Article 1, Section 10, The U.S. Constitution:
"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."
Do You Think States Should Be Allowed to Mint Their Own Currency?
ABC News U.S.
2013/02/07 21:00:00
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Will Virginia start minting its own currency? It’s an idea worth considering, according to the state’s House of Delegates.
The lower chamber passed a bill Monday to study the possibility. The legislation, proposed by Manassas Republican Del. Robert Marshall, would create a new joint subcommittee made up of lawmakers, plus two outside experts, to “study the feasibility of a metallic-based monetary unit.”
The committee could spend up to $17,440 and would present its recommendations before the legislative session starts in 2014. Translation: Ten people would advise Virginia on whether to start making its own currency on a gold or silver standard.
The lower chamber passed a bill Monday to study the possibility. The legislation, proposed by Manassas Republican Del. Robert Marshall, would create a new joint subcommittee made up of lawmakers, plus two outside experts, to “study the feasibility of a metallic-based monetary unit.”
The committee could spend up to $17,440 and would present its recommendations before the legislative session starts in 2014. Translation: Ten people would advise Virginia on whether to start making its own currency on a gold or silver standard.
Read More: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/02/virgi...
Top Opinion
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Transquesta 2013/02/07 21:30:32
Yes, states should ALL start printing money. With 50 states printing money the free market would safeguard our interests since the State with the most responsible monetary policy would have a highly sought after currency and those states with irresponsible policy would be left to fail.
I doubt this would ever happen. The Fed has the ability to print 100-dollar bills for 8 cents. Nice profit margin, huh? How far do you think these evil bankers would go to protect this racket?
Even though BHO is doing everything in his power, and then some, to debase our currency, the COTUS does not permit the states to get in to the money coining or printing business.
There is nothing in the law that prohibits private citizens from accepting some foreign currency in exchange for goods and services.
States are prohibited from coining money period! The States cannot use anything but gold and silver coin ... . The provisioning of the restriction to only using gold and silver coin is not an authorization to mint coins that are specifically prohibited in the same clause.
As I commented earlier, an Amendment taking away the prohibition from States coining money would be necessary before any state could legally coin its own money.
If you want to play semantics "make" means to create. That means authorize it, or create it.
So would it be legal, under your definition, for Virginia to either contract the work out to a private mint, or say private mints are allowed to make gold and silver coin themselves? They are not the ones physically making it, but they are making it "tender in payment of debts".
The constitution and other founding documents were written in plain English, and unlike today’s legislation, there was no attempt to hide the meaning of the words and phrases in some sort of legalese that would require interpretation by specially trained lawyers. The words mean what they say and say what they mean.
To reiterate: "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."
Do you actually believe the phrase "coin Money" means the same as the phrase "make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts"?
So no they can't make money, unless it is gold or silver.
And the states are forbidden to "coin Money"!
My point, exactly!
The exception here is gold and silver, which is what Virginia wants. Please understand how grammar works and stop trying to misrepresent the constitution. You are misrepresenting the constitution, and it is intellectually dishonest.
Why do you believe the COTUS does not mean what is written?
I, not having that opportunity to consort with the founders, have to read what they wrote to know what they meant.
Art. 1, Sect. 8: "The congress shall have Power... To coin Money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin..."
Art. 1, Sect. 10: No State shall ... coin Money..."
Amend. 10: "The power not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The Constitution delegates the power to coin money to the Congress of the United States and prohibits the states by the Constitution to coin Money.
And you should read what they wrote outside the constitution to understand their intent, instead of just misinterpreting it.
All powers delegated to the federal government are federal government powers only unless there is an exception somewhere else. Article one section ten, in part, deals with the states power. Amendments came after the original constitution so it payed to be more clear, so it payed to be redundant in this case.
A prime example of this is the power to barrow. States have as much authority to barrow money as the federal government does, even though it says it is a federal power in article one section 8.
Now states are not allowed to coin money, unless it is gold or silver. What is with you and ignoring the exception right after the rule. I mean come on, it says and black and white it is allowed, and this is getting old, and it is intellectual dishonestly. You may think its a bad idea but they have the authority.
