penny for your wroughts

a penny for your wroughts.*

gold just went through 1100. mmm.

according to some, a penny is the smallest unit of currency in circulation. it’s a working definition. it also provokes some thought on the subject of money.

what is money ? the text book answer is a medium of exchange. I don’t agree with this as anything can be and is used as a medium of exchange. even a hot potato..

I like to think of money as a store of value. or energy .. frozen prana/chi. but its an idea that should be taken with a grain of well.. not just salt. (a grain of something more yellowish.)

take the Australian case for example.. it is the sixth most traded currency. stable economy. integrated with growing economies.. commodities in abundance. but… look more closely.

the aussi dollar was actually created out of the Australian pound which was a satellite of the british pound sterling. in 1966 the aussi was worth 980 milligrams of gold.

so what was a pound sterling? it’s a story but get a fix on it and you will never look at an aussi or any other dollar again in the same way..

a pound sterling.. pound refers to troy pound. troy is from troyes* a city about 150 kms south of paris …. is 373 odd grams. 12 troy ounces in a pound. (31 odd grams in a troy ounce.) (the norman kings who ruled england from 1066 were French remember?)

sterling is a standard of silver alloy .. 92.5% silver no less. (the rest is usually copper) alloying metals toughens them .. pure silver .. or silver 999 (ie 99.9%) is almost as soft as gold. everyone knows it takes a good shine.. is malleable and durable.. it is a noble metal.

the troy pound is obsolete now but the ounce isn’t though it looks to be on the way out and metric in.

the troy or genuine once of silver was distinct from the avoirdupois weight of the coin which included the weight of the alloy. (I think is the distinction) I think the pois is poids French for weight.)

so a pound sterling is 373 grams of 92.5% pure silver. (925). that isn’t so hard. you can get that much ag. on the market for around 250 bucks. (though I think you get kilo bars these days if you get anything. silver coins are called junk silver—just don’t tell M.me Maria Theresa.. hehehe.)

now what comes as a shock (and this is the point of the blog today) is that there are 240 pennies in a pound. making a penny 1.555 grams of sliver.(pennyweight) .. now as I look at the screen a gram of silver is 0.61 australian dollars… 61 cents. -> 1.555 is 94.855 cents.. say 95 cents.. allright lets say 100.. but wait! math tells me that an aussi dollar is worth a penny.. right.. .

the aussi is worth a penny.

so.. work it out for yourself if you don’t believe me.

its what they call inflation. which is theft by any other name.

lets not mince words. (ie repeat lies)

lets put it another way.. in 1966 when the aussi was created out of the pound, it was worth more than a greenback, and bought almost a gram of gold.. 980 milligrams.

at the time this blog was written , (nov 9 2009) the aussi buys 0.026 of a gram of the yellow metal.

speaks for itself rather .. don’t you agree?

one draws what conclusions one is capable of. but if this comes as a surprise then I figure that you haint seen nuffen hyet.

when you think of the rhetoric of all the lying, faceless politicians who over the years (im talking centuries) have debased the currency to where it is today it makes me realize why the world is the place it is. when people legitimize thieves by electing them to office.. willingly. with such enthusiasm.. or all the dictators propped up by their thugs who demand the submission of simple people ---usually hard working, good people.. in the form of tax and the laws they make..... in addition to what they theive. with inflation.

well.. I wonder if the saints and sages don’t collectively roll in their graves, throw up their hands, and groan for the time they wasted on humanity.

000

*wrought is an archaic past participle of "to work" the verb. in australian slang a rort or wrought is a scam .. usually a political scam.

** people say it is not related to the city of troy made famous by homer.. but I wonder.. the pound is a roman measure of weight .. and if you know your vergil, you will recall that rome looked to troy as its origen.. the source of its legitimacy. I suspect that is why troyes was chosen as eponymous. it is an otherwise unimportant French town.

the portrait on the coin is william the conquerer from 1071.

right. .thats enough.. any more will be hard work.

fu.

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