Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>
> Based on that, what do you really think the real inflation rate is ?

Whatever the rate really is it started longer ago than that and had
specific points when it accelerated. The first change in the rate of
dollar to gold was made by President Andrew Jackson.

1863 the US Mint stopped making half cents. They weren't worth spending
any more. A year later the US Mint switched cents from the old size
that was a bit larger than a quarter to the new size that's a bit larger
than a dime. The reason was inflation had already happened. This
caused almost no change in the rate of inflation.

In 1934 the US Mint stopped making gold coins and the government pulled
all it could out of circulation collecting as many as they could
sending officers to banks. Same reason. At this point all of the gold
is still there in the vault.

In 1964 the US Mint stopped making silver coins and started pulling all
that they could from circulation. Any coins transferred from banks to
the federal reserve system are still filtered for silver ones. Same
reason. The silver has since all been sold as bullion.

In 1982 the US Mint switched the all copper cents (technically a bronze
alloy) to zinc with a copper coating. I don't think they filter the
1982 and before cents as I still see a lot ot them. Same reason.

If you tracked inflation since 1863 when they dropped the half cent
because inflation had made it not worth carrying they would now drop all
coins but the dollar. Yet folks say that dropping the cent would
"cause" inflation.