Gold bug

Gold Bug is a (sometimes pejorative) term used to describe investors who are very bullish on buying the commodity gold (XAU - ISO 4217). It can also be used to refer to a person who opposes or criticizes the use of fiat currency and supports a return to the use of the Gold Standard[1] or some other currency system based on the value of gold and other hard assets. A third use is to refer to someone who considers one commodity, usually gold, "the appropriate measure of wealth, regardless of the quantity of other goods and services that it can buy".[2][3]

The term was popularized in the 1896 US Presidential Election, when William McKinley supporters took to wearing gold lapel pins, gold neckties, and gold headbands in a demonstration of support for gold against the "silver menace",[4] though the term's original use may have been in Edgar Allan Poe's 1843 story "The Gold-Bug,"[5] about a cryptographic treasure map.[6]

References

  1. ^ Gevinson, Alan. Silverites, Populists, and the Movement for Free Silver. Teachinghistory.org, accessed 18 December 2011.
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ The gold standard -- and the men who love it
  4. ^ Mieczkowski, Yanek and Carnes, The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections (2001), p.176. ISBN 0415921333
  5. ^ The Gold Bug by Edgar Allan Poe (New York, NY : Learning Corp. of America, 1979) OCLC: 14710019
  6. ^ Gold Bug: Treasure Chart, Edgar A. Poe by E. Lee Spence, (Sullivan's Island, SC: E. Lee Spence, 1981) OCLC: 49829303

See also

External links

Gold Bug Web Sites of Interest