/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>57577685
In my experience silver tracks the prevailing wage better than minimum wage. The prevailing wage is a function of min wage to some extent, but not one to one.

The data that really interests me is min wage vs. gold price in areas where a person can pan gold reliably. I live in a place where you can pan anything from 1-3 grams of gold a day working a 10 hour shift, and in my life minimum wage has never gone below the point where a person could make more money panning gold. The last time that happened was during the Great Depression, and half the state took to panning gold for a living.

>>56588907
>are there any data or anecdotes about the use of precious metals in America during the Great Depression?
a few.

first, gold and silver mining were outlawed during WWI and WWII because miners were needed for war metals. So industrial mining of precious metals was almost nonexistent outside of some huge mines such as the Homestake Mine in Lead, SD, as well as some gold mines in Colorado and California.

so not a lot of mining.

metal currency was hoarded. Metal currency was ALWAYS hoarded, but during the depression it didn't circulate much at all. Anyone who got paid in silver or gold either couldn't afford to keep it and passed it on, or more often COULD afford to keep it and hoarded it. So people didn't see a lot of metal money during the depression. This contributed to the banning of gold ownership in 1933, as most people simply hadn't seen the stuff in decades anyways. This was also pretty common in good times, and an extreme problem in the dozens of depressions before the great depression. Outside of the gold glut caused by the California gold rush, and the silver gluts caused by the Comstock and later the Leadville silver strikes, precious metals rarely circulated in the US. Paper was far more common, and most people probably couldn't afford to walk around with even a dollar in their pockets anyways. That was a lot of money back then, so stuff like quarter eagles and up were outrageous sums to just carry around or spend for most people. Especially during the depression when work was scarce and cash was virtually gone.

Panning gold for food became a thing. Dudes in Denver were staking out spots on Cherry Creek and panning as hard as they could all day long to get a fraction of a gram of gold to buy beans and a sliver of meat to eat. Maybe some bread. The entire length of the creek was worked and reworked over and over. Places with more gold saw similar activity, with unemployed men lining the banks to pan enough gold for a cheap dinner.