The (literal) gift of hard money \ stacker news ~econ

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624 sats \ 16 comments \ @stack_harder 21h econ

Recently, while back home catching up with relatives, I stayed with my nan. She’s almost 90 now, not in great health, and in reality, this was a bittersweet visit because it was probably the last time I saw her alive.

Sadness aside, she wanted to give me a few things to take back with me, and one of them was a little gold half sovereign coin from 1911. According to chatGPT, adjusted for inflation, this would be the equivalent of about 75 GBP in today’s money, although the coin's value if sold on ebay etc may be 400-500 dollars (not that I would sell it anyway).

While many bitcoiners shit on gold for its various issues, I can’t help but get a kick out of the fact that this little coin is still worth something today, not a load of fiat, sure, but it was a smaller denomination even back then.

According to my nan, the coin belonged to her grandmother, who used to keep half sovereigns handy to pay the rent on a store she ran. This last coin was passed down the line, and I guess I will keep it and pass it down too.

Someone’s energy was stored in that little coin, and it still holds value today (and looks cool) - not something we can say about shitty fiat.

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153 sats \ 6 replies \ @Scoresby 21h

It does look cool. It does make you wonder if we will have any tangible things to pass on to the generations that follow us. I'm not sure whether things from the early 20th century feel so much more quality simply because they are old or if there really was some difference that we've lost. Even "nice" modern things don't have the same weightiness.

(I know we all expect to pass on a few satoshis to our descendants, but that's not exactly something you can hold in your hand...)

164 sats \ 2 replies \ @stack_harder OP 21h

Apparently, in the UK, gold coins are things arent subject to inheritance, so that could still be viable, plus it's a history thing too.

i know what you mean, though, most things aren't made to last.

i will make sure the kids inherit old lego sets tho, they hold their value #868604 and still look cool

32 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 21h

Oh man! I missed that post! It's excellent. My kids are right in the Lego years and you are totally right: they're pretty quality toys.

It does bring up an interesting thing point about inflation adjusted prices, though. It seems to me the sets you used as your examples are equivalent to sets that cost more than $120 these days.

I experience this phenomenon every time I hear about inflation a adjusted prices: they always seem startlingly low to me.

This kind of gets to the distinction you made in this post about the gold coin. "75GBP in today's money, but trades for 400-500 on eBay." I realize that there may be a collector's premium, but i wonder why is it that inflation adjusted pricing seems so much lower than the prices I feel like I experience day to day.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 1h

LEGO is great and pretty timeless. I would keep all the sets and then let the grandkids play with them, plus they have all the cool tie-ins with IP like Starwars etc, that's always going to be good.

as for inflation pricing feeling lower, i think it's probably because the calculators use official cpi and other indicators that are a bit of a scam, that and certain things will have regional price fluctuations. we all know inflation is always way worse than the offical numbers

123 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 21h

I continue to think that we’re going to need tangible specie as part of our monetary system. If there’s no way for bitcoin to do that, it’s a real problem.

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @stack_harder OP 1h

reminds me of Goldbacks https://www.goldback.com/. dont know if they could work, they do look cool tho, and goldbugs are divided on whether they love or hate them

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 1m

They're neat, but I don't think competing currencies are stable.

14 sats \ 2 replies \ @BlokchainB 19h

Hey @plunda what are your thoughts on this post! This is right up your alley!

101 sats \ 1 reply \ @plunda 2h

yeah awesome post. me and my brother have a similar experience with our auntie who gave us some sovereigns as kids our first experience with gold and seeing the fiat denomited price increase over the years was a first hand way to learn about inflation

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 1h

seems like sovereigns are a common entry point

63 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 21h

I love the feel of gold and silver coins. I was fascinated by coins as a kid and I’ll pass my modest collection on to my daughter.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder OP 1h

many years back i got into collecting old russian coins from the early soviet union days and, while they're not worth much i dont think, there is something satisfying about having a little colleciton

32 sats \ 0 replies \ @Grateful 17h

Very special ❤️

32 sats \ 1 reply \ @flat24 19h

Simply beautiful... This is the wake up generation that was much before us, that the Fiat and of course before Bitcoin.

"The energy someone stored in the past today can be used by the next generation without erosion of purchasing power"

simply fantastic 👏

Just what I plan to do for my children, and that today is possible only thanks to Bitcoin. (From my origin and my perspective)