That means that the states ARE AUTHORIZED to MINT coins of gold and silver,(which are self-backing if you will) so long as they DON'T do something silly like PRINT paper money, or for example, mint alloy coins that are backed by the "full faith and credit of" the state of Virginia.
Until the Federal Reserve is either disbanded or regulated by the federal government, or until the United States returns to the gold standard, one cannot fault a state for losing faith in "money" backed by nothing but the assumption that the US economy will never collapse...again...
I do not think that states making their own currency is the answer, but it cannot be a worse deal for the consumer and taxpayer than what congress and the POTUS have given us with the federal reserve, which is also unconstitutional.
Article 1, Section 10, The U.S. Constitution:
"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."
Are you trolling?
yeah states can make gold and silver currency.
Also read up on the liberty dollar.
And what is with people not liking different currencies? minting money was originally a business. People had choice, and companies competed. Hell with the gold standard they used to offer their customers your money actually deflated, rather than inflated. Money that gains value? sign me up! Government monopolized it and now we get money that loses value each year, it has not actual value, and it has a commissar at the fed that can change its value and ruin your life at any time. So now we have terrible money, and we are still taxed on it. I would prefer having a choice in what i deal with, or at least having a state back it with something with actual value.
Also, you changed government policy, so the constitution is modernized and updated to reflect your bad ideas automatically? That requires a constitutional amendment. Gold and Silver was not a placeholder name for money, it actually means something. So, in reality what you should have said was "you may not use anything but government currency in any type of transaction, but the currency must be gold or silver".
Ok now i will explain why we should have competing currencies.
Money was spontaneous, and was originally created by individuals looking for a profit. As a result they competed to have the strongest medium of exchange, so there was deflation, rather than inflation, because it was backed with gold and silver.
In todays economy you would be able to choose what currency you had your money in, what is was backed by, et cetera. As far as you, the citizen, is concerned you would simply buy things with differing types of dollars. Currency with differing value was around during and after the civil war, people set up exchange rates and organized contracts around them. Prior to thats banks and institutions had a myriad of different currencies. The U.S. government would still deal in dollars, and it would collect taxes in whatever version of the dollar you made your money in, and then convert that variant of the dollar into a U.S. dollar in the exact the same way someone converts a euro into a yen.
Companies would simply accept different amount of dollars. Next time you are on amazon, paying with a credit card, there is a little thing you can scroll down to and pay in Pounds, Euros, or a myriad of other currencies. Exchange rates ...
Ok now i will explain why we should have competing currencies.
Money was spontaneous, and was originally created by individuals looking for a profit. As a result they competed to have the strongest medium of exchange, so there was deflation, rather than inflation, because it was backed with gold and silver.
In todays economy you would be able to choose what currency you had your money in, what is was backed by, et cetera. As far as you, the citizen, is concerned you would simply buy things with differing types of dollars. Currency with differing value was around during and after the civil war, people set up exchange rates and organized contracts around them. Prior to thats banks and institutions had a myriad of different currencies. The U.S. government would still deal in dollars, and it would collect taxes in whatever version of the dollar you made your money in, and then convert that variant of the dollar into a U.S. dollar in the exact the same way someone converts a euro into a yen.
Companies would simply accept different amount of dollars. Next time you are on amazon, paying with a credit card, there is a little thing you can scroll down to and pay in Pounds, Euros, or a myriad of other currencies. Exchange rates are constant everywhere and readily available, and paying in differing bank's currency would work the exact same way, but now you are allowed a choice in which currency you want, your currency gains value, has actual value, and the government can't devalue and steal your life savings.
Government monopolized an entire industry, and now you are paying for it with inflation. Since the government can steal everything you have earned at any moment, and it taxes us in inflation, we are not better off with only a public dollar. We are only worse off, because in addition to inflation we miss out on the deflation bonus, that only happens with private currency, before we pay the inflation tax. The dollar should not be abolished, but it should have to compete in this country.
The maker of the liberty dollar was arrested on a technicality. If you read about it, the government really hunted this guy down and stretched laws to convict him. Read up on it, he didn't break any law, and the case is the epitome of disgusting.
also in your first sentence, "Something that was written on the original Constitution is not constitutional" what were you referring to?