Centralization of Money

[coinsarefun]

Modern Marvels Centralization of Money

[mmarotta]

I appreciate the videos, all in all.  They are a nice touch.  That is the reason why I have warn that The Centralization of Money is mostly bogus.  It is as fake as a Seated Dollar from China.  First of all, the whole "centralization" slant is wrong-headed.  It is competition among many providers for the attention of many buyers that creates any "stable" market and more to the point "stability" is stagnation. 

Metaphysics aside, I trust that no one was fooled by the fake old-timey movies.  A man and woman at a letter press circa 1900 represented money makers of the 1780s.  (Whose Shilling coin was that from 1788?)  The plethora of private notes were from the wildcat era of the 1840s, not from the 1780s.  "Every colony had its own exchange rate..." was illustrated with a movie from the 1890s.  Snapshots from the late 19th century were used to illustrate the 1820s. Several more such anachronisms were stitched together. 

All but one of the talking heads were government employees, who are in and of the centralized system.  The exception was Donald Kagin.  He made the curious claim that according to the US Constitution only Congress could mint money (not true), but that to fill the need, 40 private coiners started up in gold fields.  How so, if only Congress could mint money? 

As we all know, America, Britain and much of the industrialized world have always enjoyed the benefits of a plethora of moneys, much of it from governments -- often the largest economic entities in their areas -- but also more importantly from businesses that make and sell coins and other money for a proft. We all know of the Granby, Machin's Mills, Conders, Hard Times, Civil War and other tokens. 

Goto any mall and vist any shoe store.  A bewildering array faces you.  Do we need "centralization" to assure good shoes?  We do have some standardization in computers with Windows dominant, followed by Mac, Linux servers and so on, but, thank goodness, no centralized government solution for everyone.  (Does anyone here want a single centralized government message board for coin collectors?)

I know that I went on a bit here, but I feel strongly about mistaken ideas about trade and commerce that plague our hobby.