“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
Then He [God] said [to Elijah], “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a delicate whispering voice.
This Superlative Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It is also a place to read, post and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for your fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name calling, ridicule, insults, baiting and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this intellectual haven that Wolf has created for us.
The Storm is upon us. Please remember to Pray for our President.
AND WHAT TIME IS IT? TIME TO DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!
Our movement is about replacing a failed and CORRUPT political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. ~ Candidate Donald J. Trump
Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And,
On this day and every day –
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, you can find something here that will build you up a little . . . give you a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
GOD ANSWERED JOB FROM A WHIRLWIND, AND
MT SINAI QUAKED GREATLY WITH GOD ON IT, AND
GOD LED THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM EGYPT IN A PILLAR OF FIRE
GOD SPEAKS AS THUNDER
BUT, ALSO
Does God speak in a gentle, quiet voice?
There is only one place in Scripture where God is said to speak in a “still small voice,” and it was to Elijah after his dramatic victory over the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:20-40; 19:12). Told that Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, king of Israel, was seeking kill him, Elijah ran into the wilderness and collapsed in exhaustion. God sent an angel with food and water to strengthen him, told him to rest, and then sent him to Horeb.
In a cave there, Elijah voices his complaint that all of God’s prophets had been killed by Jezebel and he alone had survived.
God instructed him to stand on the mountain in His presence. Then the Lord sent a mighty wind which broke the rocks in pieces; then He sent an earthquake and a fire, but His voice was in none of them. After all that, the Lord spoke to Elijah in the still small voice, or “gentle whisper.”
The point of God speaking in the still small voice was to show Elijah that the work of God need not always be accompanied by dramatic revelation or manifestations. Divine silence does not necessarily mean divine inactivity. Zechariah 4:6 tells us that God’s work is “not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” meaning that overt displays of power are not necessary for God to work.
Because He is God, He is not confined to a single manner of communicating with His people. Elsewhere in Scripture, He is said to communicate through a whirlwind (Job 38:1), to announce His presence by an earthquake (Exodus 19:18), and to speak in a voice that sounds like thunder (1 Samuel 2:10; Job 37:2; Psalm 104:7; John 12:29). In Psalm 77:18 His voice is compared to both thunder and a whirlwind. And in Revelation 4:5, we’re told that lightning and thunder proceed from the throne in heaven.
Nor is God limited to natural phenomena when He speaks. All through Scripture, He speaks through His prophets over and over. The common thread in all the prophets is the phrase, “Thus says the Lord.” He speaks through the writers of Scripture.
Most graciously, however, He speaks through His Son, the Lord Jesus. The writer to the Hebrews opens his letter with this truth: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Hebrews 1:1–2).
The difference between God speaking through the thunder and the whirlwind, than through the still, small voice, can be also considered as showing the difference between the two dispensations of law and grace. The law is a voice of terrible words and was given amidst a tempest of wind, thunder, and lightning, attended by an earthquake (Hebrews 12:18–24), but the gospel is a gentle voice of love, grace, and mercy, of peace, pardon, righteousness, and the free gift of salvation through Christ. The law breaks the rocky hearts of men in pieces, shakes their consciences, and fills their minds with a sense of God’s fiery wrath and the punishment they deserve, and then the gospel speaks gently to them of the peace and pardon available in Christ.
It is less important how God speaks to us than what we do with what He says. God speaks most clearly to us in this day through His Word. The more we learn it, the more ready we will be to recognize His voice when He speaks, and the more likely we are to obey what we hear. https://www.gotquestions.org/still-small-voice.html
Perhaps the Clinesmith thing will turn out–at long last!! to be the fatal crack in the damned dam.
As for that fraudster Sundance…it sounds like he’s delaying now. His bluff has been called. Well, putting it that way assumes Barr is actually paying attention to the pipsqueak.
We need to get going on Justice.
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.
Musical Interlude
When I was in exile in the People’s Respublik of Kalifornia (PRK), I came to associate this bit of music with my beloved home state of Colorado. No obvious reason for it but to at least one friend of mine at the time it made perfect sense.
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
Please note that our menu has changed, please listen to all of the options.
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 first rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government take your guns. 5. The gun is always loaded. 5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty. 6. Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy. 7. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire. 8. Be sure of your target and what is behind it. 9. Social Justice Warriors, ANTIFA pukes, BLM hypocrites, and other assorted varieties of Marxists can go copulate with themselves, or if insufficiently limber, may substitute a rusty wire brush suitable for cleaning the bore of a twelve or ten gauge.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Coin of The Day
As a coin collector, I have a superpower.
I can make change for a cent. Not that I ever would, not this way.
Yes, there is such a thing as a half cent. And it weighed in at 84 grains (yes, the same grains as bullets and powder), pure copper. Our current cent, before mid-1982 when it suffered the ignominy and debasement of being made out of zinc with a copper coating on it, weighed 48 grains, making the half cent 1.75 times as massive as the old “small cent.”
So if you own two of these, you can break a cent, but you’d be ill-advised unless the cent is a very valuable one.
Before 1857, the United States had what collectors now call “Large Cents” (in contrast to the current “Small Cent”) and these half cents. Many collectors specialize in these coins, especially the large cents, to the point where there’s even a sizeable club (Early American Coppers) dedicated to collecting them. They’ll collect them not only by date, but by variety–every die that was used to make these had minor (and sometimes not so minor) differences, and people have studied those for at least a hundred and fifty years. And if you think those people surely have no lives, how about the ones who specialize in one die pair and try to collect coins from when that die was new versus when it was falling apart and had to be retired?
