/biz/ - Business & Finance

See this, /sg/? This is an old form of American coinage called a "Peace Dollar." It is 90% silver or 0.77345 troy ounces of silver. Today at a current, to the minute spot price of $17.85 that silver content makes it worth $13.80 apiece. That does not go very far today as you can think of plenty of items that are within that range and plenty more that would cost more than a single "dollar."

I turn you to this website: https://usdebtclock.org/gold-precious-metals.html.. This website tracks the USA national debt and this specific section tracks precious metals. In the lower left-hand corner it currently says that the dollar:silver ratio sits at $1097 per ounce of silver. That means that there are $1,097 USD in circulation for every ounce of silver. If the USA were to back the dollar with a bimetallic standard (silver and gold) today then every ounce of silver would be worth $1,097 USD per ounce. That means that that same Peace Dollar would become worth $848.47 each.

Now the key here is to recognize that no good would any longer be valued that way however. Instead of looking at a Peace dollar as ~$850 USD value, you would look at items as valued in Peace dollars (or likely whatever silver or gold backed currency is newly minted at that time).

So let's look at items that can be measured in values of $850. A quick Amazon search yields some of these results:
• Random Samsung 65" UHD Flat Screen Smart TV: $797.99 -> <1 Peace Dollar
• Random Home Theater system: $798.98 -> <1 Peace Dollar
• A high-end Apple iMac: $1650 -> <2 Peace Dollars
• 1 share of Amazon stock: $1870.80 (Last Close) -> <3 Peace Dollars
• Most sold car of 2019, the Ford Fiesta, Brand New: MSRP upwards of $21,000 -> ~24.75 Peace Dollars

We do not think of a dollar going so far because those things did not exist at the same time as the dollar being backed by silver or gold. If the switch was flipped today after lunch this is what a $1 USD FV coin would buy you today.