Silver Coins: Memories Of Sound Money

Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

The financial press reports that people are swarming the coin shops these days, grabbing as much as possible. This is exactly what one would expect given the wild and parabolic increases in the silver price over the last month, moving from $30 to $75 in the period of one year.

Such increases tend to focus the mind and incentivize regular people to join in the fun.

Silver tends toward these wild manias, suffering from neglect for years before taking off out of seemingly nowhere. That said, I did call it in these pages. “Now Is the time for silver,” I wrote in June of 2025.

The wild bull market seems to reflect new levels of demand from AI and solar panels. There is no better conductor of electricity or temperature. Nothing from the lab can come close. There is also the perception that supplies are dwindling. Put it together—supply and demand—and the magic just happens.

If you are among those who are stocking up on coins—not merely calling your broker about silver ETFs—you might take a few minutes to look more carefully at the dates of these coins.

The year was 1965, the great turning point. The last 90 percent silver circulating coins (dimes, quarters, half-dollars) were dated 1964, and everyday “silver coinage” ended with that date for most denominations.

How significant was this? It was huge.

Silver coins were about real money in the hands of real people, not bankers and not politicians. They were a guarantor of freedom, one even mentioned in the U.S. Constitution “No State shall... coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts,” says Article I, Section 10, Clause 1.

The Founders knew the meaning of sound money, and made it a mandatory matter that any state that is part of the great union had to adhere to the silver standard. Much later, all money and coinage power were transferred to the federal government, making the point mute. But then of course the federal government made an enormous error.

Why did this happen? Lyndon Johnson had taken over the Presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy had hoped to impose a nationwide silver standard as a means of restraining the central bank. After he was killed, the goal was sidelined. The money in our pockets was wrecked. From being made of the real deal, they all eventually became what is known as “baloney sandwich” coins—nothing but tokens.

The rest of the world followed. Why? There is really only one reason. Governments, banks, and corporate finance did not like the restraints imposed by precious metals. It was seen as too costly and restrictive whereas coining mere symbols seemed to be a savings. There was a welfare state to create and fund, plus a big war building in Southeast Asia. In such times, governments need resources that hard money simply does not allow.

Another critical point about these times: this was the turning point in public confidence in government. The assassination of Kennedy was a devastating blow, especially in the way that so few actually ever believed the official story about how and why it happened. Government never recovered its credibility. The destruction of the money was the telltale sign that something had gone seriously wrong.

Confidence in government peaked at 77 percent in 1964 and then began its long slide. It sits at 17 percent today.

Chart source: Pew Research

This is an astonishing and undeniable trend about which few will publicly speculate. The bigger government gets, the more it takes on, the less the public trusts it to do the right thing. This is because the people are not stupid. They follow the evidence of their senses. And keep in mind that the main trends happened long before independent media was hard at work to pull back the curtain on power, as it is today.

Daily we discover more depths of corruption, thanks mostly to independent reporters and scrupulous reporting from The Epoch Times. A video detailing the mind-blowing corruption in Minnesota has reached more than 100 million views, making the legacy media irrelevant by comparison. The COVID period was also another decisive turning point: scientists with power ruled your life in the name of health while taking away the means to obtain health.

The slide can only continue in the future, and it is likely that the only kind of politician who stands a chance of getting elected is one who promises to overthrow the system as it is. This is our lives now, just the way things work in a society of low trust.

The beauty in holding and jangling pre-1965 silver is nostalgia for a time when government was somewhat restrained, corporate finance was built by hard work and real capital, people were highly educated, and freedom itself was baked into our coinage. Plus, silver just feels great in one’s hand, adopting the temperature of the room and the holder as if a magic trick is happening right before you.

I long for the days of real money and probably you do too. And it raises the question: how can we get it back? I wish I had the answer but plenty of people are not waiting for government to make it happen. Much of the demand for silver these days stems from what’s called “safe haven” demand. You just know that even if or when fiat money fails, this silver will still be accepted in payment.

Who doesn’t feel safer and more secure with a few large bags of pre-1965 dimes and quarters on hand? This was the last period in which the United States minted real money as opposed to symbols made of paper and tin. That was more than half a century ago, and public nostalgia for this period of our national life has reached new highs.

Someone just asked me of the chances that government will in the future demand that we all turn in our silver, the same way they did in 1933 for gold. One supposes it is possible, and you can imagine the rationale: industry needs supply to make the AI revolution and the energy transition possible. Certainly they have the power to do so.

That said, how many will comply? In 1933, plenty of people did not assent with the demand to turn in gold and instead found other safe havens for it. The same would be true today for silver. Plus, I seriously doubt that any president or Congress would risk what remains of credibility by undertaking such an action. There would be real risk of revolution.

We aren’t likely going back to a silver standard but people are adopting it in their own lives, even choosing the old-world money over crypto currency certainly over fiat which is only falling in value. Remember that one version of the history of the world dollar comes from the Spanish coin “thaler.” That memory is alive and well in every coin shop in this country, and in the bags of silver you might be accumulating now, just in case.