{"id":17005,"date":"2022-01-05T13:04:46","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T18:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=17005"},"modified":"2022-01-25T11:25:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T16:25:31","slug":"my-two-bit-political-awakening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/","title":{"rendered":"My Two-Bit Political Awakening"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My Two-Bit Political Awakening<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

by James Bovard<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Samuel Johnson may have been wrong when he declared, \u201cThere are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.\u201d But for young kids, collecting coins is a less pernicious pastime than becoming a pyromaniac or Tik-Tok star. My own experience collecting, buying, and selling coins vaccinated me against trusting politicians long before I grew my first scruffy beard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I remain mystified how anyone continues trusting politicians after the government formally repudiates its promises<\/span>
\n[Click to Tweet]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The thrill of coin collecting<\/b><\/h2>\n

Handling old coins was like shaking hands with the pioneers who built this country. I wondered if the dented 1853 quarter I purchased was ever involved in Huckleberry Finn\u2013type adventures when \u201ctwo bits\u201d bought a zesty time.<\/strong> My grandfather gave me a battered copper two-cent piece from 1864, the same year that Union General Phil Sheridan burned down the Shenandoah Valley, where I was raised. Some of the coins I collected might now be banned as hate symbols, such as Buffalo nickels with an Indian portrait engraved on the front.<\/p>\n

I was enthralled by early American coin designs, especially those featuring idealized female images emblazoned with the word liberty<\/strong>. I was unaware that George Washington refused to allow his own image on the nation\u2019s coins because it would be too \u201cmonarchical.\u201d Until 1909, there was an unwritten law that no portrait appear on any American coin in circulation. That changed with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, whom the Republican Party found profitable to canonize on pennies.<\/p>\n

By the mid-20th century, American coinage had degenerated into paeans to dead politicians. Portraits of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Dwight Eisenhower were slapped onto coins almost as soon as their pulses stopped. This reflected a sea change in values as Americans were encouraged to expect more from their leaders than from their own freedom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I first started collecting, I assumed that a coin\u2019s value was largely determined by its age. That delusion was blown to smithereens at the first coin show I attended. Prices varied based on how many coins were minted each year, the popularity of different designs, and the rising number of Baby Boomers hustling to fill each slot in their blue Whitman coin folders. Coins were akin to used cars: Those with too many miles \u2014 too much visible wear and tear \u2014 traded at a sharp discount. A pristine 1950 nickel minted in Denver was worth more than a worn 1841 half dime minted in Philadelphia. Similarly, a 1931 Lincoln penny minted in San Francisco was worth more than a 1898 Indian Head penny or a 1857 large cent. Those valuations were simply supply and demand, not a sign of collective depravity.<\/p>\n

Coin collecting as history lesson<\/b><\/h2>\n

The history of America\u2019s coins also vivified the nation\u2019s shifting political values. In the era of this nation\u2019s birth, currency was often recognized as a character issue \u2014 specifically, the contemptible character of politicians.<\/strong> Shortly before the 1787 Constitutional Convention, George Washington warned that unsecured paper money would \u201cruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.\u201d The Coinage Act of 1792 established gold and silver as the foundation for the nation\u2019s currency and authorized a death penalty for anyone who debased the nation\u2019s gold or silver coins.<\/p>\n

But as time passed, Americans forgot the peril of letting politicians ravage their currency.<\/strong> In 1933, the United States had the largest gold reserves of any nation in the world, but fear of devaluation spurred a panic, which President Franklin Roosevelt invoked to justify confiscating Americans\u2019 privately owned gold. Roosevelt denounced anyone who refused to turn in their gold as a \u201choarder\u201d who faced 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Roosevelt\u2019s penalty was not as harsh the Soviet Union\u2019s death penalty for anyone caught \u201choarding\u201d wheat from a collective farm. Roosevelt said he needed \u201cfreedom of action\u201d \u2014 which he used to slash the value of the dollar from 1\/20th of an ounce of gold to 1\/35th of an ounce of gold.<\/p>\n

I began collecting coins in 1965, the year President Lyndon Johnson began eliminating the silver in new dimes and quarters. At that point, the value of the dollar was falling due to federal deficit spending. The government printed new money to pay its debts, resulting in inflation. Rather than curtailing spending, Johnson debased the currency. He swore there would be no profit in \u201choarding\u201d earlier coins \u201cfor the value of their silver content.\u201d (Silver coins subsequently increased in value 15-fold.) Johnson portrayed his debasement as progressivism at its best: \u201cWe are going to keep our eyes on the stars and our feet on the ground.\u201d He preferred people to look skyward rather than focus on the skulduggery in Washington.<\/p>\n

