The employer agreed to pay his people in gold and silver eagles. For example, let's say an employee earned $1100 in a pay period. He paid the employee 1 gold eagle, worth around $950 at the time, and the remainder of $150 was paid in silver eagles, which were worth around $22 at the time. So far, so good.
But when it came to reporting to the IRS, the employer reported the face value of the coins. The face value of a gold eagle is $50, and the face value of a silver eagle is $1. So for $1100 in gold and silver, the employee's taxable wages were $56. This had the effect of permitting the employee to opt out of the income tax system.
The IRS took the employer to court. The employer's lawyer brought up two Supreme Court decisions from the post-Civil War era that said the face value of the coin of the realm was sacred. Under those opinions, what the employer did was legal, and how his employees reported their tax liability was legal. The jury hung on all counts.
Granted, the IRS could refile, or seek a case in a jurisdiction more sympathetic to the government, or ask Congress to exempt gold and silver eagles from the face value condition. But in the absence of that, the IRS doesn't have a case.
Shortly after, a gold clause in a 1912 contract related to a real estate situation in New York City was reactivated, after having been dormant since FDR in 1933.
As a joke, shortly thereafter, a multimillion dollar apartment in Manhattan was priced in both dollars and ounces of gold.
Soon, it won't be a joke.
Fascinating twist.
So, the employee in turn could save them or “cash them in.”
Wow. Could just imagine demanding my employer pay me in gold and silver coinage. He balks when he has to actually write a check and not DD. LOL.