Collectors consider large cents to be totally different from small cents. A reference book on US coins, which is typically divided into chapters by denomination, will of course distinguish between the silver dollar and the gold dollar as well (and the silver three cent piece, and nickel three cent piece, and the half dime and the copper-nickel “nickel”). But even though large cents and small cents are (er…dammit until 1982) largely made of copper, they get separate chapters.
Half cents are not collected as avidly as large cents, and are thus considerably less expensive even though there are many fewer of them out there. (Should there suddenly be a great interest in them, their values will climb, quite a bit.)
The problem that these coins faced when they were current, was their weight. 168 grains for a large cent is more than midway between the weight of a (silver) quarter and a (silver) half dollar, yet the bugger was only worth one cent. They saw little use outside of major cities, but even that demand was enough that the mint cranked them out, every year between 1793 and 1857, except for 1815 when no copper was available. People didn’t care for the weight, but they really had no alternative.
The half cent was also bulky for its value, but the denomination itself was nearly useless, so the mint made them only sporadically. Consider the time spans of the different designs: Liberty Cap (1793-1797) to Draped Bust (1800-1808) to Classic Head (1809-1836) to Braided Hair (1840-1857). There are gaps between all but two of these designs when no half cents were made. None were made from 1812-1824. And the first ten years of Braided Hair half cents were only proof specimens made for collectors, none for general use.
One technological change partway through the series was that in 1831, the mint started using a new press that would actually put the coin in a collar while being struck, instead of letting the thing squeeze out between the dies while being struck.
The mint only made operating profit by making cents and half cents. Silver and gold coinage was specified to be of full intrinsic value, but the copper in a large cent, at least initially, was worth less than a cent. But as the 19th century proceeded, that profit became smaller and smaller, and eventually it was decided to do something different.
And now for the rest of the story…
Midway through 1857, the small cent was introduced, and the old coppers, both of them, discontinued, but it wasn’t quite the small cent you knew as a child. It was considerably thicker, and was 12% nickel. That nickel additive had the effect of making it much more difficult for the cent to tarnish; even today they are all a light tan color. However the metal was harder, meaning it was more difficult to strike into coins. The cent weighed in at 72 grains (an extra 50% in weight compared to the pre-1982 cents we grew up with), and bore a flying eagle on its face.
They were instantly popular with the public, and ironically coin collecting got a considerable boost (almost nobody collected coins before that date) as nostalgia for the large cent and half cent increased and people decided to save them.
That was changed in 1859 to an Indian head, the reverse wreath changed the next year, and finally, in 1864 the cent was made thinner and the nickel was removed from the alloy, bringing it to its “modern” spec of 48 grams of copper (with a small admixture of zinc and, usually, tin). The cent stayed in that form with two major design changes until 1982. (In 1909 Lincoln replaced the Indian and wheat ears replaced the old wreath on the reverse, and in 1959 the Lincoln Memorial replaced the wheat ears, both events in celebration of major anniversaries of Lincoln’s birth in 1809). There was one exception; in 1943 the cent was made of galvanized steel to save copper for the war effort (unfortunately, it was too easily confused with a dime in that color).
The lowly cent, disregarded and now suffering the shame of being made out of a metal regarded as the very epitome of “cheap,” indeed has a long and honorable past, even including a time when it had a lesser sibling, the half cent.
Standard disclaimer: Neither these, nor any other coins I show here, are ones I own. In some cases (but by no means all or even most of them) I own a similar coin or coins. But even when I do, it’s not as nice as the pictures I find on the internet.
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.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
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).
19th Ordinary Sunday August 9, 2020 “Escaping to God”
1 Kgs 19:11-13 Rom 9:1-5 Mt 14:22-33
My Brothers and Sisters in the Lord –
How do we deal with the hardships of life? What is our attitude, our response, or reaction when life becomes extremely difficult? How do we react when our life is threatened or in imminent danger? In other words, how do we cope with the things that threaten to harm us or to destroy us?
We all want to live and to have the best life possible. The human race has progressed a great deal since Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon times. We have also learned that we are composite creatures – we have a body and a soul or spirit. Furthermore, while we know our body will die, most know, intuitively, that our soul lives on in some way.
Hardship and danger can take its toll and break us down physically and spiritually. While our bodies can endure a great deal of pain, real suffering takes place in our soul and spirit. Most can sustain physical hardship as long as they can maintain a positive and hopeful soul and spirit.
But even the spirit can break down if we don’t have the right tools to sustain it and keep it healthy. How we have been affected by the on-going COVID-19 pandemic is indicative of how well we are – or are not – coping. Fortunately, the scriptures for today can be a great help for us as we face our present hardships.
The prophet Elijah lived a vocation of hardship. God commissioned him to convert the Chosen People and their king from the pagan gods and the pagan ways they had embraced instead of God and His ways. Elijah did some truly marvelous things. He foretold a drought and famine – He brought down God’s fire from heaven with subsequent rain – He beheaded hundreds of false prophets – But his words went disregarded and unheeded. There was a price on his head.
He considered himself a failure as a prophet, so he ran away!
Actually, Elijah made a pilgrimage to the sacred mountain where Moses encountered God. And there, Elijah himself encountered God. God asked him why he ran away. Why did he leave the land of his work? And Elijah responded that he was tired; he was discouraged, and didn’t want to go on as a prophet the king wished to kill.
Consequently, God gave Elijah a tremendous demonstration of His almighty power – as well as where Elijah could truly find God.
But God was not in the tornado – He was not in the earthquake – He was not in the raging conflagration! Instead, God was best found in the stillness and in the silence. God could be heard in Elijah’s inner, spiritual self! Only then, with that inner power, could Elijah go back, find a successor, and ultimately go home to God and into a better world!
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus needed a break. He needed time alone with God. He had been thwarted in his first attempt to do so by the thousands of people seeking cures and his words. So, after feeding the multitude, Jesus went off alone – finally able to be with God.
However, the disciples were in dire straits. Separated from Jesus, they were losing out against the storm. Then during the fourth watch, the darkest hours before the dawn – the very time when satan was believed to be most at work – Jesus came to them!
The terrified disciples thought it was a ghost! Nevertheless, Peter had courage.
He believed it was Jesus, and was willing to risk walking out to him. But like ourselves, when we face great hardship, Peter began to falter; he began to doubt; he felt powerless against the wind and the waves. But Peter’s faith helped him. He cried out to Jesus for help. And Jesus saved him – Jesus grasped Peter; he eliminated the danger and he stilled the storm!
Brothers and Sisters, what do we do when we feel overwhelmed? Where do we go when life becomes impossible? Do we go to God? Do we call upon Jesus? Do we find a quiet place? Or do we curse and swear? Do we run to pseudo escapes or material distractions?
What we do and where we go, will depend upon what we have cultivated in our soul and spirit. Have we made time for God alone? Have we a quiet space within ourselves to be safe and still when the storms, the earthquakes, the infernos of life beset us?
If not, it is time to start or to renew what we had before. Time alone with God – listening to what God has to say to us – letting peace of heart transform our tired bodies and minds!
O Lord, our God, help us to become more aware of you at every moment of our life – May we become especially aware of you when we are in danger and most at risk!
Amen.
Msgr. Russell G. Terra, Parish Homilies, Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Redding, CA
This Superlative Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It is also a place to read, post and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for your fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name calling, ridicule, insults, baiting and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this intellectual haven that Wolf has created for us.
The Storm is upon us. Please remember to Pray for our President.
AND WHAT TIME IS IT? TIME TO DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!
Our movement is about replacing a failed and CORRUPT political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. ~ Candidate Donald J. Trump
Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And,
On this day and every day –
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, you can find something here that will build you up a little . . . give you a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
The Christian life is supposed to be a life lived by faith. It is by faith that we enter into the Christian life, and it is by faith that we live it out. When we begin the Christian life by coming to Christ for forgiveness of sin, we understand that what we seek cannot be obtained by any other means than by faith. We cannot work our way to heaven, because nothing we could ever do would be sufficient. Those who believe they can attain eternal life by keeping rules and regulations—a list of do’s and don’ts—deny what the Bible clearly teaches. “But that no one is justified by the Law in the sight of God is clear, for, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Galatians 3:11). The Pharisees of Jesus’ day rejected Christ because He told them this very truth, that all their righteous deeds were worthless and that only faith in their Messiah would save them.
In Romans 1, Paul says that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power that saves us, the gospel being the good news that all who believe in Him will have eternal life. When we enter into the Christian life by faith in this good news, we see our faith grow as we come to know more and more about the God who saved us. The gospel of Christ actually reveals God to us as we live to grow closer to Him each day. Romans 1:17 says, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” So part of the Christian life is diligent reading and study of the Word, accompanied by prayer for understanding and wisdom and for a closer, more intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit.
The Christian life is also supposed to be one of death to self in order to live a life by faith. Paul told the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Being crucified with Christ means that we consider our old nature as having been nailed to the cross and we choose to live in the new nature, which is Christ’s (2 Corinthians 5:17). He who loved us and died for us now lives in us, and the life we live is by faith in Him. Living the Christian life means sacrificing our own desires, ambitions, and glories and replacing them with those of Christ. We can only do this by His power through the faith that He gives us by His grace. Part of the Christian life is praying to that end.
The Christian life is also supposed to persevere to the end. Hebrews 10:38-39 addresses this issue by quoting from the Old Testament prophet Habukkuk: “Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” God is not pleased with one who “draws back” from Him after making a commitment, but those who live by faith will never draw back, because they are kept by the Holy Spirit who assures us that we will continue with Christ until the end (Ephesians 1:13-14). The writer of Hebrews goes on to verify this truth in verse 39: “But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” The true believer is one who believes to the end.
So the Christian life is one lived by faith in the God who saved us, empowers us, seals us for heaven, and by whose power we are kept forever. The day-to-day life of faith is one that grows and strengthens as we seek God in His Word and through prayer and as we unite with other Christians whose goal of Christlikeness is similar to our own.
Trump advancing (not retreating) to a forward command post. He says we won’t be seeing him for a while. Whirlpool. And so on, covered thoroughly by you all on Friday.
I dunno, I’ve been disappointed so many times in the past…but this might really be IT.
You all have been analyzing and speculating on this quite a bit, so I’ll just add an editorial statement:
Bring it on!!! We’re not tired of winning. Far from it:
We haven’t even begun to win!
And so we could well, this very weekend and upcoming week, begin to see THIS last big item finally be addressed.
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
Lawyer Appeasement Section
OK now for the fine print.
This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical 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.)
Mandatory Coin
Now it wouldn’t be one of my posts without a coin, would it?
But first I’m going to address the current situation with precious metals–the best basis ever found for real money. Well, maybe I will, somewhere in the ramble you’re about to read or skip.
I am involved in coin collecting, and there is a branch of the hobby that concerns itself with “primitive” money, except that’s not PC, so it’s now called other things, including “traditional” money. I’m talking about things people used for money before coins were invented (or before they had become aware of coins), such as cowrie shells, beads, obsidian, wampum, elephant tails (really!), Yapstones, and on and on.
Before there was money there was barter. I could trade you two chickens that I had raised for an arrowhead that you had made. The problem was getting both you and me to agree that an arrowhead was worth two chickens. Actually, it had to be worth less than two chickens to you (or you’d not want to give up your arrowhead for two chickens) and more than two chickens to me (or I’d not want to give up my chickens for an arrowhead).
What if we both think it’s more appropriate to trade one and a half chickens for an arrowhead? So basically a chicken is worth about 2/3rds of an arrowhead?
Then we’re stuck, because two thirds of a physical arrowhead isn’t worth a damn thing to anyone, neither is half a chicken to you if you want to use it for laying eggs, and even if you want to eat it, you’re going to have to eat that half a chicken tonight, and I’ll have to eat my half tonight too, rather than feeding it until next week.
If there were something we could use to represent half a chicken, I could pay you a chicken and that item, and we’d be square. You could come back to me later–next week, a month from now, and cash in two of those tokens for half a chicken each, and get a whole chicken.
That’s the function money serves. And, honestly, anything that serves that function is money. Gold and silver in pre-sized lumps can do it. Gold and silver not in convenient standard lumps can do it too. A “talent” of gold, or silver, in the Bible is not a coin–coins hadn’t been invented yet by the time of the Old Testament–but a talent was roughly seventy pounds, so the Bible was talking about a very substantial weight of gold or silver. But so can cowrie shells and wampum under the right circumstances. Our colonial forebears even resorted to using tobacco leaves since Mama England didn’t want us to have coins. And of course that elaborately printed paper in our wallets, backed by nothing other than the willingness of the government to accept it as a tax payment, is also money.
Here’s a definition of money, from one of those books on primitive traditional money (improving on a definition put forth by none other than Alan Greenspan): Anything used to make a payment that the recipient trusts can be reused to make another payment.
Using this, you may think you paid an arrowhead for two chickens, but if I am thinking I can’t buy something with this arrowhead, but I accepted it because I think I will find it useful, then the arrowhead is not money.
But then the Scythians, in the seventh to fifth century BCE, seem to have actually used arrowheads for money. Other cultures used ax heads, both stone and metal.
Metal works well as money, because it can be broken up into smaller and smaller pieces, which can be readily valuated (by weighing them). It will last a long time in storage, and it can’t just be produced without limit, especially if it’s gold, silver, or copper (or in ancient times…tin–very scarce, available in only a few places far from civilization, and absolutely essential to make bronze). And metals have uses in their own right, so they are valuable on their own. So it tends to hold its value.
The kingdom of Lydia took the next step at about the time Scythians were making arrowheads, making standardized metal lumps and stamping them; people could be assured that those lumps had a specific amount of gold and silver in them because they had the king’s emblem on them, and were interchangeable. That was the birth of coinage and modern money that came in denominations.
And those first coins were made of a mixture of gold and silver (electrum), though later on there were gold issues, and silver issues.
http://www.dmudd.net/hist697/images/slide3or.jpg
The reverse isn’t a real design, it’s actually an inset of a punch, used to hold the silver in place while it was being struck. Some of the Greek city states had the same sort of thing on their coinage. MUCH larger than actual size.
The Lydian coins are available today, but it was Athens in the 400s BCE that really took this and ran with it, producing drachm coinage, most famously the four drachma piece, the tetradrachm. (Collectors of ancient money in the US pronounce drachm “dram” but it’s likely more like drakh-m, where the kh is like the ch in Bach. But we’re lazy and don’t pronounce the ch.)
Athens became incredibly rich as a result of owning a silver mine in Attica, and also collecting tribute from the Athenian League. This started out as a defensive alliance against the Persians–member city-states could contribute either ships (with crews) or money for their upkeep. But it turned into an empire when those ships were turned against city states that decided to quit paying.
A stunning example of an Athenian tetradrachm. I know (from having seen ones made with Athena’s head off center) that the die for the obverse includes a large crest on her helmet. The reverse is Athena also, in the form of an owl. The letters to the right read A TH E, for Athens, or perhaps for Athena.
Centuries passed, empires rose and fell, and during the Renaissance, bankers started accumulating vast amounts of coinage in silver (heavy) and gold (very heavy, more so than lead). They’d have to make payments to each other, and have to ship heavy, valuable crates of coins at great expense and risk, but…if they trusted each other, they could do things on paper. The paper came to represent the coins, in particular the metal in the coins, and this eventually developed into paper money. Which, if honest, can be good stuff…silver certificates being one example of an honest paper money.
The Chinese actually had paper money first…on arrival in China, you had to deposit your silver, you got a paper certificate that stood for the silver, and could be spent as though it were silver. You could get your silver back, when you left China. The system worked well, as long as you could trust the government not to just print up certificates in excess of the silver. And that is a hazard with bank notes (actually issued by banks) too, where they are supposed to be backed by something valuable (assets of the bank, be they coinage or loans), but might not be.
The United States, in the days of the gold standard, had paper money and actual coins (known as “specie”); before 1862 the paper money was issued and backed (or not!) by banks, after 1862, it was a combination of banks (heavily supervised and regulated) and the US government. As for the money–a gold coin was unadulterated money. Because a certain weight of gold was by definition a dollar. At the mint, even before the design had been stamped on, say, a $5 gold piece, it wasn’t just worth five dollars, it was five dollars. Great care was taken to ensure the proper weight of each individual piece. A room full of workers (women, because they were believed to have better attention to detail) would handle each blank coin, weigh it, and spin the edge against a file if it was overweight, or reject it if it were underweight–back to the melting pot. They got to be so good they could tell if the piece were over or underweight before they weighed it. Some tolerance was allowed–a little extra or a little under was OK, the government would treat it as being exact. Bags of coins were adjusted with the slightly under or overweight finished coins so the bag would average out precisely (and too much correction needed would condemn the whole bag). The precision of the scales that had to weigh heavy bags of coins was remarkable, the weight of a single scrap of paper could throw them off. (Very precise mechanical engineering and craftsmanship like this is becoming a lost art.)
