Let's look at how worthless our money is. I've done this in the past, but I am always getting comments amazed at the values when I show what older money would be worth today when adjusted for inflation, so it's always a good topic to repeat.
On one of my two banknote post, @bozz left a comment wondering why the US still mints the penny ($0.01). Funny thing about that...
In 1857, the US discontinued the half-cent ($0.005). The stated reason was that the buying power had fallen so low that it wasn't useful enough to continue minting. Now that's all well and good. We read that fact today and maybe nod. I mean a penny is worthless, so half of that is even more worthless, right? So it was a good decision to discontinue it!
But the thing is... when we adjust for inflation, the half-cent would be worth around 19 cents of today's money. 19 cents, yet they considered that value to be too low at the time to continue minting it. By that logic, not only should the penny be discontinued today, but also the nickel ($0.05) and the dime ($0.10). After all, that half-cent in 1857 had nearly the same buying power as a quarter ($0.25) does today.
Let's jump to 1913, because that is when most inflation calculators start so it is easier to figure out values. Had the half-cent still been minted in 1913, it would have been worth 16 cents (well, 15.8 cents to be exact). Not too different from 1857, although that still represented enough inflation that I'm sure old folks at the time were complaining about it.
Let's look at the six basic US coins in 1913 and what they would be worth today. We'll also throw in the quarter eagle ($2.50) for kicks, even though even at the time it didn't see a lot of usage and was more of a buy and hold coin due to the high value (and the gold inside).
| Coin | 1913 Value | 2024 Value |
|---|---|---|
| Penny | $0.01 | $0.32 |
| Nickel | $0.05 | $1.58 |
| Dime | $0.10 | $3.17 |
| Quarter | $0.25 | $7.92 |
| Half-dollar | $0.50 | $15.87 |
| Dollar | $1.00 | $31.67 |
| Quarter Eagle | $2.50 | $79.18 |
Looking at that, yeah, you can understand why the quarter eagle didn't get a lot of usage. That tiny coin had a heck of a lot of value. Lose it and that would ruin your day in a hurry. Heck, just a quarter: that was nearly ten bucks in today's money—in one coin!
[Well, gold has appreciated much more, so that quarter eagle would be worth around $275 today. But we're just going by the face value here.]
Back in the day you could buy a lot without even stepping up to a dollar. Just a handful of coins and you could buy almost anything you'd need day to day. When I was small my grandparents would talk about how they could go to the store and buy candy for a penny (my folks said the same, but needless to say they couldn't buy as much as my grandparents with that penny). @willendorfia mentioned something similar in another comment. Well, now we can see why old folks say those things. A penny used to actually have some value—it was worth even more than a quarter today!
Let's go the opposite way!
| Coin | 2024 Value | 1913 Value |
|---|---|---|
| Penny | $0.01 | $0.0003 |
| Nickel | $0.05 | $0.0016 |
| Dime | $0.10 | $0.003 |
| Quarter | $0.25 | $0.008 |
| Half-dollar | $0.50 | $0.016 |
| Dollar | $1.00 | $0.03 |
| Quarter Eagle | $2.50 | $0.08 |
Uhm.... yeah. That's how much value our money has lost.
[Again, the quarter-eagle doesn't really count, because it's not really a circulating coin like it was in 1913. Also, it is gold and gold is gold. But just considering face value.]
To go back to Bozz's comment, if the US were actually updating the money supply to keep up with inflation, the penny, nickel, and dime would all be discontinued.
If they wanted to give us a collection of coins that had roughly the same value as 1913, they'd stop printing the $1, $5, and $10 bills and make them coins. Of course we know that isn't going to happen. Even our money has been made political, so it would be impossible to even withdraw the penny, and if the government today can't agree to stop printing the $1 bill, there is no chance they'd also stop printing the $5 and $10. But I'm just stating if the mint was actually interested in keeping the buying power of coins the same as they used to be.
Anyway, is there a moral to all this or is it just trivia? The moral is don't trust government money. Buy Bitcoin (and Hive)!
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |