State of Rhode Island Continental Dollar via Wikipedia
The official debt of the USA federal government passed $40 trillion las week.
Could the US dollar become worthless?
Yes.
Notice something that happened in the past:
From Cash To Trash, Rinse And Repeat
July 23, 2026
The Continental dollar, born in 1775, was meant to finance the colonies’ fight against Britain—the American Revolution. What it actually financed was a masterclass in how quickly a currency can evaporate when it has no anchor, no credible backing, and no one willing to stop the printing presses. Hundreds of millions of Continental notes were issued with nothing but the promise of future redemption in gold or silver—which the colonies did not possess in sufficient quantity.
As wartime expenses mounted and the conflict dragged on, the colonies’ solution was a time-honored tactic. Just dig yourself a deeper financial hole by printing more currency. When confidence in the Continental buck inevitably collapsed, merchants demanded ever-larger stacks of paper for the same goods.
By 1781, a barrel of flour that once cost a few Continental dollars cost hundreds or thousands. The exchange rate against silver reached the point where it took five hundred to a thousand Continentals to buy a single hard dollar (meaning a silver or metal coin). Some states saw the writing on the wall and simply stopped accepting the notes altogether.
The British, who had plenty of practice in meddling in colonial internal affairs, helped the debasement process along. They knew that counterfeiting Continentals on an industrial scale was cheaper than fighting military battles, and more effective. The result, as intended, was hyperinflation. When the dust settled, the phrase “not worth a Continental” had entered the language as shorthand for worthless.
The Founders, having lived through the destruction of the Continental dollar, carried a deep suspicion of unbacked paper money into the constitutional debates. That suspicion helped produce a document that at least tried to constrain monetary experimentation. George Washington famously said, “Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open a door to every species of fraud and injustice.”
That was not the only such inflationary episode before the colonies became a republic. During and after the American Revolution, individual states issued their own notes with similarly dismal results—sharp depreciation, hyperinflationary spikes in the 1780s, and the general chaos that made a stronger federal hand on currency seem necessary. …
The modern version of this story began in earnest with the end of dollar convertibility into gold. Domestically this occurred in 1933, when FDR confiscated privately held gold. Internationally, the break came in 1971, when Nixon closed the gold window.
Ever since, the dollar has functioned as a pure fiat currency. The cumulative effect on purchasing power has been substantial. What $1 bought in 1971 is what about 15 cents buys today. In other words, you need $6.50 to $7 to purchase what a single dollar bought in 1971. That’s a loss of roughly 85 percent of purchasing power over half a century—an outcome entirely consistent with the long-run behavior of unbacked paper currencies. It’s not hyperinflation in the dramatic sense we saw in 1920s Weimar Germany, or in 2000s Zimbabwe, but it’s a steady, grinding, quasi-invisible debasement that compounds across generations.
The usual excuses, “This time is different”, assume that American institutions are uniquely resilient or exceptional, that the dollar’s reserve status grants permanent immunity, and that the U.S. can abuse its currency without serious consequences.
These sound like the rationalizations heard at the late stages of any long monetary experiment.
The historical record is not kind to such beliefs. Empires from the Spanish to the British to the French have discovered that the ability to print unlimited currency eventually encourages the very behaviors that undermine the currency. …
The phrase “not worth a Continental” was once popular in the U.S. It wasn’t part of a Cadillac marketing campaign. It came about after the Continental Congress decided that printing its way out of a war was preferable to the messy and difficult business of collecting taxes. …
Is it too far-fetched to imagine that our descendants will one day adopt the expression “Not worth a US dollar”? https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/cash-trash-rinse-and-repeat
In an email earlier this year, International Man’s Jeff Thomas had the following:
Going the Way of the Denarius
History repeats. (Or it rhymes, depending on your choice of words.)
Throughout history, there has been an extraordinary tendency for governments (and cultures) to follow similar paths. …
Human nature remains the same throughout time. Two thousand years ago, governments were typically made up of egotistical, self-centred dictatorial types, who were far more concerned with their own power than in the general welfare of their people. Today, politics remains a magnet for such people. They therefore will revert to type when faced with the very same problems. …
The denarius was the coin of the realm during the centuries when Rome was a republic. Although the gold solidus was used as a storage of wealth, the silver denarius was equal in value to a day’s wages for a common labourer and, as such, was more useful as the primary unit of exchange. During this time, it was a stable currency. However, as Rome turned into an empire, all that conquest in foreign lands became extremely costly and it was decided that one way to offset such costs was to devalue the denarius. Each successive emperor added a bit more base metal than the previous one and, by the time of Diocletian, there was no silver in the coin at all, only bronze.