The silver in, say, a dime, wasn’t worth as much as ten cents; it didn’t become ten cents until it was stamped. (After 1853, that is.)
Which finally, and most circuitously, brings me to the price of gold.
Between 1834 and 1933 the gold coinage was such that a troy ounce of gold either equaled (before we went on a full gold standard) or was $20.67. And a couple of days ago, when I looked at the price of gold, it was $2067.10 per ounce…a hundred times higher.
I’ve heard in the past, statements that gold holds its value, with the implication that gold is of constant value.
Bullshit. At least with regard to the constant part.
It’s just as subject to supply and demand as eggs, beef, cars, and beanie babies. In 1979-1980, gold skyrocketed from the low $300s to $850 in a few weeks, and most of that happening in the last few days (it went up sixty bucks in one day), and then it dropped again, just about as quickly as it had gone up.
Are you going to tell me that what was happening was that the dollar was plummeting (which I could and did believe)…but then it turned around and zoomed back upwards? Come on, this was the Carter administration; the dollar was in no way capable of skyrocketing under his (mis)management!
So no, gold is not of constant value, but it will always have great value, and the long-term average is fairly–though not perfectly–stable. A $20 gold piece would buy you a nice suit in the 1920s. Today, it still will, though today you’d certainly get change.
And even in the days of the gold standard, of specie being regarded as “real” money, gold could rise and fall, and so could silver, and they could rise and fall relative to each other. In the 1700s silver slipped from being 1/14th as valuable as gold, to 1/15; it slipped some more during the early 1800s and messed up our money supply; we had to remove some gold from the gold coinage in 1834 to compensate. Then gold was found in California, and it dropped relative to silver, silver started disappearing from commerce…until in 1853 we lessened the weight of silver coins (and from that point forward, silver coinage became worth less than face value, and was strictly controlled in quantity, since it was freely exchangeable for gold, which was worth its face value). Not a month ago, there was a day when it took 100 ounces of silver to equal an ounce of gold; and I remember that happening a couple of times in the late 90s too. Silver lately has gone up faster than gold, so it’s worth well over 1/100th as much as gold today. In fact, right now: Gold 2,017.70 and silver 27.58, ratio 73.158+ to 1. (Imagine if we had a bimetallic standard this last month, what chaos there would be as people dumped their gold dollars for silver dollars, or vice versa; you’d be going into shops and be offered a discount for paying in gold instead of silver, or vice versa, depending.)
In any case, sometimes people trying to buy some gold buy it in the form of old $20 gold pieces. These contain almost an ounce of gold. Some of them are common enough (especially in slightly circulated condition) that their price is basically today’s price of gold plus a small constant. Nevertheless, there are people who collect them, and they’re seeing the prices go up and up, not because they’re becoming rare, but because gold is becoming pricier.
Of course some gold coins are genuine rarities (or in top condition) and will sell for quite a bit more than the gold that’s in them–those prices aren’t affected much by the price of gold.
If memory serves, I’ve shown you both of the major designs of $20 gold pieces in the past. But why not a repeat? (You got your coin of the week twice over with the stater and the tetradrachm.)
Liberty Head, 1850-1907. The reverse shield style changed in 1866 when “In God We Trust” was placed within the circle of stars. Now I said 1850, but this is an 1849. This is the one and only 1849, produced as a “proof of concept” rather than for issue, and it’s now in the Smithsonian.
The St. Gaudens (named so because the artist who did the design was Augustus St. Gaudens, a very famous sculptor from the end of the era when fine art was still…art. (Not the greatest picture ever, but at least it is not subject to copyright issues.) In 1908 “In God We Trust” was added above the sun on the reverse. Also, in 1907 the first few thousand of these were struck in a much higher relief, a variant regularly called America’s Most Beautiful Coin.
OK…well, I’m not done yet. You’ll get a third coin today, in honor of Shitstorm Saturday.
What about platinum?
You can buy, today, platinum “eagles” in ounce, half ounce, quarter ounce, and tenth ounce sizes, just as you can with gold. This is what we call non-circulating legal tender (NCLT) because even though there’s a face value and the coin is legal tender, you’d have to be an idiot to spend an ounce of gold or platinum at the face value given on the coins ($50 and $100, respectively). There’s generally very little collector value in such coins; their value is tied to their content, much like in the good old days.
In the past, gold and silver were used as money, straight across, at face value, close to intrinsic or “melt” value. Was platinum ever used as money?
The answer, just barely, is “Yes.”
Platinum wasn’t even known to Europeans until close to 1700, when it was found during gold panning on the Rio del Pinto in South America. Gold panning exploits the density of gold to separate it from the other bits of sand in stream beds. Platinum, being slightly denser than gold, even, would also pan out, and since no one really understood what it was, and no one considered it valuable, the platinum particles had to be painstakingly separated from the gold. It was a nuisance! It was called “Pinto silver” for a while, and even today the name “platinum,” or especially the slightly older “platina” is cognate with “plata”–silver in Spanish.
(No one went screaming “Platinum! I’m rich!!!” It was more like “What the hell is this caca blanca doing in my oro?”)
Eventually some industrial uses–like sulfuric acid boiler tanks–were found for the stuff, even though we couldn’t build a furnace to melt it, and it became more valuable than silver, and less so than gold. [Any other metal besides gold would dissolve in the acid, gold was way too expensive and soft, and glass tended to shatter under pressure, which when dealing with sulfuric acid was really, really bad–shards of glass flying everywhere, with boiling sulfuric acid spraying with it to boot.]
