Gold Standard Question

[silverflake]

So, a couple of months ago I go to the bank and make a withdrawal. One of the $10 bills I get looks a little funny so I look closely. Turns out it's a series 1950, pretty old. But the interesting part is that the Legal Tender claim reads like this:

"This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private and is redeemable in lawful money at the United States Treasury or at any Federal Reserve Bank."

Redeemable in LAWFUL money. Now we were still on the gold standard unitl 1971, right? Yet Roosevelt made it illegal to own gold for the U.S. citizen. So redeeming this bill in lawful money would mean, what, silver?

OK, so last week I go to the bank and another old $10 bill shows up. It is dated 1969 (still on the gold standard right?), but it has the current statement that's on every bill:

"This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private."

What gives? Why couldn't I have turned in the 1969 note for "LAWFUL MONEY"? I understand why notes post 1971 would say this but why a 1969 (still 2 more years of technical gold standard).
Educate me please.

[justj2k78]

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

[68Camaro]

The only tradable lawful money after the gold confiscation was silver, and then only by silver certificates. The Treasury Department ended the trading of notes for silver in 1968.

United States notes at this time didn't define what lawful money was, and by that time they had changed the definition of lawful money into meaning that basically you can trade it for other notes.

[avidbrandy]

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

The one for one gold standard ended around there I think. We offically went to a fiat system though at the end of....71 I think? with nixon.

[barrytrot]

Nixon, I believe, took us off the Gold standard.

[silverflake]

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...)

[justj2k78]

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...)

From Wikipedia:

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.

So it would seem that if you wanted to turn your dollars in for money, June 24, 1968 was your day. So that might explain why the 1969 bill was different.

[silverflake]

justj2k78, thanks for the wikipedia info. Seems to explain it well. I appreciate the help.

By the way, love your icon/avatar of A-rod getting a facewash from Veritek. I grew up in Boston.