Following Coinflation

I am writing the outsider review for Coin Blog. Before I finish writing the review, I thought I would take a moment to look at one of my favorite Web 1.0 Web sites.

The site Coinflation appeared in 2004 to discuss the way that inflation is reflected in the base metal prices of coins. Most people focus on the price of sexy metals like silver. However, coinflation breaks the mold and discusses the price of all metal.

I find the price of the copper penny to be one of the most fascinating items on the site.

The precious metals (silver and gold) are a favorite asset of investors. The price of silver and gold tend to track investor sentiments.

Copper, on the other hand, is used in every aspect of the economy including plumbing, electronics and construction. So, the price of copper not only tracks inflationary sentiments. The price of copper tracks economic activity. The price of copper pops at the beginning of economic booms. The price often drops before recessions.

From 1909 to June 1982, the US penny contained 2.95 grams of copper. The price of the copper in a penny rose to a penny in the 1970s. In 1974, the US mint considered moving to aluminum coins. In 1982, the mint switched to a copper coated zinc design.

Today, Coinflation reports that the price of a coppery penny is 2.8¢ . I suspect that the price of the copper penny will jump over three cents as the economies of the world rev up in a post pandemic boom; So, I took a picture of four pennies sitting on the back of an envelope to show my back-of-the-envelope calculations.

Comment on The Cent Social Tribe

Cent Social is a new hive tribe that supplements rewards with the CENT token. Apparently the tribe will scale the minting of new tokens in an attempt to target the price of the token on the US penny.

I think that this is a fun idea. However, I worry about US monetary policy. Federal Reserve has been minting new coins at a rapid rate and government spending is a bit out of control. I would not be surprised to see the US dollar suffering inflationary woes in the near future.

When I created the OMA Coin I seriously considered setting its price at the value of the 1982 US copper penny ... as the price of the penny does a wonderful job demonstrating the effect of inflation. I set it to the price of a silver bit instead.

I believe that CENT social is a wonderful addition to Tribe. I love the idea of a tribe that rewards posts in CENTs. The only thing I would have differently is that I would have chosen a different Cent. I would have chosen the 1982 copper cent as currencies based on metals hold value better than those based in fiat.

Review the World

Test: I am writing this post with the centblog.org interface. I hope that it will also show up in the Review the World Community.