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A comment on Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate It in Any Way. Parent comment

Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by Crito on Thursday February 27, 2014 @06:45PM (#7316179)
What would be done if massive deposits of precious metals were found, rendering those metals little more valuable than perhaps copper or aluminum? You could still make coins with the same value of course, but they would be a bit impractical to carry around.

A copper coin worth $20 in todays USD would weight nearly 3 kilograms!

Surely at least paper gold and silver certificates would be a reasonable concession.

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Re:Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn’t Have Authority to Regulate... by logfromblammo on Friday February 28, 2014 @12:34PM (#7320179)
Gold and silver certs are negotiable debt instruments, covered by the government's power to borrow. You lend them a gold or silver coin, and they write you a note promising to repay the bearer of the note one gold or silver coin of equal weight on demand.

It's sort of a bogus loan, with a variable term and zero interest rate, but it's still allowed, and certainly makes things more convenient for a lot of people. And the government can still profit from the seignorage from the mint.

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