Coin dealing helped me recognize early in life that a government promise is not worth a plug nickel.<\/strong> From 1878 onwards, the U.S. Mint printed silver certificates redeemable for silver coins from the U.S. government. The 1935 silver certificate I purchased included this declaration: \u201cThis certifies that there is on deposit in the Treasury of the United States of America One Dollar in Silver Payable to the Bearer on Demand.\u201d In 1964, the Treasury Department repudiated that pledge, announcing that certificates were henceforth redeemable only for silver bullion, not coins. In 1967, Congress passed the Act to Authorize Adjustments in the Amount of Outstanding Silver Certificates. Congress \u201cadjusted\u201d silver certificates by nullifying all further redemptions.<\/p>\n

Shortly after my 15th birthday, the U.S. government drove the final wooden stake into the nation\u2019s currency.<\/strong> In August 1971, President Richard Nixon announced that the U.S. government would cease honoring its pledge to pay gold to redeem the dollars held by foreign central banks. Nixon declared he was taking \u201caction necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators.\u201d But there was no way to defend the dollar against politicians. Nixon touted his default as therapy for his tormented fellow citizens, promising it would \u201chelp us snap out of the self-doubt, the self-disparagement that saps our energy and erodes our confidence in ourselves.\u201d Nixon wrapped his decree with lofty political rhetoric, appealing to the nation\u2019s \u201cgreatest ideals\u201d and promising a \u201cnew prosperity\u201d that \u201cbefits a great people.\u201d And for Nixon, mass gullibility was the clearest proof of a \u201cgreat people.\u201d Nixon\u2019s gold default was a milestone in America\u2019s rising economic and political illiteracy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The dollar thus became a fiat currency \u2014 something which possessed value solely because politicians said so.<\/strong> Nixon spurred the Federal Reserve to create an artificial boom to boost his reelection campaign. To suppress the damage from a flood of new money, he imposed wage and price controls, making it a crime to raise prices without government permission.<\/p>\n

At the time, I was toiling in a peach orchard 10 hours a day, reaping $1.40 an hour and all the peach fuzz I could take home on my arms and neck. Nixon\u2019s wage controls doomed any chance of getting that raise to $1.45 an hour. But no loss \u2014 I was leaving that job soon to go back to high school.<\/p>\n

Coin collecting as an investment<\/b><\/h2>\n

Reading Coin News<\/i> and other numismatic publications, I soaked up the rage at how the U.S. government was intentionally torpedoing the value of the dollar<\/strong>. I had not yet read economists like Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, or Adam Smith, but my gut sense told me something was profoundly amiss. I shifted from collecting to investing, pouring most of the money from the jobs I did during high school into rare coins. Because rare coins were appreciating almost across-the-board, it was difficult not to be lucky in one\u2019s choices.<\/p>\n

After graduating high school in 1974, I began working a construction job. When I got laid off, I saw it as a sign from God (or at least from the market) to buy gold.<\/strong> Investment newsletters and political debacles convinced me the dollar was heading for a crash. I liquidated most of my coin collection and put all my available cash into gold. I also took out a consumer finance loan at 18 percent to purchase even more. That interest rate was the gauge of my blind confidence. Nixon\u2019s resignation in August 1974 did wonders to redeem my gamble.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t get rich but made enough to help pay for sporadically attending Virginia Tech, with some money left over to cover living expenses during my first literary strikeouts. Though Nixon assured the nation in 1971 that axing the gold standard would \u201cstabilize the dollar,\u201d inflation quadrupled between 1972 and 1974. If the government would intentionally destroy the value of the currency, I wondered what else it was undermining.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My next foray into the gold market came after I moved to Boston to try my luck as a writer. Among the zany ladies I dated there was a woman of mixed Catholic and Jewish parentage who felt guilty about everything except drug dealing.<\/strong> After the relationship with Melanie mellowed into a friendship, she confided that she was afflicted by surplus cash. I invested her marijuana proceeds in Kruggerands (South African gold coins), and we split the profits after the price of gold soared in the late 1970s. If I had provided the same investment assistance after Reagan launched the drug war, the feds could have accused me of money laundering and confiscated everything I owned \u2014 even my old reliable Smith-Corona typewriter.<\/p>\n