Another deposit was discovered in the Ural mountains in Russia. Peasants had been finding the nuggets for years and using them for shot (!!!), blasting what today would be hundreds of dollars’ worth of platinum into waterfowl for dinner. Miners moved in, and started producing the metal, as well as the other allied platinum-group metals (rhodium, palladium, osmium, and iridium–ruthenium had not been discovered yet).
Russia’s monetary system was a bit of a mess. There were paper rubles, backed by the full faith and credit of the Tsar’s government…but they traded at four paper rubles to the silver ruble. In 1826, Nicholas I, newly on the throne, decided to do something about this. Part of this was to temporarily produce high denomination silver, but a silver five ruble piece would be unwieldy. But the Demidov family, a powerful family, owned the platinum mines, platinum was worth a bit more than silver so…the three ruble platinum coin was born. It was the size of a quarter ruble piece…but weighed twice as much. It was made out of platinum sponge (we still couldn’t melt the stuff)–in itself the coin is a technical acheivement. They tended to look kind of ugly because of it being sponge platinum…but some DID circulate.
Just a bit smaller than a quarter–and weighed almost as much as a half dollar. The inscription reads (in the center) “3 rubles in silver” and around the edge, “2 zol. 41 dol. [a weight in traditional Russian units] of pure Urals platinum” (It wasn’t. Pure, I mean–plenty of iron and iridium and since it was sponge the coin was probably about 5 percent air, too.)
The coins were guaranteed convertible into silver at face value, so they could take the place of paper money in “small” denominations (a ruble was a lot of money back then).
The same search I used to find this also showed images of ones that are worn and have undoubtedly been used in commerce. So yes, these DID circulate, a bit.
That coin appeared in 1828. It saw just enough use to encourage the Russian government to come out with a six ruble piece in 1829 and a 12 ruble piece in 1830, but those never got any traction. Russia would send them out to settle trade accounts and eventually get them right back again, so they just piled up in the treasury. (I guess you could say that outside of Russia, they were not money.)
The whole series was discontinued in 1845. Paper money was now on par with silver, so there was no need for these coins–and besides, they contained somewhat less than their face value in platinum, so they were targets for counterfeiters. The coins in the treasury were then sold for scrap, in fact the entire world demand for platinum was satisfied for years by these scrapped coins. Today, the 6 and 12 ruble pieces are all rarities, some excruciatingly so. Three ruble coins are expensive, but at least they’re much less than half as expensive as the six ruble pieces.
Platinum itself was eventually found to have many, many better uses than sulfuric acid boilers, and industrial demand made it more valuable, ounce per ounce, than gold by the early 20th century–at which point, then people wanted it for jewelry. Even today, it’s rarer. All the platinum ever mined would fit in a 26 foot cube–my house could handle it–while all the gold ever mined would need a 60 foot cube. But as of today, it’s less valuable. Supply and demand.
[End note: As much as counterfeiters are loathed, they did function back then to keep governments honest about the money they issued. Issue an undervalued coin, and it will be counterfeited. If it’s actually worth what it says its worth in precious metal, the counterfeiters have no reason to bother–unless they can fake the metal itself, which they did try to do…sometimes with the use of platinum, but that’s a very interesting story for another day.]
Disclaimer: Neither these, nor any other coins I post, are mine. With older coins, I’m going to find the best pic of one on the internet, so even if I should happen to have one, it’s not the nicest one on earth and I’ll show another…and some coins are worth more than my net worth so I certainly won’t have those!
Important Reminder
To conclude: My standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!
Remember Hong Kong!!!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
中国是个混蛋 !!! Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!! China is asshoe !!!
By request, here’s the live thread for Sally Yates’s turn on the hot seat in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is just a quick and dirty. Will be back later.
This is the only live link I can find at the moment. Please, add more in the comments as they surface.
17th Ordinary Sunday July 26, 2020 “The Most Important Thing”
1 Kings 3:5-12 Romans 8:28-30 Matthew 13:44-52
My Brothers and Sisters in the Lord –
What is the most important thing in our life during the time we have here? As we develop and mature, it is likely that the most important thing will be modified in some way or even change. Certainly, children, teens, and young adults become increasingly more aware and focused upon what is most important to them as they experience more and understand more.
For some, relationships and family are the most important thing – For some, it is their education and, then, their profession – For some, it is their position in the community and the influence that this gives them. Sadly, for some, it is their egos which must be satisfied no matter what the cost. Finally, for some, it is to possess God by being possessed by God Himself.
Fortunately, God can be the most important thing in everyone’s life without sacrificing family, education, occupation, or position and influence. However, this is true provided that we focus upon and pursue those things according to God’s will and plan for us. In fact, God expects us to be the best we can be regarding those things which make up our time while we are here on Earth!
In the Book of Kings, Solomon was given the tremendous responsibility of ruling the Chosen People at a very young age. He had absolutely no experience at leadership. But he was God’s choice and he loved God. So, God came to Solomon and asked him what he wanted as he began his reign. Solomon asked for wisdom – for an understanding heart! He asked for the gift to be able to judge between right and wrong – between good and evil – so that he could better serve the nation.
Solomon put all selfishness aside, seeking to be God’s servant – And for this, God blessed him with all those other things for which he did not ask: a long life, wealth, and honor above all the kings of the surrounding nations.
Jesus takes up this same unflinching focus on what is, truly, most important in today’s passage from St. Matthew. A man finds a long-forgotten hidden treasure. He sells everything he has to purchase the land that holds the treasure – The gem merchant finds a pearl of exquisite beauty with an astronomical price. Nevertheless, he sells everything else just to be able to possess it and admire it!
