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Since the Dollar circulates in Costa Rica in various denominations, does the same apply to coins.
Better yet, are the silver American coins hoarded due to having a real intrinsic value beyond its face value?
By the same topic, can one go to Costa Rica and pay with 3 Silver American Eagles (current value $25-$30.00) your hotel room? 😀
[quote=”johnnyh”]. . . can one go to Costa Rica and pay with 3 Silver American Eagles (current value $25-$30.00) your hotel room? :D[/quote]
We always encourage our visitors to deal only in Costa Rican colones when paying for anything while here. Just be sure to exchange dollars for colones only at a bank or to withdraw colones from one of the many ATMs. That way, you’re assured of getting the right exchange rate. Airport currency exchange booths, both here and in the United States, give notoriously lousy exchange rates. Don’t even consider using them!
Paying for something with coins which have numismatic or metal content value different from their face value would be unwieldy at best. How would a hotel desk clerk determine the value of a silver eagle, a silver dime or a Confederate dollar even if they could determine that they’re genuine? How would they make change?
And why would they bother? None of those circulate in the economy here and there’s probably no market for them. Redeeming them would be a nightmare. The same would apply to your grandfather’s watch, Babe Ruth’s autograph or most anything else of value only to collectors.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”johnnyh”]. . . can one go to Costa Rica and pay with 3 Silver American Eagles (current value $25-$30.00) your hotel room? :D[/quote]
We always encourage our visitors to deal only in Costa Rican colones when paying for anything while here. Just be sure to exchange dollars for colones only at a bank or to withdraw colones from one of the many ATMs. That way, you’re assured of getting the right exchange rate. Airport currency exchange booths, both here and in the United States, give notoriously lousy exchange rates. Don’t even consider using them!
Paying for something with coins which have numismatic or metal content value different from their face value would be unwieldy at best. How would a hotel desk clerk determine the value of a silver eagle, a silver dime or a Confederate dollar even if they could determine that they’re genuine? How would they make change?
And why would they bother? None of those circulate in the economy here and there’s probably no market for them. Redeeming them would be a nightmare. The same would apply to your grandfather’s watch, Babe Ruth’s autograph or most anything else of value only to collectors.
[/quote]I see your point. But doesn’t that beat logic in that people have been brainwashed to accept fiat currencies instead of real money.
There’s a you tube video where someone wants to sell a Canadian one ounce gold coin for $50.00, then $25, and so on until he was practically giving it away, and there were no takers.As has been convincingly reported elsewhere in this Forum, the world economy runs on fiat currency which is, indeed, real money. Why would one lone hotel desk clerk want to buck that tide? If you have it in mind to unbrainwash the world’s clerks and their bosses, who give them their guidance, you will never run out of work.
As for the Canadian gold coin, if it is really gold and not just gold-colored, what does its marketability tell you about the interest in precious metals?
[quote=”johnnyh”][quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”johnnyh”]. . . can one go to Costa Rica and pay with 3 Silver American Eagles (current value $25-$30.00) your hotel room? :D[/quote]
We always encourage our visitors to deal only in Costa Rican colones when paying for anything while here. Just be sure to exchange dollars for colones only at a bank or to withdraw colones from one of the many ATMs. That way, you’re assured of getting the right exchange rate. Airport currency exchange booths, both here and in the United States, give notoriously lousy exchange rates. Don’t even consider using them!
Paying for something with coins which have numismatic or metal content value different from their face value would be unwieldy at best. How would a hotel desk clerk determine the value of a silver eagle, a silver dime or a Confederate dollar even if they could determine that they’re genuine? How would they make change?
And why would they bother? None of those circulate in the economy here and there’s probably no market for them. Redeeming them would be a nightmare. The same would apply to your grandfather’s watch, Babe Ruth’s autograph or most anything else of value only to collectors.
[/quote]I see your point. But doesn’t that beat logic in that people have been brainwashed to accept fiat currencies instead of real money.
There’s a you tube video where someone wants to sell a Canadian one ounce gold coin for $50.00, then $25, and so on until he was practically giving it away, and there were no takers.[/quote]Give it some time. Remember 100 years ago communicating by any other means than a letter which was then posted in the mail for delivery was the only form of long distance communication for most people. If our current forms (telephone and email) ceased to exist suddenly most people would be lost but eventually would learn to resort back to the old system.
Money is much that same. Should our current fiat system of exchange fail people will go back to a system of exchange that has existed for thousands of years. But there will be a learning curve just as people would have to relearn how to write and post a letter. Be that “new” form of exchange be silver, gold, corn, beads, or blankets.
