Legal tender
History
In the 19th century, gold coins were legal tender to any amount, silver coins were not legal tender for sums over 2 pounds, nor bronze for sums over 1 shilling.
This provision was retained in revised form at the introduction of decimal currency, and the Coinage Act 1971 laid down that coins denominated above 10 pence became legal tender for payment not exceeding 10 pounds, coins denominated not more than 10 pence became legal tender for payment not exceeding 5 pounds, and bronze coins became legal tender for payment not exceeding 20 pence.
The text above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Legal tender"
Bretton Woods system
"Floating" Bretton Woods (1968–72)
By 1968, the attempt to defend the dollar at a fixed peg of $35/ounce, the policy of the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations, had become increasingly perishable. Gold outflows from the U.S. accelerated, and despite gaining assurances from Germany and other nations to hold gold, the "dollar shortage" of the 1940s and 1950s had become a dollar glut. In 1967, the IMF agreed in Rio de Janeiro to replace the tranche division set up in 1946. Special Drawing Rights were set as equal to one U.S. dollar, but were not usable for transactions other than between banks and the IMF. Nations were required to accept holding SDRs equal to three times their allotment, and interest would be charged, or credited, to each nation based on their SDR holding. The original interest rate was 1.5%.
The intent of the SDR system was to prevent nations from buying pegged dollars and selling them at the higher free market price, and give nations a reason to hold dollars by crediting interest, at the same time setting a clear limit to the amount of dollars which could be held. The essential conflict was that the American role as military defender of the capitalist world's economic system was recognized, but not given a specific monetary value. In effect, other nations "purchased" American defense policy by taking a loss in holding dollars. They were only willing to do this as long as they supported U.S. military policy, because of the Vietnam war and other unpopular actions, the pro-U.S. consensus began to evaporate. The SDR agreement, in effect, monetized the value of this relationship, but did not create a market for it.
The use of SDRs as "paper gold" seemed to offer a way to balance the system, turning the IMF, rather than the U.S., into the world's central banker. The US tightened controls over foreign investment and currency, including mandatory investment controls in 1968. In 1970, U.S. President Richard Nixon lifted import quotas on oil in an attempt to reduce energy costs; instead, however, this exacerbated dollar flight, and created pressure from petro-dollars now linked to gas-euros resulting the 1963 energy transition from coal to gas with the creation of the Dutch Gasunie [3]. Still, the U.S. continued to draw down reserves. In 1971 it had a reserve deficit of $56 Billion dollars; as well, it had depleted most of its non-gold reserves and had only 22% gold coverage of foreign reserves. In short, the dollar was tremendously overvalued with respect to gold.
The text above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bretton Woods system"
Buried treasure
In reality, the only pirate known to have done this was William Kidd, who is believed to have buried at least some of his wealth on Long Island before sailing into New York. Kidd had originally been commissioned as a privateer for England, but his behaviour had strayed into outright piracy, and he hoped that his treasure could serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations to avoid punishment. His bid was unsuccessful, however, and Kidd was hanged as a pirate.
Buried treasure probably entered the public imagination with the publication of works such as The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. Poe's work directly focuses on Kidd's treasure, and it is presumed that Stevenson was also thinking of Kidd when he wrote of buried treasure.
However, there are a number of reports of supposed buried pirate treasure that surfaced much earlier than these works, which indicates that at least the meme was around for more than a century before those stories were published. For example, some underground passages and structures on Oak Island (in Nova Scotia) have been excavated extensively since 1795 in the belief that one or more pirate captains had stashed large amounts of loot there. These excavations were said to have been prompted by still older legends of buried pirate treasure in the area. While it is clear that someone went to an extraordinary amount of trouble to bury something there it seems two centuries of excavation have destroyed any hope of determining the veracity of the original claims that pirates were responsible
The text above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Buried treasure"
Golden Calf
Aaron's Statement
When Aaron has made the golden calf, he says the rather confusing statement "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." It is confusing because there is a single calf, so why refer to it as gods (plural). It is also not clear why it might be involved with bringing the people up from Egypt.
However later on in 1 Kings 12:28, Jeroboam tries to stop the Northern Israelites from visiting Jerusalem. He has two high places erected at Dan and Bethel as new offering places. At each of these he has constructed a golden calf and says "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." A suspiciously similar phrase.
The construction of the two golden calves would have been seen as a gross blasphemy by the Kings author, on a par with the original Golden Calf episode. The Levite priests in the North would have found those golden calves an irritation as they were looked after by non-Levite priests, and were probably seen as idolatrous. A reference to the original golden calf episode may have been seen fitting. There may even have been some cross over of the language.
The text above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Golden Calf"