Saturday Again!
Well, it worked last time. I said there wasn’t much happening and the Wayfair story broke, bigtime.
So let’s see.
(Well, it’s worth a shot!)
Truth to tell, I’ve been so dang busy I haven’t been able to keep up here, so for all I know the entire Deep State (and its Derp State affiliate, for people like Maxine Waters) got arrested.
A Reminder Of Today’s Issues.
Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People...Our campaign represents a true existential threat, like they’ve never seen before.
Then-Candidate Donald J. Trump
Needs to happen, soon.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Political correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines, here, with an addendum on 20191110.
We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.
And remember Wheatie’s Rules:
1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. The gun is always loaded.
4a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty.
5. Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
6. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
7. Be sure of your target and what is behind it.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Coin of The Day
Funny thing happened to me the other day.
I got a Susan B. Anthony dollar in my change. The high school/college age cashier mistook it for a quarter, but I saw that undecagonal inner edge, looked again, saw it was Susie B. with the Apollo 11 patch design on the reverse, and handed it back, telling her it was a dollar. She eventually believed me, I think, but was going to forget to give me the quarter she still owed me until I reminded her.
But no, I’m not going to tell the story of the “Carter Quarter” (which should be called the Carter/Clinton quarter as they were issued again in 1999). But I will show you a picture, just to remind you (and educate your kids/grandkids).
I’m going to tell the story of another failure, the worst.
You see, back in the 1870s someone thought we needed a twenty cent piece. Apparently, in the west, no one bothered with half dimes or nickels (and no, they’re not the same thing–the half dime was a silver coin half the weight of a dime; as you can imagine it was tiny). So if you bought a ten cent item, and paid a quarter for it, you got a dime back as change. Not fifteen cents, ten cents. (There was this old residual habit of thinking in terms of “bits” as in “two bits” being a quarter; a holdover from the Spanish milled “dollar” or piece of eight. Until the 1850s, those were still used when US coinage wasn’t available. Of course we didn’t have a twelve and a half cent piece, but until 1857 it was doable with dimes, half dimes, cents, and half cents.)
Someone with a large stake in the silver industry, still smarting from the 1873 coinage reform which many called “the crime of ’73” came up with the bright idea that putting twenty cent pieces into circulation would somehow solve the problem.
So we have the “double dime,” issued from 1875-1878. Like the Suzie B, a bunch were made in the first year. San Francisco made 1,155,000 of them in 1875, Philly made 38,500, and Carson City made 133,290, a sensible distribution for coins that were aimed at the Western United States. But then, the next year, Philly made 14,750 of them and Carson City made 10,000. San Francisco? ZERO. In 1877 and 1878, collector speciments, known as proof coins, were made in Philadelphia only, 1,110 pieces total for those two years. That sounds like a huge rarity, and it would be if they were business strike (“regular” coins), which would have been used, worn, and have a low survival rate, but proofs tend to have a relatively high survival rate since they are sold to people who save them not spend them, and these last two years’ coins can be had for four figures.
OK, these coins suffered from the get-go. Here’s a picture of a quarter from about that time:
All US silver at the time (other than the silver three cent piece, now that’s tiny) had this basic design. The dime and half dime (which had just been discontinued in 1873 since the nickel we know today had been invented in 1866, and it had circulated in the post civil war era while silver coinage was still being hoarded everywhere but in the West) had a wreath on the reverse, not an eagle, but the quarter, half dollar and dollar all had this eagle, and all five denominations had “Liberty Seated” on the obverse. The notion of different designs on different denominations was only beginning to dawn on people; our silver would finally get there in 1916.
So here’s the double dime:
The obverse is virtually identical–the word LIBERTY on the ribbon crossing the shield has raised letters, rather than recessed (incuse) letters; other than that, no real difference.
The eagle is at least a bit different; the eagle on the quarter, half, and dollar was basically the same design as was introduced in 1807 (!); this was something new–sort of. We had started creating a “Trade Dollar” in 1873, with extra silver in it, that had an eagle similar to this.
Now if you think about it, you’ll realize that not only is the design very similar, the coin has to have been nearly the same size; in fact, if the proportions were kept the same, it’d be only 7.2% smaller in diameter than a quarter. Not enough to notice.
Just as the Suzie B tried to look like it had 11 sizes (but it was the inside of the rim, not the shape of the coin itself), there was one other difference–this coin had a smooth edge, rather than reeding.
It wasn’t enough. This coin was a pain in the ass; and no one actually thought there was a point to the exercise other than silver lobbyists and their friends in Congress. Hence, the coin got canned the next year for all practical purposes, and the stake was completely driven through its heart at the end of 1878 when even proofs stopped being made.
Now if our coinage system had started with a twenty cent piece instead of a 25 cent piece, and someone had tried to introduce a quarter in 1875, the quarter would have flopped–there’s nothing God given about quarters versus double dimes. Only if the mint had said “we won’t make the old coin any more, you need to use the new denomination instead, from now on” and stuck to its guns, would the coin have succeeded–especially if banks were requested to send their old stock to the mint so that the mint could recoin it. But we were still a free country then, and that would have been too drastic a measure for no good reason.
So there’s nothing new under the sun; and we don’t learn from history. We’ll try to put out a new coin without thinking about it, and the same thing will happen as the last time.
Standard disclaimer: Neither these, nor any other coins I show here, are ones I own. In some cases I own a similar coin or coins, but by no means all or even most of them.
Obligatory PSA/Reminder
Just one more thing, my standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!
Remember Hong Kong!!! And remember the tens of millions who died under the “Great Helmsman” Chairman Mao.
中国是个混蛋 !!!
Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!!
China is asshoe !!!
For my money the Great Helmsman is Hikaru Sulu (even if the actor is a dingbat).