Quote: (01-21-2016 05:11 PM)Glaucon Wrote:
The US in its history never cancelled its currency.
All other countries did a number of times.
It's never 'cancelled' its currency but the format has been changed numerous times.
Prior to 1900, the dollar was loosely linked to gold and silver in numerous ways.
In 1900, the dollar (USD) went to an official Gold standard where a dollar was convertible to 1.5 grams of gold.
This format of the dollar lasted for 33 years.
Then, in 1933 FDR, because of financial disruptions caused by the Great Depression, implemented the Gold Reserve Act which changed the structure of the US dollar. He basically fixed the dollar whereby 35 USD equaled an ounce of gold.
That form of the USD
lasted almost 40 years until 1971.
Nixon abandoned Bretton Woods ( linking gold to the USD) for various pressing reasons, in 1971. For the first time, the USD was not linked to precious metals. It was a true fiat currency.
As of now, we've been on this "Nixonian" structure of the USD
for just over 40 years.
Will there be another "form" or structure of the USD someday? It seems there must be.
When will this occur? That's up for speculation.