What Jesus is teaching us is that God must be our hidden treasure and priceless pearl. We must be willing to sacrifice anything else that keeps us from God. Each of us is called to serve God in our own particular way. Our education, our job, our profession, our position, our family should each help us to serve and to love God. But like Solomon, we must have an understanding heart undergirded with humility. We must be able to judge between right and wrong, between the just and the unjust, between the truly good and the pseudo-good of evil.
The temptation we face will be to make small compromises which, in turn, lead to greater ones. Then it is not far from relegating God to a lesser place and inferior status in our hearts and lives!
At times, we will be asked to make great sacrifices. We will also be faced with great suffering and pain. Sometimes, this will be from the hands of others who would deter us, or derail us, in our efforts to serve God and keep Him first!
However, St. Paul has words of great encouragement for us in his verses from Romans. All things that happen to us – even the painful things and events – work together for the good of those who truly love God! God has a plan for us that will bring us, ultimately, to the same resurrection and the glory of Jesus in the eternal presence of God! What we must do is remain steadfast and undeterred in our quest for the possession of God Himself!
So let us pray, that each of us attain all that God can be for us – both in this life and in the next!
Amen.
July 26, 2020 Msgr. Russell G. Terra Msgr. Russell G. Terra, Parish Homilies, Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Redding, CA
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
This Superlative Sanctuary Sunday Open Thread, with full respect to those who worship God on the Sabbath, is a place to reaffirm our worship of our Creator, our Father, our King Eternal.
It is also a place to read, post and discuss news that is worth knowing and sharing. Please post links to any news stories that you use as sources or quote from.
In the QTree, we’re a friendly and civil lot. We encourage free speech and the open exchange and civil discussion of different ideas. Topics aren’t constrained, and sound logic is highly encouraged, all built on a solid foundation of truth and established facts.
We have a policy of mutual respect, shown by civility. Civility encourages discussions, promotes objectivity and rational thought in discourse, and camaraderie in the participants – characteristics we strive toward in our Q Tree community.
Please show respect and consideration for your fellow QTreepers. Before hitting the “post” button, please proofread your post and make sure you’re addressing the issue only, and not trying to confront the poster. Keep to the topic – avoid “you” and “your”. Here in The Q Tree, personal attacks, name calling, ridicule, insults, baiting and other conduct for which a penalty flag would be thrown are VERBOTEN.
In The Q Tree, we’re compatriots, sitting around the campfire, roasting hot dogs, making s’mores and discussing, agreeing, and disagreeing about whatever interests us. This board will remain a home for those who seek respectful conversations.
Let’s not give the Internet Censors a reason to shut down this intellectual haven that Wolf has created for us.
The Storm is upon us. Please remember to Pray for our President.
AND WHAT TIME IS IT? TIME TO DRAIN THE SWAMP!!!
Our movement is about replacing a failed and CORRUPT political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American People. ~ Candidate Donald J. Trump ~
Also remember Wheatie’s Rules:
No food fights.
No running with scissors.
If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
And,
On this day and every day –
God is in Control . . . and His Grace is Sufficient, so . . . Keep Looking Up
Hopefully, every Sunday, you can find something here that will build you up a little . . . give you a smile . . . and add some joy or peace, very much needed in all our lives.
“This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn nor weep.” . . . “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Amazing Grace
It’s All About God’s Grace . . . and our Gratitude.
Grace: The unmerited love and favor of God toward human beings.
Unmerited Love and Favor
(an incomplete listing)
Eons in the past – God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
Two millennia ago – The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, paying the price for our sins. God sent His Holy Spirit, our Helper-Advocate, at Pentecost.
Very recent past – God draws us to Himself. The Holy Spirit indwells us when we believe. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Now – The Holy Spirit saves, fills, seals, and sanctifies believers through His power. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s thoughts, teaches, and guides believers into all truth, including knowledge of what is to come. The Holy Spirit also helps Christians in their weakness and intercedes for them. The Lord will deliver us from every evil work and preserve us for His heavenly kingdom. Through Jesus, in prayer, we can come openly, in complete trust, to God’s throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
And soon – God will raise us up on the last day. When Jesus comes again, we will be transformed to be like Him. God will present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, God will prepare for us, things so wondrous that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into our hearts, those things which He has prepared.
Some thoughts for us now – Hebrews 4:12-16
We don’t walk alone, live alone, or face our troubles alone. Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor who assures us of His help.
Though we have sinned, we now can come openly, in complete trust, in prayer through Jesus, to God at His throne of grace. This is not our privilege gained through anything we have done. We have it solely because of Jesus. We can come to the presence of God at His throne of grace and be allowed to speak to Him, because Christ loved us and saved us. We come through the righteousness of Jesus, we come through His Name, and we come through His promises.
We are allowed to come before the Almighty God, Creator of the universe, not some earthly king, but the Creator of heaven and earth. We can come before Him right now, or any time day or night, and call upon Him confidently in prayer and He will give us the privilege to speak to Him.
In prayer we come before the throne of God. In prayer we come to the supreme Dignitary . . . and worship Him while we speak to Him.
It is because of God’s grace we come. We have no right of access or merit in ourselves, nor can any mortal obtain it for us. This blessing is freely and generously given to us as a gracious act of the God of grace.
His mercy and grace are provided to help us in our times of need. We need help when we get sick, when we lose a loved one, a job, a house, a friend, etc. We need His help in making decisions, in choosing our words, in living our daily lives. We need God’s help to overcome fear and uncertainty, and the constant changes of our lives.
