Bob,
I have a number of inter-related questions dealing with the history of silver and US coins and silver certificates. Any answers and references, either books or online text, would be greatly appreciated.
In the past 50 years, there was at least one period, possibly still ongoing in some cases, when silver coins were pulled from circulation by individuals for their silver content, which exceeded their face value. You likely can provide a brief overview for this.
What weight of silver was used to back silver certificates, and were they profitable to redeem as well or did the government restrict redemption or change the rules for existing silver certificates? I am aware that no redemption is any longer possible, but my interest is in the past.
I am most interested in the opposite situation, where the value of the silver backing a silver certificate would be less than the face value of the certificate, presumably far less in some cases, but I don't have even a wild guess as to how much. What was the history over time of the value of silver that could be contemporaneously redeemed for a given face value of a silver certificate? I would be surprised if you had anything off the top of your head on this, but maybe you can suggest some references that might help address this.
TIA, Don |
