Realcent.org

justj2k78 wrote:Didn't the gold standard end in 1931? And then the silver standard in 1968?

silverflake wrote:1933 Roosevelt confiscated private gold and made it illegal for private citizens to own gold. He then revalued gold from $20/ounce to $35/ounce with the stroke of a pen. However, the country (I think) was still on a bi-metallic standard and would pay debt owed to sovereign nations in gold if requested. Nixon, in 1971 finally unpegged the dollar from gold (effectively closing the gold window).

My question is, why would a 1950 $10 bill say it was redeemable in LAWFUL money and a 1969 $10 bill not say the same thing (actually why don't our current bills say - "This is a piece of paper not even soft enough to wipe your butt with...)

By acts of Congress in 1933, the domestic economy was taken off the gold standard and placed on the silver standard for the first time. The Treasury Department was reempowered to issue paper currency redeemable in silver dollars and bullion, thereby divorcing the domestic economy from bimetallism and leaving it on the silver standard, although international settlements were still in gold.[6]
This meant that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vaults, the U.S. government (not the Federal Reserve) could continue to issue money against it. These silver certificates bore the name of the U. S. Treasury, not the Federal Reserve; they were shredded upon redemption since the redeemed silver was no longer in the Treasury. With the world market price of silver having been in excess of $1.29 per troy ounce since 1960, Congress repealed the legal foundation for Silver Certificates on June 4, 1963; but President John F. Kennedy responded with Executive Order 11110 that the Treasury should continue to "issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury". This Series 1958 introduced an additional $4.29 billion worth of United States Notes into circulation, consisting of $2.00 and $5.00 bills; and although they were never issued, $10.00 and $20.00 notes were in the process of being printed when Kennedy was murdered in 1963. But the Treasury was being emptied of silver rapidly; in March 1964 issuance of the Series 1958 Silver Certificate was stopped and redemption in silver dollars was suspended; June 24, 1968 was the last day for redemption in silver bullion.