In the 1890’s one of the HUGE political issues of the day was bimetallism. In short, poor people wanted it, rich people didn’t. Poor farmers wanted it because adding silver into the economy would quickly devalue paper currency before everything settled down while raising crop prices roughly at the rate of inflation, so they would still be pulling in the same amount of wealth, but their set-in-stone debt would be less. Imagine, for an extreme example, if the U.S. government, on the day your student loan kicked in decided to give everyone 999 times the amount of money they already had. Everything would cost 1000 times as much, because the USD would be post WWII Germany marks worthless, but those student loans you already had would be a drop in the bucket, you could pay it off for only the new price of 2 large pizzas and a pack of gum (large pizza from pizza hut $12 avg student loan debt from a public university $25,550, adjusted for new inflation large pizza $12,000.) Rich people didn’t want it for the same reason; they would be pulling in less money and paying out the same amount as before. So, of course, the populist party campaigned against the “cross of gold.” With the necessary context and unnecessary analogy out of the way, bimetallism has been considered less stable than monometallism because then there would be two things that can go sideways, and better than the “fiat system” (where our green paper has worth solely because the government says it does, I.E. how money works in the U.S. right now) because at least there is some standard. One of the common problems with bimetallism is that the conversion value of the two metals is usually set by law, but it varies. For example, during the election of 1896, the true value ratio of silver to gold was 30:1, the populist candidate campaigned on bimetallism at a by law ratio of 16:1. See the problem? On the other hand, some consider bimetallism more stable than monometallism because, while two things can go sideways, if only one thing goes sideways, and that thing is the metal your monometallist economy is based on, then you are out of luck, whereas if only one thing goes sideways in a bimetallist economy, then there is much less of a problem.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Bimetallism (monetary System)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/65494/bimetallism>.
Fenwick, Lynda B. "The People's Party Urged Silver." Blogspot. Blogspot, 15 July 2013. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <http://lynfenwick.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-peoples-party-urged-silver.html>.
"Fiat Money Definition | Investopedia." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp>.
Friedman, Milton. "Bimetallism Revisited." (n.d.): 1-31. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://hoohila.stanford.edu/workingpapers/getWorkingPaper.php?filename=E-89-24.pdf>.
"Pizza." Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut, n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <https://order.pizzahut.com/site/menu/pizza>.
"Trends in Student Debt: Debt Levels of Graduating Classes Up, Income-Based Repayment Also Up." College Parents of America. N.p., 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <http://www.collegeparents.org/blog/2014/08/22/trends-student-debt-debt-levels-graduating-classes-income-based-repayment-also>.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Bimetallism (monetary System)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/65494/bimetallism>.
Fenwick, Lynda B. "The People's Party Urged Silver." Blogspot. Blogspot, 15 July 2013. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <http://lynfenwick.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-peoples-party-urged-silver.html>.
"Fiat Money Definition | Investopedia." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiatmoney.asp>.
Friedman, Milton. "Bimetallism Revisited." (n.d.): 1-31. Web. 1 Sept. 2014. <http://hoohila.stanford.edu/workingpapers/getWorkingPaper.php?filename=E-89-24.pdf>.
"Pizza." Pizza Hut. Pizza Hut, n.d. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <https://order.pizzahut.com/site/menu/pizza>.
"Trends in Student Debt: Debt Levels of Graduating Classes Up, Income-Based Repayment Also Up." College Parents of America. N.p., 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 01 Sept. 2014. <http://www.collegeparents.org/blog/2014/08/22/trends-student-debt-debt-levels-graduating-classes-income-based-repayment-also>.