During this same period, Rome experienced dramatic inflation – a predictable outcome when the coin of the realm is degraded. …
Rome didn’t collapse because the denarius “suddenly failed.”
It was diluted, again and again, until the currency became a tool of the state instead of a store of value.
That same pattern is playing out today … 02/16/26
Sadly, the facts are that:
- The USA has been turning its currency into dross.
- The USS dollar will collapse.
- Europe will value gold per Daniel 11:38-42.
While not quite like Rome or the old Continental, the US dollar used to be backed by gold and silver. Yet now, because the US dollar is not truly backed by anything tangible (other than a semi-agreement with Saudi Arabia to price oil in dollars), the excess production of US dollars via debt/quantitative easing dilutes the value. This is a modern form of ‘dross.’
While technically, Dross is essentially the worthless scum or impurities that rise to the surface of a molten metal while it is being refined, which it comes to coins, a dross coin is which is worth less than it appears because it is not pure silver or gold despite its outward appearance.
As far as currency debasement of ‘hard money’ goes, starting in 1965 the USA started to remove silver from its then silver coins and replace it with cheaper metals. That has been done by others in the past.The USA continues to try to cheapen its remaining coins as well. Its production of debt is another massive form of dross.
This diluting of the value of coinage/currency is condemned in the Bible:
4 Take away the dross from silver (Proverbs 25:4a).
22 Your silver has become dross, Your wine mixed with water. (Isaiah 1:22)
25 I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross, And take away all your alloy. (Isaiah 1:25)
18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. 21 Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. 22 As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out My fury on you.’” (Ezekiel 22:18-22)
Although the Bible warns against using dross and diluting the money supply, modern ‘experts’ have a different view. The wrong views on economics will lead to economic problems and ultimately the total crash of the dollar of the USA. Economic problems in Europe may well propel the rise of the Beast power that the Bible warns about.
The USA has repeatedly proven that economic pressures result in its increasing its debt. This has worked for a while, but the time will come when it will end in disaster. And it WILL NOT take as long as it took the old Roman Empire to collapse!
Around 605-625 B.C. Habakkuk wrote a short book of the Bible that has a lot of implications for the time that we are now in. Notice something that God said in it:
5 “Look among the nations and watch — Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days Which you would not believe, though it were told you. (Habakkuk 1:5).
Many, including a COG I was once part of, now claim that Habakkuk was prophesying only something for the past that has already been fulfilled. And if you only look at verse 5 of chapter 1 that looks reasonable. Yet, notice that the above is also repeated in the New Testament:
40 Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you:
41 ‘Behold, you despisers,
Marvel and perish!
For I work a work in your days,
A work which you will by no means believe,
Though one were to declare it to you.'” (Acts 13:40-41)
So, there is certainly a duality in some of what Habakkuk wrote. (More on the work for these times can be found in the articles Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word and The Final Phase of the Work.)
There was something for Habakkuk’s time and something for a later time.
Getting back to Habakkuk, here is some of the shocking things God had him write down specifically related to the end times:
2 Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. ( Habakkuk 2:2-3)
So what did Habakkuk see in this vision that is so bad people should run/flee who read it?
Notice that the prophecy that is being discussed is specifically for the appointed time of the end. It is a prophecy for our time–and will affect the proud. What will happen is so bad “That he may run who reads it.” What is so bad? Habakkuk continues with the following:
4 “Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.
5 “Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples. 6 “Will not all these take up a proverb against him, And a taunting riddle against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases What is not his — how long? And to him who loads himself with many pledges’? 7 Will not your creditors rise up suddenly? Will they not awaken who oppress you? And you will become their booty. 8 Because you have plundered many nations, All the remnant of the people shall plunder you, Because of men’s blood And the violence of the land and the city, And of all who dwell in it. (Habakkuk 2:4-8)
Actually, with an admitted debt of over $38 trillion dollars and plans to increase that much further, the USA has increased pledges more than any nation in the history of the planet.
Since the prophecy in Habakkuk 2 will be fulfilled at the time of the end (cf. “The message was true, but the appointed time was long…in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come”, Daniel 10:1,14). Daniel 8:19, 11:27,29,35 uses the same Hebrew term for “appointed time” as Habakkuk 2:3, while Daniel 10, using a different term, ties the latter days to the time in Daniel 8:19. Habakkuk 2 was not fulfilled in its entirety anciently. Also, it makes little sense that Habakkuk would be directed towards the modern nation of Israel as it does not have enemy creditors. It must be a nation or group of nations with some prominence at the appointed time of the end. As far as “violence of the land” as a contributing factor, this would seem to include crime, military missions, and perhaps riots/civil unrest, but might it also include promotion of violent sports?
