One of those, “It’s nice to dream” posts.
Say all of Congress and the President get a horrendous dream, and in a state of political irrationality (of which is a nearly constant state), tommorrow all legal tender laws are repealed. The thing that forces us to use FIAT currency is abolished, and all charges on Liberty Dollar and any other past companies that have had their wealth illegally compensated are dropped and restored.
What would happen from then on?
A significant portion of the population, particularly Austrian followers and many libertarians would likely immediately abandon the fiat dollar and move into Liberty Dollars and other commodity moneys. Smart retailers would soon begin honoring the alternate currencies. The fiat dollar would begin to quickly depreciate against the various commodity dollars and you would see a panic as the uneducated general public realizes what is happening and starts moving to dump their fiat money. After that, extended chaos as the fiat system melts down completely.
And you wonder why the Federal Government is so vigorously persecuting the Liberty Dollar people. They know that commodity money would be the death knell for the fiat system.
What exactly ARE the legal tender laws? I asked that question here but the thread just sort of died without many responses. Sure, the liberty dollar people were prosecuted but they’re still around and in business now, so how is that happening? What exactly are the laws that outlaw competing currencies?
-CITE-
31 USC Sec. 5103 01/02/2006
-EXPCITE-
TITLE 31 - MONEY AND FINANCE
SUBTITLE IV - MONEY
CHAPTER 51 - COINS AND CURRENCY
SUBCHAPTER I - MONETARY SYSTEM
-HEAD-
Sec. 5103. Legal tender
-STATUTE-
United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes
and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks)
are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.
Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.
-SOURCE-
(Pub. L. 97-258, Sept. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 980; Pub. L. 97-452, Sec.
1(19), Jan. 12, 1983, 96 Stat. 2477.)
-CITE-
18 USC Sec. 486 01/02/2006
-EXPCITE-
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 25 - COUNTERFEITING AND FORGERY
-HEAD-
Sec. 486. Uttering coins of gold, silver or other metal
-STATUTE-
Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes,
or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other
metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money,
whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of
foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this
title (!1) or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
-SOURCE-
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 709; Pub. L. 103-322, title
XXXIII, Sec. 330016(1)(I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)
There are additional relevant sections in Title 18, Chapter 25, U.S. Code.
Thanks for that, that helps a lot. This may be nitpicky but, as Sec 486 only forbids minting of coins, is there anything forbidding printing of a paper currency backing a commodity? I guess some confusion comes from the fact that some places define ‘legal tender’ as ‘something that must legally be accepted for all debts public and private’ vs ‘something that is legally allowed to be accepted for all debts public and private’.. i’ve seen both defintions.
And still, how the hell are the Liberty Dollar people still in business?
Not sure why they haven’t shut down the Liberty Dollar completely.
Here are some more relevent chapters.
-CITE-
18 USC Sec. 491 01/02/2006
-EXPCITE-
TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 25 - COUNTERFEITING AND FORGERY
-HEAD-
Sec. 491. Tokens or paper used as money
-STATUTE-
(a) Whoever, being 18 years of age or over, not lawfully
authorized, makes, issues, or passes any coin, card, token, or
device in metal, or its compounds, intended to be used as money, or
whoever, being 18 years of age or over, with intent to defraud,
makes, utters, inserts, or uses any card, token, slug, disk,
device, paper, or other thing similar in size and shape to any of
the lawful coins or other currency of the United States or any coin
or other currency not legal tender in the United States, to procure
anything of value, or the use or enjoyment of any property or
service from any automatic merchandise vending machine, postage-
stamp machine, turnstile, fare box, coinbox telephone, parking
meter or other lawful receptacle, depository, or contrivance
designed to receive or to be operated by lawful coins or other
currency of the United States, shall be fined under this title, or
imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
(b) Whoever manufactures, sells, offers, or advertises for sale,
or exposes or keeps with intent to furnish or sell any token, slug,
disk, device, paper, or other thing similar in size and shape to
any of the lawful coins or other currency of the United States, or
any token, disk, paper, or other device issued or authorized in
connection with rationing or food and fiber distribution by any
agency of the United States, with knowledge or reason to believe
that such tokens, slugs, disks, devices, papers, or other things
are intended to be used unlawfully or fraudulently to procure
anything of value, or the use or enjoyment of any property or
service from any automatic merchandise vending machine, postage-
stamp machine, turnstile, fare box, coinbox telephone, parking
meter, or other lawful receptacle, depository, or contrivance
designed to receive or to be operated by lawful coins or other
currency of the United States shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Nothing contained in this section shall create immunity from
criminal prosecution under the laws of any State, Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico, territory, possession, or the District of Columbia.
(c) “Knowledge or reason to believe”, within the meaning of
paragraph (b) of this section, may be shown by proof that any law-
enforcement officer has, prior to the commission of the offense
with which the defendant is charged, informed the defendant that
tokens, slugs, disks, or other devices of the kind manufactured,
sold, offered, or advertised for sale by him or exposed or kept
with intent to furnish or sell, are being used unlawfully or
fraudulently to operate certain specified automatic merchandise
vending machines, postage-stamp machines, turnstiles, fare boxes,
coin-box telephones, parking meters, or other receptacles,
depositories, or contrivances, designed to receive or to be
operated by lawful coins of the United States.
-SOURCE-
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 710; Pub. L. 87-667, Sept. 19,
1962, 76 Stat. 555; Pub. L. 103-322, title XXXIII, Sec.
330016(1)(H), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)