1967

Yesterday in class I pulled a quarter out of my pocket - I was trying to see if I had the necessary $1.25 to buy 16 ounces of chemical caffeinated goodness, otherwise known as Diet Coke. As luck would have it, I did. But as I was looking at my quarter instead of learning about exhange rates and the breakdown of the Bretton Woods agreement and I noticed it was a 1967 quarter. At first I didn't think much of that, but then I realized that the quarter that had somehow made it into my pocket was 40 years old. That quarter had a lot more power and importance that it does today. According to http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ that a quarter in 1967 is the same thing as $1.50 today. Poor little quarter. It used to have so much purchasing power. Now it's just the add-on you need to go with your dollar bill when you are looking to buy a drink out of a vending machine. Even when I was little you used to be able to buy a stamp with it. And later after you couldn't buy a stamp with it anymore, you could still use it at a pay phone.

Back when that quarter was created it entered a country that was divided and fighting a very unpopular war. Interestingly, today it is still around in a country that is divided and fighting a very unpopular war. (Aren't we supposed to learn from history?) My parents weren't out of high school the day the coin left the mint and now they are grandparents-to-be. It has seen 8 presidents - and back in the early year of the coin, the presidents actually won elections with a mandate from the people!

If quarters could talk..... I wonder what it would say. It could certainly give a history lesson!