It’s always best to prepare for the worse and hope for the best. Hold on to your silver. Remember it has a MUCH longer history (thousands of years) of being a material of exchange and commerce than our current fiat system. Just because our current generation doesn’t understand it doesn’t mean it’s not valid. How many folks today would have a hard time writing and posting a letter?
[quote=”imxploring”] Remember 100 years ago communicating by any other means than a letter which was then posted in the mail for delivery was the only form of long distance communication for most people. [/quote]
Uh, your understanding of the historical facts is a little off, imx. The first long distance telegraph line (Baltimore to Washington) was funded by Congress in 1844. It proliferated very quickly such that the telegraph was the central component of the Union’s command system during the Civil War which was waged between 1861 and 1865. Samuel Morse improved on designs which had their origins as far back as 1809.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a U.S. patent for the telephone. It, too, proliferated very quickly.
Now as for the silver coins, all johnnyh and others need to figure out is a medium in which to make change and a way to determine relative values. Just how many nights can you stay at (insert the name of your favorite hotel) for a 1913 Liberty Head V nickel? How about a 1944 steel wheat penny? And what will johnnyh be offered in change, or will he have to make up the difference in corn?
I never said anything about numismatic coins. Several states including Utah are monetizing silver and gold coins as payments for taxes. The cat is out of the box, and I foresee good money driving out the bad money. Now, in Panama they also use the Dollar, but do they also use the cupro nickel coins like quarters and dimes for change? I don’t know.
With inflation kicking in, I think people will realize the money they hold will be losing value, and by that same token will want to get paid with “real” money in the form of silver and gold, gold for the larger transactions.
Now, of course I might be wrong and the sheep will pay 50,000.00 Colones for a Coke, or $50.00 here in the states, but by that time I think us peasants will want to know what’s going on!
But going back to getting paid in silver in C.R. Just as hotels accept Dollars, might they also accept silver coins pegged at the daily London price? Has anyone asked?[quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”imxploring”] Remember 100 years ago communicating by any other means than a letter which was then posted in the mail for delivery was the only form of long distance communication for most people. [/quote]
Uh, your understanding of the historical facts is a little off, imx. The first long distance telegraph line (Baltimore to Washington) was funded by Congress in 1844. It proliferated very quickly such that the telegraph was the central component of the Union’s command system during the Civil War which was waged between 1861 and 1865. Samuel Morse improved on designs which had their origins as far back as 1809.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a U.S. patent for the telephone. It, too, proliferated very quickly.
Now as for the silver coins, all johnnyh and others need to figure out is a medium in which to make change and a way to determine relative values. Just how many nights can you stay at (insert the name of your favorite hotel) for a 1913 Liberty Head V nickel? How about a 1944 steel wheat penny? And what will johnnyh be offered in change, or will he have to make up the difference in corn?
[/quote]
Thanks for the history lesson Dave but I’m well aware of the history of the telephone and telegraph…. as well as the use of smoke signals and drums.
But I’ll stand by my contention that for most people the written word of a letter was the most widely used form of long distance communication 100 years ago. Both from a functional stand point as well an accepted social norm. Folks didn’t chit chat on the phone as they do now on a constant basis over trivial things…. nor did they send telegrams to communicate ideas and exchange information. They wrote letters to each other! Well composed letters with wonderful penmanship and flair. Today folks text each other using broken English and “words” that mean nothing. Like “C U L8tr”!
Much like our financial system communication has lost it’s way and meaning. But what’s to say we can’t return to a system that worked for 1000s of years and had meaning. Be that by choice or by necessity when our current systems fail.
[quote=”imxploring”] But what’s to say we can’t return to a system that worked for 1000s of years and had meaning.[/quote]
I’m curious (your turn for the history lesson). Can you cite an example of a system (monetary, health or otherwise) that “. . . worked for 1,000s of years . . . ” and which any significantly large group of human beings abandoned and subsequently has returned to successfully?
To be sure, there was a “back to the earth” movement in the 1960s and 1970s, but few were really involved and fewer still remain involved today. Likewise, while organic food production could be cited, it has hardly become ubiquitous. And the ancient practice of using leeches and maggots in medicine has come back into fashion in some instances, but we’ve hardly returned to the Galenic model.
Too, the very fact of widespread usage of precious metal coins is a question. From what little I’ve read, most humans throughout history have lived and died without having had more than a very few coins. What commerce existed for most of human history consisted of goods-for-goods or goods-for-services barter.
I dunno . . . I’m trying to think of something that has actually occurred that would have the worldwide implications of a universal return to the gold standard. Help me out, please.
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