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This is a single bond coupon from a New York Central railroad bond, payable in gold on February 1, 1997, from sometime before 1933, when the U.S. government confiscated nearly all of its citizens' gold coins (yes, it can happen again).

Actual size, 75 x 22 mm. Complete bonds are valuable collector's items, but individual coupons are of negligible value.

Issuing "gold" bonds was a common practice until the 1920s, and a long bond (such as a railroad) might have hundreds of coupons attached, promising interest payments far into an unimaginable future, payable to the bearer.

Aren't many of the OPEC countries talking about oil being sold in grams of Gold a barrel, and not Dollars or Euros as both the latter are basically frail and failing and none of us know where they will be in a year?

No government can print more Gold.

Let these photos be a lesson to us all.

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There is now, and has been, discussion of requiring payment for oil (and other critical commodities) in gold. Eventually this creates a two-tiered market, i.e., buyers who are wealthy and have gold to pay with, and, poor countries who have no gold but desire oil.

It is generally believed this leads to black market prices, reduced demand from OPEC, hyperinflation, and finally, chaos. The Arabs will confirm it is very difficult to stuff the genie back in the bottle.

It is also difficult to introduce a gold standard when the world is awash in cheap natural gas.

Glen, come join the "dollar-Euro collapse" thread, and you will see all these factors cussed and discussed endlessly.

Doug2222usa; from what I have read and heard, the proposal is not to buy oil using gold only, it is more in the nature of 'bartering'; that is India buys oil from Iran, Iran buys 'chappatis' from India and only the net debt is paid in gold; that is, if the 2 countries buy the same amount of produce from each other then there is no gold transfer.

If this is the case, and India buys less from Iran than the value of the oil that it buys then there is an incentive for India to buy other products from Iran, reducing its purchases from other countries by doing so. Iran offers the same alternatives to your 'poor nations' and that will boost the Iran economy and negate the sanctions.

Smart move Iran.

That is why I believe that the USA and the EU have shot themselves in the foot through stupidity- another example of the Big Brothers not thinking through the problem before acting.

Maintaining the great philosophy; shoot first, then work out your exit strategy.

Doug- I am curious about these gold bonds

What happened to them- were they later paid out in cash or redeemed? or converted to regular bonds?

Were any with such late payment dates like 1997 still being paid?

Of course, that assumes any of these railroads survived, which seems remote. In those days, railroads came and went faster than internet companies do today

The entire range right from the One Dollar Bill to the One Hundred Trillion Dollars Bill are all signed by the same gentleman-- who presided over the collapse of the monetrary regime.

Thanks and regards.

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http://princelystatecoins.wordpress.com
http://oldindiacoins.wordpress.com

The person responsible for the collapse was one Robert Mugabe.

His policies, and his policies alone, brought about the collapse in Zimbabwe, a country that used to be an exporter of food to large parts of southern Africa!

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

The $1 and $5 note were issued in 2007, after Zimbabwe took a vast number of zeros off their currency (yet again). They didn't last long as inflation was still over 1 million percent, the Zimbabwe Dollar was halving in value each day.

What stopped the rot, to a large extent, was stopping the use of Zimbabwe Dollars and making the US Dollar the currency for a period. Suddenly, goods started to reappear in the shops and hyper-inflation became a bad dream. Not sure whether the situation has changed and the Zimbabwe Dollar is once again in use, but I doubt it, given the economic climate of the last 3 years.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

For MikeG, I don't know what happened to the gold bonds.

Most corporate bonds are callable, meaning the corporation can pay off the balance at any time and invalidate the bonds. After Roosevelt confiscated Americans' gold in 1933, any and all gold bonds were undoubtedly called, since there was no gold available to pay the interest.

Yes, as a matter of fact, it can happen again. And if the U.S. Government wanted to go after Americans' gold smuggled into Canadian banks' safety-deposit boxes for safekeeping, they probably could.

Thanks Doug

It would make sense they would simply call them in- I have had bonds that paid a higher than normal interest rate called

And, sadly, yes, our government would gladly cave in to any such demand by the US.

Zimbabwe currently uses these currencies:

-South African Rand
-Botswana Pula
-Pound Sterling
-US Dollar
-Euro

...and no (hyperinflated) Zimbabwe Dollar!

From 2004, Stanley Gibbons do not price stamps 'due to the collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar'. My SG lists up to 2008, does anyone know what currency the stamps are denominated in from 2009?

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My wantlist for Malta Revenues

They used a lettering system, from memory. Each letter denoted a rate (domestic, Europe, Australia etc, much like the forever stamps in the US) and it meant that the postal charge could be changed as required (pretty much daily). I think, although I am nor sure, that they also limited sales in terms of numbers of stamps.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

I have wondered about this share cert which I have lying about:



Is it really likely that they paid a 50% dividend

They probably never paid a dividend at all. So many of those companies failed before even starting to dig.

My father has a share certificate, issued in the 1970s in Australia, that was overprinted "In Liquidation" when he first received it. In other words, the company failed even before the share certificates were issued.

He became the senior Public Servant in the old National Companies and Securities Commission (the forerunner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission). They were the corporate regulator, same role as the SEC in the US. He had that share certificate framed on his wall, as a reminder of what his job was....to stop that sort of thing ever happening again.

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

Peter- That's a good one

Definitely a good learning experience, and your father must have had a fascinating job.

I have a few of my own, but nothing that failed that fast

I have just noted I made a rather startling error in the above post. The successor to the old NCSC was not the ACCC, rather it was the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)

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Peter
Hawthorn - AFL Premiers 1961, 1971, 1976, 1978, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2008.

There was some discussion on postal services from Turd World countries elsewhere, and I arranged to have this sent to me. The R means Rest of World, and the sender was charged One $ for the stamp.


http://i1099.photobucket.com/albums/g38 ... letter.jpg

What would a set of notes like that cost? They remind me of German inflation stamps.

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I'm John. I collect Italian, particularly the Mussolini years.

The Zimbabwe Dollar inflation period notes are still on sale at stamp fairs around Johannesburg. A set of the three top values(up to 100Trillion)sells for about US$21 last time I asked.