We need God’s grace . . . always.
Amazing Grace
Amazing grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found, Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come, ‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me His word my hope secures; He will my shield and portion be, As long as life endures.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, And mortal life shall cease I shall possess within the veil, A life of joy and peace.
When we’ve been there ten thousand years Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than when we’ve first begun.
I keep hoping to be able to describe the day as “Shitstorm Saturday” but it hasn’t quite happened yet.
Which saves me from the dilemma of trying to decide whether I should call it a “fecal tornado” to be more polite.
Edit to add: Colorado Statehood Day
Just realized today is Colorado’s Statehood Day. August first 1876, we became the 38th state. And Old Glory had 38 stars on it for the next thirteen years (nearly a record at the time, though the interval between Missouri and Arkansas being admitted with 16 years, and we stuck with the 15 star flag for a lot longer than we should have–long enough for it to be “the flag [that] was still there”). And we picked up one of our nicknames, “Centennial State.”
So we’ve now been giving 144 years of service to Californians and Texans as a place to go to when they realize their mistake. Though at least Texans usually go home after tourist season ends. Californians inflict their bad political choices on us.
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.
Please note that our menu has changed, please listen to all of the options.
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. 8. Social Justice Warriors, ANTIFA pukes, BLM hypocrites, and other assorted varieties of Marxists can go copulate with themselves, or if insufficiently limber, may substitute a rusty wire brush suitable for cleaning the bore of a twelve or ten gauge.
(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)
Coin of The Day
I realized today that the dollar is five hundred years old this year.
We didn’t invent dollars, the Bohemians did. There was a major silver strike in the town of Joachimsthal in the early 1500s, and the only way, politically, to export that silver was to make it into big coins–about the size and weight of the silver dollar, and this became a joachimsthaler. This got shortened to thaler in due course, or even taler. (Pronounced like “taller” not “tailor” or “tailer,” that last being Slick Willie’s only possible interest in it.) The Dutch, who traded with the 13 colonies, especially during the French and Indian War (a/k/a the Seven Years War, which really was the first true world war with fighting on at least three continents), called coins this size daalers, and they had a lot of them, from trading with Spain. There the denomination was the eight reales, hence the piece of eight, and a reale we called a “bit” (so now the origin of the slang “two bits” for a quarter is clear).
Trying to find a good image of one of these coins is a bit of a challenge, and the best one I could find was tiny, so here goes:
Russia didn’t have large silver coins at the time. The ruble was a bookkeeping unit only, consisting of two hundred dengas, but there was an attempt in the 1650s to introduce a ruble coin. It was seriously underweight (weighed less than 200 dengas), so it didn’t go over too well, and the Russians were in any case trying to use an outdated (even then) technology to strike them.
I bring this up because those coins were known as yefimoks…because instead of dropping the first part of the word joachimsthaler, they dropped the last part, and Yefim is the Russian equivalent of Joachim (Jonathan). Russia went through many rounds of inflation in the 1700s, to the point where the proper weight of a ruble was now less than a thaler, not more, and they tried to introduce a “heavy ruble” to combat inflation, and also issued 1.4 and 1.5 ruble coins periodically, about the right weight to match a thaler.
The English “Crown” of five shillings was also considered roughly the same, in fact large silver coins about the weight of a dollar are often called crowns as a generic class by people who collect foreign coins–some even specialize in the size, collecting coins of that size (but very different denominations) from countries all over the world. (Pesos, rubles, crowns, thalers, dollars, yen, guilders, florins, five mark pieces…those large silver coins turned out to be pretty popular.) The man most famous for popularizing that line of collecting was named John S. Davenport.
Of course NONE of these units of money are worth what they used to be; the US Dollar has probably eroded less than the others, certainly less than the yen, ruble, and peso, but it has still eroded quite a bit.
But returning to Joachmisthal.
When the Curies were doing their investigations of the radioactivity present in uranium ore even after the uranium had been removed, they got their ore from a place called Jachymov, in Bohemia. Ultimately that line of research led to people discovering atomic fission, and thence to the Bomb. And when the Nazis tried to pursue their own version of the Manhattan Project, their source of uranium was Jachymov, which after all was in the Sudentenland, which they had seized in 1938.
What does that have to do with Joachimsthal? Jachymov is merely the Czech name (and thus the current best name) for the town once known as Joachimsthal.
So it turns out the Dollar and the Bomb both came from the same place.
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. [At least one place didn’t appreciate me linking to their images a couple of weeks ago. We’ll see how this one goes.]
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.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=L3tnH4FGbd0%3F
I hope this guy isn’t rotting in the laogai somewhere!
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).
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. – Matthew 19:24
Jesus’ message is clear—it is impossible for anyone to be saved on his own merits. Since wealth was seen as proof of God’s approval, it was commonly taught by the rabbis that rich people were blessed by God and were, therefore, the most likely candidates for heaven. Jesus destroyed that notion, and along with it, the idea that anyone can earn eternal life. The disciples had the appropriate response to this startling statement. They were utterly amazed and asked, “Who then can be saved?” in the next verse. If the wealthy among them, which included the super-spiritual Pharisees and scribes, were unworthy of heaven, what hope was there for a poor man?
Jesus’ answer is the basis of the gospel: “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (Matthew 19:26). Men are saved through God’s gifts of grace, mercy, and faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). Nothing we do earns salvation for us. It is the poor in spirit who inherit the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3), those who recognize their spiritual poverty and their utter inability to do anything to justify themselves to a holy God. The rich man so often is blind to his spiritual poverty because he is proud of his accomplishments and has contented himself with his wealth. He is as likely to humble himself before God as a camel is to crawl through the eye of a needle.
