Friday, August 23, 2013

British Pound Debasement: UK Royal Mint begins pulling Cupro-Nickel 5 & 10p from Circulation

As Canada has been doing with their old pure nickel coins, the UK has begun pulling in all the cupro-nickel 5p and 10p coins that have been in circulation since the early 90s.  Britain stopped making coins of .925 Sterling in 1920 and debased to .500 silver.  Then in 1947 they took the silver out entirely and went to Cupro-Nickel.  In 1970-1971 when the British Pound was decimalized, the equivalent coins stayed about the same size until 1990-1992 when the 5p and 10p were made smaller (the size circulating today).  Now the cupro-nickel is being recovered and replaced by nickel-plated steel.  As you can see, the debasement has been consistent and ongoing, robbing the British saver of the value of their money.  What comes after steel coins, plastic?  Hopefully this is a clear case study of why many people have concluded gold and silver are the safest physical money to save.

http://www.royalmint.com/discover/uk-coins/cupro-nickel-replacement

"In January 2013, the Royal Mint began a programme to recover cupronickel five pence and ten pence coins from circulation.
All new five pence and ten pence coins have been made from nickel-plated steel since January 2012 and to date 330 million nickel-plated steel coins have been issued into circulation.
This programme will recover the metal alloy contained in the old specification coins. The value of the metal in both the cupronickel and nickel-plated steel coins is still less than their face value.
HM Treasury and the Royal Mint will continue to ensure that there are enough coins, of the right denominations, to meet public demand. This programme will not affect the number of coins in circulation, and coins made of cupronickel alloy will continue to be legal tender."

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Breaking currency news: US Dollar to be banned in Syria due to Conflict

As hyper-inflation eats away at the Syrian Pound and rebels use US Dollars to buy weapons (presumably), Assad has outlawed the US Dollar inside Syria.


Video from FTM Daily: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqDl74bgGOk


 
Here is another report that the Syrian banknotes are rumored to be currently produced in Moscow and are only fit to be circulated inside Syria: http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/8901

UPDATE: I noticed that the Wall Street Journal has stopped listing the exchange rate of the Syrian Pound in the Commodities & Currencies section of the newspaper.  It still has Lebanon, Jordan, Bahrain, Israel, Egypt, etc.  I wonder if anyone knows the true value of the currency at this point.