So.... if you went back to a gold based money system - not gold backed paper (because who could you trust?) but actual gold coins - how small would they have to be to have a sufficient supply for everyday global commerce?

Probably too small to be practical, right? You'd loose all your change behind the cushions at Starbucks. Maybe you could make coins like the twonie where only the center part was gold? Or would that still be too large? Maybe you could make a gold inset for the polar bear's nose? Would that do it?

Too little gold kind of points to silver as a solution, but how much of that is there? Same problem, right? Maybe there's a reason copper was used for coins? Perhaps all we need to do is revalue the penny... say to 25 cents. Would that work?

Thought experiments. Albert Einstein used them to discover the theory of relativity. Surely we can think up a monetary system that doesn't depend on a supply of something too scarce to have in general circulation, but not common enough that it has no intrinsic value? How about plutonium coins from recycled nuclear fuel? That would increase money velocity for sure.

ebear <--- thinking all the time!