Silver as Money back in Circulation

Sierra Times ^

[imawit]

Uh oh, something more valuable and cherished than Federal Notes ?

This catching on just shows that the public can distinquish between value and ...............

I'm at a loss of words to describe US Federal Notes.

[Centurion2000]

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the Constitution SPECIFICALLY prohibit banks and states from creating their own currencies ??

[Grand Old Partisan]

That's all we need, carrying around lumps of metal in our pockets for money. The GOP buried the Democrats' "free silver" nonsense a century ago.

[Centurion2000]

This was what I was looking for

Article I
Section 10.
No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.

[unixfox]

Your right, but that was a long time ago. Time to move on, nothing to see here.

[ClearCase_guy]

I agree with the poster who said that this seems unconstitutional. Also (perhaps more importantly) these "silver dollars" seem to be every bit as valuable as US dollars -- but are sometimes worth 10% more. Uh, basic economics? Free money out of nowhere? 10% return without really making a bonified investment? Paging, Mr. Ponzi.

[IGNATIUS]

Ultimately not even to wipe one's rear(like Weimar notes and French Assignats)---guess we'd better spend them before/as rest of the world is finally waking up.

Did you all see AG squirm and waffle as our Reps grilled him yesterday??

[steve50]

make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts

Looks like the states are forbidden by law to accept fiat. At $10 an oz they got a pretty good markup built in, last I saw silver was about $4.60

[Oberon]

Your quote would seem to grant a specific exemption for gold and silver coin.

[NathanR]

Looks like the states are forbidden by law to accept fiat

I wonder if anyone has tested that.
OTH This says nothing about banks, which issued notes (paper money) prior to the Civil War.

[steve50]

I'm thinking of selling some property. Should bring about twenty ozs of gold eagles with a face value of $50 each. I wonder how the IRS is going to react to this idea.

[Centurion2000]

Your quote would seem to grant a specific exemption for gold and silver coin

True, but they are selling paper money, not coin.

[Khepera]

Is the satae doing this or just some people who decided they would trade other forms of currency? If individules want to make this sort of agreement then it seems perfectly legal.

[dark_lord]

Well, it is being issued by a private company. So not unconstitutional. Actually not a big deal either. When credit cards were new, people might have wondered if they were "creating currency" or "unconstitutional" as well. But they weren't and aren't.

However, I don't see the point, since nobody is making money off of this. And you have to trust that the private company will indeed "buy them back". If that company goes under, or takes the money and runs, then people and merchants are stuck with the paper. Or maybe the company figures they will take people federal dollars in exchange for "Liberty" dollars and just bank the federal dollars and earn interest. When someone wants to exchange the Liberty dollars back for federal dollars, they do so. Which means if enough people signed up for this, the company could make money and survive...but what is the point? Why would people want these darn "dollars" anyway?

[imawit]

guess we'd better spend them

or trade them for something real while that's still possible. Anyway that's what Gspan wants. Soooooo much moola, you don't mind thrown down a few just to do it even.

Sooooo much mooola that there's no sense in hoarding, saving, collecting.

....... then go get some credit.

[mvpel]

The price of the metal in the Sacagawea dollar coin, based on the copper, manganese, zinc, and nickel prices on December 5, 2001, is about 1.2 cents. You want to talk about a markup, let's start there.

[imawit]

Democrats' "free silver" nonsense a century ago.

... aaaaaaaaaaaaah, I think ... it's 2003 this year.

Time's change ? Don't things change ?