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  3. Less than 40 years ago in the United States, it was common to change a one-dollar bill for a dollar’s worth of silver. That is b

Less than 40 years ago in the United States, it was common to change a one-dollar bill for a dollar’s worth of silver. That is b

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问题     Less than 40 years ago in the United States, it was common to change a one-dollar bill for a dollar’s worth of silver. That is because the coins were actually made of silver. But those days are gone. There is no silver in today’s coins. When the price of the precious metal rises above its face value as money, the metal will become more valuable in other uses. Silver coins are no longer in circulation because the silver in coins is worth much more than their face value. A silver firm could find that it is cheaper to obtain silver by melting down coins than by buying it on the commodity markets. Coins today are made of an alloy of cheaper metals.
    Gresham’s Law, named after Sir Thomas Gresham, argues that "good money" is driven out of circulation by "bad money". Good money differs from bad money because it has higher commodity value.
    Gresham lived in the 16th century in England where it was common for gold and silver coins to be debased. Governments did this by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver. The governments could thus make a profit in coinage by issuing coins that had less precious metal than the face value indicated. Because different mixings of coins had different amounts of gold and silver, even though they bore the same face value, some coins were worth more than others as commodities. People who dealt with gold and silver could easily see the difference between the "good" and the "bad" money. Gresham observed that coins with a higher content of gold and silver were kept rather than being used in exchange, or were melted down for their precious metal. In the mid-1960s when the U.S. issued new coins to replace silver coins, Gresham’s law went right in action.
What was the purpose of the governments issuing new coins by mixing cheaper metals with gold and silver in the 16th century?
选项 A、They wanted to reserve some gold and silver for themselves.
B、There was neither enough gold nor enough silver.
C、New coins were easier to be made.
D、They could make money.
答案D
解析 本题的依据是文章最后一段的第3句话The governments could thus make a profit in coinage by issuing coins that had less precious metal than the face value indicated．从中可知D项为正确答案。
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