Why gold and silver?
Throughout history, mankind has used various items as a medium of exchange, or money. Feathers, shells, sticks of wood, huge wheel-shaped rocks, salt, beads, tobacco, animal skins, and even cows have been used as money at one time or another. Anything that satisfied the conditions of relative rarity, easily recognized value and durability to protect that value could and probably was used as a medium of exchange at some point in human history.
It sounds kind of silly, doesn’t it, trading 3 cows for a house? I wouldn’t laugh if I were you. Today we trade a little piece of paper with fancy writing on it for a house every single day. These monetary experiments throughout history have shown us one thing; That only coins made from two rare metals are the best keepers of value for use as money: Gold and Silver. As a matter of fact, the longest lived coin ever was the silver tetradrachm coin of Athens which was used for almost 500 years. It was made of stable weight and purity and was known throughout the ancient world as a trusted medium of exchange. There are many other examples of silver and gold coins that were used for centuries, until governments started to debase them (reduce their precious metal content) or end them by issuing fiat money (i.e. paper money). Paper money, on the other hand, never lasts more than a hundred years, and no government or central banking system is able to resist the temptation to print more and more of it, which results in the the common man suffering from the so-called inflation tax. And since Federal Reserve Notes are created out of debt (see this excellent film Money As Debt), and must be paid back with interest that is never created, all the Fed can do is create more and more Federal Reserve Notes to keep the economy from slipping into a deflationary spiral. They don’t call him ‘Helicopter Ben’ for nothing.
So how do we peasants survive in an inflationary environment such as we are in now?
Gold is the money of kings; silver is the money of gentlemen; barter is the money of peasants; but debt is the money of slaves.
— Norm Franz
Right now we are slaves, because our money is debt. Its value erodes every single time the federal government borrows more money or someone takes a loan from a bank. If you want to hang on the value of your hard work, gold and silver are two of the best assets to have.
