THE BORSODI CONSTANT AN INFLATION-FREE CURRENCY

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Result: The pioneers in the experiment have seen their constants rise in value (in relation to the dollar) a whopping 17% in just three years. Or, to put it the other way around, a constant bought in 1970 can still be traded for exactly one constant's worth of goods . . . while a dollar will now buy only 85% of what it would purchase three years ago.

Borsodi next took his idea one giant step further by minting something he calls a globe. As Keith Dewey—a young man who has helped Dr. Borsodi found his alternative currency—says, "We can't call them coins because that's against the law and we refuse to call them medallions so we call them globes. They're the missing link between absolute barter and trading. They have no labels on them. No dollar sign or cent sign, and no constant sign. All it says on a globe is that the piece of metal contains either one-half ounce or a full ounce of .999 fine silver. A globe, in other words, is a very convenient barterable item. You can't keep wheat in your pocket and you can't keep a fish in your pocket but you most certainly can keep a globe—which has a real worth of its own—in your pocket. And that real worth, by the way, remains constant. No matter what a dollar bill will buy on any particular day, a globe will always purchase exactly its weight in silver—and a corresponding amount of any other commodity—because a globe is silver."

(Interestingly enough, the globe has been worth more than its weight in silver from the first day the first globe was minted. On top of its real worth, many people see a certain collector's value in the "coin" . . . and other individuals have been pleased to purchase globes at a premium price in order to help Borsodi finance his new currency. When silver was selling for $3.25 an ounce, for example, the going rate for a one-ounce globe was $7.00. Now that silver is priced at more than $6.00 an ounce, the same "coin" sells for $10.00. And, of course—in the finest tradition of barter—the half-ounce or ounce chunks of metal are also worth exactly what wants, needs or desires make them worth on any given day . . . as evidenced in the sidebar that accompanies this article.)

So OK. So Dr. Borsodi seems to have accomplished exactly what he set out to do. So where does he go from here?

Now that the initial test of his idea is over, Borsodi (who is nearing 90) has handed most of the responsibility for his alternative currency over to younger men . . . who are in the process of scrapping the prototype setup and establishing a truly international alternative medium of exchange.

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