I eventually blundered into journalism and descended to the Washington area. Two weeks after I moved into a shabby group house in the District of Columbia in 1983, I pawned the last gem of my coin collection \u2014 the 1885 five-dollar gold piece that my Irish American grandmother had given me 15 years earlier. She was a dear sweet lady who would have appreciated that her gift helped cover the rent for a few more weeks until I finally, consistently hit solid paydirt later that year. (Thanks, Reader\u2019s Digest!<\/i>)<\/p>\n

Coin collecting as an economics lesson<\/b><\/h2>\n

My coin-dealing experiences helped inoculate me against Beltway-style agoraphobia \u2014 a pathological dread of any unregulated market. I had a visceral hostility to political price-fixing long before I understood the economic theory.<\/strong> I knew that the test of a fair price is the voluntary consent of each party to the bargain, \u201cthe free will which constitutes fair exchanges,\u201d as Senator John Taylor wrote in 1822. Presidents and Congress \u201cfixed\u201d prices according to political pull, not according to some vaporous, ever-changing vision of social justice. Nixon boosted the price of milk after the dairy lobby pledged $2 million in illegal contributions to his 1972 reelection campaign. Politicians perennially drove U.S. sugar prices to triple the world sugar price in response to kickbacks from sugar growers. It was nuts to permit politicians to control prices when there was no way to control politicians. Recognizing that economic value was subjective was a Rosetta Stone for my attacks on federal trade and agriculture policies in the following years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For almost a century, American coinage and currency policies have veered between \u201cgovernment as a damn rascal\u201d and \u201cgovernment as a village idiot.\u201d The dollar has lost 85 percent of its purchasing power since Nixon closed the gold window. I remain mystified how anyone continues trusting politicians after the government formally repudiates its promises. But I still appreciate old coins with beautiful designs that incarnated the American creed that no one has a right to be enshrined above anyone else.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article was originally published in the December 2021 edition of<\/em> Future of Freedom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Two-Bit Political Awakening by James Bovard Samuel Johnson may have been wrong when he declared, \u201cThere are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.\u201d But for young kids, collecting coins is a less pernicious pastime than becoming a pyromaniac or Tik-Tok star. My own experience collecting, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3138,3140,2966,202,2437,2435,1802,710,3141,245,3139,419,3142,2436,3069],"class_list":["post-17005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coin-collecting","tag-coinage","tag-default","tag-fraud","tag-george-washington","tag-gold","tag-grandmother","tag-inflation","tag-kruggerands","tag-nixon","tag-numismatics","tag-politicians","tag-price-ontrols","tag-silver","tag-virginia-tech"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Two-Bit Political Awakening - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Coin collecting taught me to distrust politicians who decimated the value of the dollar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Two-Bit Political Awakening - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Coin collecting taught me to distrust politicians who decimated the value of the dollar\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-05T18:04:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-25T16:25:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"489\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"My Two-Bit Political Awakening\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-05T18:04:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-25T16:25:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1917,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"coin collecting\",\"coinage\",\"default\",\"fraud\",\"George Washington\",\"gold\",\"grandmother\",\"inflation\",\"Kruggerands\",\"nixon\",\"numismatics\",\"politicians\",\"price ontrols\",\"silver\",\"Virginia Tech\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/\",\"name\":\"My Two-Bit Political Awakening - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-05T18:04:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-25T16:25:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"description\":\"Coin collecting taught me to distrust politicians who decimated the value of the dollar\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/04\\\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg\",\"width\":489,\"height\":660},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/05\\\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Two-Bit Political Awakening\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Two-Bit Political Awakening - James Bovard","description":"Coin collecting taught me to distrust politicians who decimated the value of the dollar","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Two-Bit Political Awakening - James Bovard","og_description":"Coin collecting taught me to distrust politicians who decimated the value of the dollar","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2022-01-05T18:04:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-25T16:25:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":489,"height":660,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"My Two-Bit Political Awakening","datePublished":"2022-01-05T18:04:46+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-25T16:25:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/"},"wordCount":1917,"commentCount":3,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg","keywords":["coin collecting","coinage","default","fraud","George Washington","gold","grandmother","inflation","Kruggerands","nixon","numismatics","politicians","price ontrols","silver","Virginia Tech"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/","name":"My Two-Bit Political Awakening - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-05T18:04:46+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-25T16:25:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"description":"Coin collecting taught me to distrust politicians who decimated the value of the dollar","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fdr-gold-poster.jpg","width":489,"height":660},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/05\/my-two-bit-political-awakening\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Two-Bit Political Awakening"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17005"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17039,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17005\/revisions\/17039"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}