Related to these matters, the Continuing Church of God put out the following sermon from its ContinuingCOG channel covering the entire Book of Habakkuk:
Habakkuk: Faith, USA’s End, & Jesus’ Return
In this sermon video, Dr. Thiel goes over each and every verse of the Book of Habakkuk. He also quotes other supportive verses in the Old and Testaments, certain Church of God writings, and even the Dead Sea Scroll ‘Commentary on Habakkuk.’ He spends time on the background of Habakkuk, how to live by faith, and prophetic matters. He explains why he believes that Habakkuk 2:2-8 is related to the coming destruction of the USA by creditors, why that is not a reference to the end of end-time Chaldean /Babylon, and that Habakkuk 2:9-17 is referring to peoples and a different time period than the earlier portion of the chapter (which relates to the beginning of the appointed time of the end). Scriptures related to the destruction of the European ‘daughter of Babylon’ by a Russian-led, Asian multi-national force, as well as the return of Jesus are cited.
Here is a link to the sermon: Habakkuk: Faith, USA’s End, & Jesus’ Return.
The Laodicean groups that I am aware of are NOT teaching this.
Anyway, despite biblical warnings on dross money and excessive debt, the USA has ignored those warnings, and yes, one day its dross money will be recognized as worthless.
And that will not end well for the USA.
The time will come when the economy of the USA will be totally devastated and those who ignore the Bible’s warnings will suffer because of it! The time will come when people will NOT value ‘make believe money.’
It happened to Rome. It happened to the Continental!
Does the USA have any hope?
Yes, national repentance:
14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)
But at this stage, that does not seem to be likely.
Put your confidence in God, not in dross money.
We also have the following video:
Dross and the US Dollar
More and more are having concerns about the US dollar. To a degree, the economy of ancient Rome was based on a silver coin called the denarius. However, as access to silver was limited and the government of Rome wanted to spend more money, emperors began to degrade the denarius by putting less and less silver into it, until it became a bronze coin. Basically, the denarius became dross. Up until 1964, American silver coins contained silver–actually they were 90% silver by weight. But in 1965, the USA changed that and eliminated all silver from its dimes and quarters, and several years later from its half dollars. The Bible specifically warns against turning silver into dross. ‘Dross’ was the scum that would float to the top when metals were being refined, and was discarded. Another way to turn money into dross is to print paper with no backing. The US dollar used to be backed by gold, but now it has no real backing. And to make matters worse, the federal government continues to print more of it only backed by ‘pledges’ known as US Treasury notes–debt. The prophet Habakkuk warned that a heavily indebted nation would be conquered by its creditors. Could that happen to the USA? Are there dire consequences in turning the dollar into dross? Dr. Thiel and Steve Dupuie discuss these issues.
Here is a link to our video: Dross and the US Dollar.
The Bible points out that the descendants of Jacob and Joseph are God’s people (Psalm 77:15; see also Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel). But, instead of repenting, the USA has been pushing a pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, pro-violence, and pro-debt message. The shock that will come to the USA and the rest of the world (Revelation 13:4) will not just be the end of the USA’s financial dominance, but the end of it militarily (Daniel 11:39).
The time will come when the USA dollar will be worth no more than the scrap value of the cotton-paper it is printed on.
It will, “not be worth a Continental.”
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
HABAKKUK Here is a link to the article Commentary on Habakkuk and the End of the United States. God gave Habakkuk a message on living by faith. Did God give a prophecy concerning debt and the destruction of the United States? Here is a link to a related sermon: Habakkuk: Faith, USA’s End, & Jesus’ Return.
The End of US Dollar Dominance Is the USA losing its economic status? What about the petro-gold-yuan? A related video is also available: US Dollar being challenged by Gold-Petro-Yuan.
The Plain Truth About Gold in Prophecy. How Should a Christian View Gold? What About Silver? What do economists and the Bible teach about gold? Gold and silver may drop in value. Inflation/deflation? What do Christians need to know about gold and silver? Two videos of related interest may be: Germany, Gold, and the US Dollar and Silver, Science, and Scripture.
Who is the King of the West? Why is there no Final End-Time King of the West in Bible Prophecy? Is the United States the King of the West? Here is a version in the Spanish language: ¿Quién es el Rey del Occidente? ¿Por qué no hay un Rey del Occidente en la profecía del tiempo del fin? A related sermon is also available: The Bible, the USA, and the King of the West.
Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about the peoples of Africa, Asia, South America, and the islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon; When Will the End of the Age Come?; Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.