollar.
"What's this?" said the grocer, his fat smile turning cold as he laid a restraining hand on the full basket. "That ain't no good."
"It's a dollar, ain't it?" said the woman, in alarm. "It's all right. I know the man that give it to me." ”

“ However great may be the disturbing effect of some other cause on the scale of prices, that effect can always be neutralized by a suitable change in the weight of the gold dollar, provided, of course, that all other dollars are kept redeemable in gold dollars. ”

“ Practically and commercially speaking, a dollar is not necessarily a specific thing, made of silver, or gold, or any other single metal, or substance. It is only such a quantum of market value as exists in a given piece of silver or gold. ”

“ Wall Street had been doing business with pieces of paper; and now someone asked for a dollar, and it was discovered that the dollar had been mislaid. ”

“ She can hit a dollar every time."
Fred—"That's nothing, my wife goes through my trousers and never misses a dime."
A man wanted a ticket to New York, and only had a $2 bill. It required $3 to get the ticket. He took the $2 bill to a pawnshop, pawned it for $1.50. On his way back to the depot he met a friend, to whom he sold the pawn ticket for $1.50. That gave him $3. Now, who's out that dollar?
"Is a howling dog a sign of death?" ”

“ A dollar picked up in the road is more satisfaction to you than the ninety-and-nine which you had to work for, and money won at faro or in stocks snuggles into your heart in the same way. ”

“ The value of a dollar is social, as it is created by society. ”

“ The ‘crownd’ is still the unit, the favourite coin of the labourers, especially the elder folk. They use the word something in the same sense as the dollar, and look with regret upon the gradual disappearance of the broad silver disc with the figure of ‘Saint Gaarge’ conquering the dragon. ”

“ No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. ”

“ But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. ”

“ Your Dollar is your only Word, The wrath of it your only fear. "You build it altars tall enough To make you see, but you are blind; You cannot leave it long enough To look before you or behind. ”

“ In reality there is no such thing as an inflation of prices, relatively to gold. There is such a thing as a depreciated paper currency. ”

“ These coins are not very valuable. Jack went out to get a napoleon changed, so as to have money suited to the general cheapness of things, and came back and said he had “swamped the bank, had bought eleven quarts of coin, and the head of the firm had gone on the street to negotiate for the balance of the change.” I bought nearly half a pint of their money for a shilling myself. I am not proud on account of having so much money, though. I care nothing for wealth. ”

“ To measure prices by a currency that is called by the same names as gold, but that is really inferior in value to gold, and then—because those prices are nominally higher than gold prices—to say that they are inflated, relatively to gold, is a perfect absurdity. ”

“ When the money volume of a country is sufficient to keep prices from falling, and thus to encourage capital to seek productive enterprises, in which labor is employed, every willing man is kept at work, and no country can enjoy any higher degree of prosperity than when all its people are employed, and the products of their labor equitably distributed.
Much, I believe, of the prejudice against silver money arises from an idea, conscientiously entertained, by many, that gold money has the greater "intrinsic value." ”

“ In a word, the almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these peculiar villages; ”

“ Every man worships the dollar, and is down before his shrine from morning to night. ”

“ "Remember, that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides.
"Remember, that credit is money. If a man lets his money lie in my hands after it is due, he gives me the interest, or so much as I can make of it during that time. This amounts to a considerable sum where a man has good and large credit, and makes good use of it.
"Remember, that money is of the prolific, generating nature. ”

“ Whenever he saw a dollar in another man's hands he took it as a personal grudge, if he couldn't take it any other way. ”

“ I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form. ”

“ When gold replaced silver as a measure of value, the same name was applied according to the ratio between the values of silver and gold, to perhaps 1-15th of a pound of gold. The word pound, as a money-name, thus becomes differentiated from the same word as a weight-name. [8] (3) The debasing of money carried on for centuries by kings and princes to such an extent that, of the original weights of the coins, nothing in fact remained but the names. ”

“ 'You may think it was a very little thing,' continued he, 'but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely believe that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day. ”

“ The demand for money is regulated entirely by its value, and its value by its quantity. ”

“ If English money was of the same value then as before, Hamburgh money must have risen in value. But where is the proof of this? ”

“ Whether a bank lent one million, ten millions, or a hundred millions, they would not permanently alter the market rate of interest; they would alter only the value of the money which they thus issued. ”

“ Because Money made of Gold and Silver is the best Rule of Commerce, and must therefore be equal, or else it is no Rule; ”

“ How beauteous are rouleaus! how charming chests Containing ingots, bags of dollars, coins (Not of old victors, all whose heads and crests Weigh not the thin ore where their visage shines, But) of fine unclipt gold, where dully rests Some likeness, which the glittering cirque confines, Of modern, reigning, sterling, stupid stamp:— Yes! ready money is Aladdin's lamp. ”

“ A rise of wages from this cause will indeed be invariably accompanied by a rise in the price of commodities: but in such cases, it will be found that labour and all commodities have not varied in regard to each other, and that the variation has been confined to money. ”

“ It has therefore been justly observed, that however honestly the coin of a country may conform to its standard, money made of gold80 and silver is still liable to fluctuations in value, not only to accidental and temporary, but to permanent and natural variations, in the same manner as other commodities. ”

“ The use of banks has been the best method yet practised for the increase of money. banks have been long used in Italy, but as I am informed, the invention of them was owing to Sweedland. their money was copper, which was inconvenient, by reason of its weight and bulk; to remedy this inconveniency, a bank was set up [Pg 65] where the money might be pledged, and credit given to the value, which past in payments, and facilitate trade.
The Dutch for the same reason set up the bank of Amsterdam. their money was silver, but their trade was so great as to find payments even in silver inconvenient. ”