"Not Worth a Dollar: Utah recognizes gold and silver as legal tender"

by Brian Bolduc
National Review Online

Since 1913, the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power. Why? Because the Federal Reserve, which Congress established that year, has printed more money than necessary.

Or so skeptics claim. Many tea partiers agree — so much so that they’re spearheading an effort to introduce two competing currencies into the money supply: gold and silver.

The Constitution forbids states to coin money. In Article I, Section 10, however, it reads, “No state shall . . . make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Jeff Bell, policy director of American Principles in Action, argues that this passage authorizes states to recognize gold and silver as legal tender.

Colorado was the last state to do so, in 1893. But Utah, taking “a precaution against further deterioration in the dollar,” has revived the endeavor, Bell says...

...But this setup poses challenges. If gold and silver trade at market value, vendors will have to measure coins’ weight and purity to determine their worth. Will McDonald’s have a scale in every drive-through?

No, thankfully. Bell says private interests are starting banks in which members can leave their gold and silver deposits. They then can use those deposits as backing for debit cards: “You could pay any bill or your taxes with a Visa debit card that would then be assessed against the valued coins — and they may be revalued all the time.”

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