Quote Originally Posted by rvg View Post
Throughout the ages the majority of coins was made out of non-precious metals, sometimes not out of metals at all. The coin itself doesn't really matter. Only its buying power does.
Most coins were made out of copper, tin, silver and gold.

At worst, coins were copper or tin washed in silver.

I suggest you look up monetary policy in post-Anglo Saxon England or during the latter Roman Empire.

The further your actual value is from the face value, the weaker your treasury is - because it can't afford to hold the necessary metal for striking coins.

I'm not sure why you dismiss them as useless. Cars, fridges, clothes, computers etc. are anything but useless. They enhance our quality of life. Charlemagne would probably trade half of his kingdom for a functioning fridge.
I was thinking more of the three TV's and two XBoxes many "poor" families have - that's "junk".

You can also manage without a house, a car, a fridge, a tv, a pc, or even clothes. Ultimately, all you need to sustain yourself is about 1500 calories worth of food. That would be about on par with the quality of life enjoyed by a slave in ancient Babylon, but yeah you can manage. We can manage without lots of things, but why would we want to? A life of misery is hardly something valuable. Wealth enhances our lives to the point where they are actually fun to go through.
Um, yes, but the XBox is just a very expensive toy, and one that just doesn't last.