An anti-FRN idea...

[Finch]

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing 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.

Given that the Dollar is dropping with every lowering of the interest rate, I began to wonder if there isn't something the states could to to resist the Federal Governments continued abuse. Well, Article 1 section 10 (above) basically says that the states can coin money as long as it is gold or silver. I wonder how an agreement between the states to begin coining money in gold and silver would go over?

[Manedwolf]

This isn't the 19th century. We live in a world where trillions of global cross-currency transactions go on every second.

And any time a metal value goes above the face value of a currency, it tends to be taken out of circulation for the metal value. Why do you think they stopped making 90% silver quarters and dimes in 1964? Study your history. And look at metal values. Do you know how tiny a 1/10 ounce gold coin is? It'd have to have a face value of $100 to keep from being immediately melted, and that might not even save it in less than a year.

Current US precious metal coins are indeed legal tender but it's symbolic, since only an idiot would trade a face value $1 Silver Eagle, worth over $18, for $1 worth of goods and services.

[Finch]

This isn't the 19th century. We live in a world where trillions of global cross-currency transactions go on every second.

And any time a metal value goes above the face value of a currency, it tends to be taken out of circulation for the metal value. Why do you think they stopped making 90% silver quarters and dimes in 1964? Study your history. And look at metal values. Do you know how tiny a 1/10 ounce gold coin is? It'd have to have a face value of $100 to keep from being immediately melted, and that might not even save it in less than a year.

Current US precious metal coins are indeed legal tender but it's symbolic, since only an idiot would trade a face value $1 Silver Eagle, worth over $18, for $1 worth of goods and services.

Nothing says that the coins have to have a denomination on them, in fact, I think that is where the LIberty Dollar guys went wrong. They marked their coins with values. We could just let the weights speak for themselves.

[Manedwolf]

You're not getting the point. They'd not be coins, they'd just be collector's items, medallions, pretty much, for the value of the metal and the numismatist value. And you're welcome to make those all day long. Lots of states probably have, honoring notable people or events in history.

You can't make coins out of precious metal, because the market is so high that people would immediately treat them like any other precious metal, sealing them away in vaults as collector's items or selling them on the precious metals market along with other "coins" like the Vienna Philharmonic, Canadian Maple Leaf and US Eagle.

Please go and study just why the US stopped striking 90% silver coins in 1964. Seriously, go read and you'll understand.

[The Rabbi]

It is one of the most idiotic ideas I have seen on this site, and that covers lots of ground.
The states have no stake in the value of the dollar.  Inflation is not much concern to them.  They get a large part of their revenue from the Federal gov't anyway.
And since states don't have supplies of gold and silver socked away, where would they get them from?  Open market?  What will that do to the value of gold and silver?
And what problem is all this supposed to solve anyway?

[Gewehr98]

FDR pulled us off of the Gold Standard when?   

Lessee, Wisconsin mints a bunch of gold or silver $20 pieces, and marks them as such.

You go to Illinois to buy cigarettes with those coins, and they give you your nicotine fix in something other than that arbitrary Wisconsin denomination, or even give you Illinois coins as change with their own valuation.   

Since the Feds aren't backing either of the two denominations, you may as well be trading in chickens and eggs, or just stay in the state that minted them.

I agree with Rabbi - not a good idea.

[Manedwolf]

FDR pulled us off of the Gold Standard when?   

Lessee, Wisconsin mints a bunch of gold or silver $20 pieces, and marks them as such.

You go to Illinois to buy cigarettes with those coins, and they give you your nicotine fix in something other than that arbitrary Wisconsin denomination, or even give you Illinois coins as change with their own valuation.   

Since the Feds aren't backing either of the two denominations, you may as well be trading in chickens and eggs, or just stay in the state that minted them.

I agree with Rabbi - not a good idea.

Also, to keep the face value above the current metal price of gold, a $20 piece would have to be a 1/50th ounce coin. Sneeze and it'd leave.

[Finch]

It is one of the most idiotic ideas I have seen on this site, and that covers lots of ground.

Not very nice. I was just trying to engage in discussion regarding a thought I had. I wasn't trying to convince people that this is they way it had to be done. 

[The Rabbi]

It is one of the most idiotic ideas I have seen on this site, and that covers lots of ground.

Not very nice. I was just trying to engage in discussion regarding a thought I had. I wasn't trying to convince people that this is they way it had to be done. 

So you've discovered that your idea is poorly conceived and unworkable.  Even Einstein had rejects.  Back to the drawing board.