The Volokh Conspiracy

Until just-prior to the First World War, and for a few years after, my grandfather, and other inhabitants of the rural area in North Carolina he lived in, used barrels of salted herring, and preserved hams as currency.

The boom times in the '20's brought hard currency into the area, which had been de-flated.

He and his family lived well in either case.

"Freedom Balls."

So if I owe someone a penny and shoot him four times, my debt is paid in full?

I like it. Should resolve the mortgage crisis quickly.

Getting your two cents worth takes on a whole other meaning.

When I was a strapping young teenage lad, back in the early 1980's, I used to stack wood a couple times a year for a guy down the road. I got paid in bricks of .22 Long Rifle ammunition.

That was as good as cash to me.

Now, if you want to pay me, I'm accepting .535" lead balls, rifle sized flints, and GOEX FF black powder for payment.

At the current price of lead, a .73 caliber musket ball is currently worth $.1634.

Inflation or highly placed Wall St. Lead speculators?

In the mid 17th century, "musket" meant a specific class of firearm, not all muzzle-loaders. One of those BIG jobs where you have a rest to steady your aim, given its weight. I forget its bore, but somewhere around .80.

I think the excitable Ms. O'Neal made this point in her lawsuit - see the VK post HERE - in that she demanded $300,000 or alternatively, the right to machine gun the defendant in her complaint. I'm not sure of the exact dollar to cartridge ratio she sought.

thanks to wfjag.

Ammo is arguably a *better* storehouse of value than gold in a total meltdown situation- you can use ammo as a trade good, as well as defending yourself and hunting game. And if it's generally known that you have a large quantity of the stuff, those disinclined to trade peacefully are likely to stay well away- unlike what happens if it's generally known that you have a large quantity of gold on hand.

Now, who'll trade me some of that useless yellow metal for some shiny copper-jacketed lead? ;-)

All the professor found is that four musket balls represent a specific mass of lead. To be specific, the bullet for a brown bess musket weighed 1/29th of two pounds (British records). That makes each bullet 1.1 oz, thus four would be just shy of 4.5 oz. That means that the State had put a value of about 3.5 cents to the lb on lead.

Of course I may have the weapon wrong. the French Charleville musket had a smaller bullet, 1/18th of a pound (source, the USA 1792 militia act section one). That would make four bullets just over 3.5 oz of lead and the value of lead become 4.5 cents to the pound

One has to remember that in early America, outside of the major cities, everything was a barter economy. Further, coinage was so rare people broke up Spanish dollars into quarter segments to make change (hence the term "pieces of eight"). So why not exchange lead bullets of a specific weight as if they were coins. As long as the person receiving was willing to accept them in exchange its all commerce.

zippypinhead

Although I am a bit perplexed how I'm going to slide one of the .30-06 rounds I've been hoarding (market value of over $1.00/round currently) into the coin slot on a soda machine. Hmmm...

Ask Colonel "Bat" Guano.

/But don't try any of your preversions.

Not unexpected. IIRC, Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations says that all forms of money are forms of metal.

Not unexpected. IIRC, Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations says that all forms of money are forms of metal.

Uh, no. Wampum.