Anyone Have Experience Or Interest In Gold Backs?

My understanding s that these goldback-type notes are only accepted in the states of issue AND only at participating businesses in those states. The accepting businesses appear to be isolated to heavily travelled routes in those states.

I think they're gorgeous and interesting pieces. A guy in our local club has all the issues from all states and brought them to last month's meeting as supporting exhibits for a presentation. I think he said another state is beginning to use them, too - maybe South Dakota?

One of my sons lives in Ogden Utah, so I'm familiar with them. I'm not particularly fond of the vertical layout. Aesthetically, I prefer notes with a horizontal design. I do like the different designs used on the notes though.

Goldbacks are beautiful works of art. They contain a defined amount of gold, so will always have that value. I considered buying some, but the markup over bullion value was too high for me to justify purchasing (for me) a novelty.

They are good looking, nice detailed designs. But the premium is too high for me other than maybe a few as a novelty.

Backed by actual gold? Gresham's Law will see to it these do not circulate much.

The Federal government is not in the business of "authorizing" private or community currency. Best to say that the Federal government hasn't yet objected to their existence enough to take them to court. And given how careful Goldback Inc is in making sure nobody could possibly confuse their notes for US legal tender currency, the US government may never object. But "not objecting" does not equate to "authorizing".


No. They are not "backed by gold", they are actually made of gold. Very very thin, dilute gold, but gold nonetheless. 1 goldback physically contains 1/1000th of an ounce of gold. The gold is deposited as vapour, directly onto the plastic substrate of the note. They claim the gold can be recovered easily simply by burning off the note in a crucible, so in theory the goldback should "circulate" with a face value of 1/1000th of whatever the days' spot price of gold is. In practice, there's a premium, fixed by Goldback Inc.

The only reason they are making them out of gold is to try to get around the constitutional prohibition for states to declare anything other than "gold or silver coin" legal tender. Their goal is for the goldback to move beyond being a mere "community currency" by getting the various state legislatures to declare their notes as legal tender in each state, on the theory that the notes are legally "gold coins" and thus not subject to the constitutional ban.

There is certainly a solid legal argument that the Goldback is not a "coin", should the US government decide to try to block them. The fact that we are discussing them here in the "US paper money" section of this forum, rather than the "coin" section, indicates to me that all the US government has to do to prove its case is to ask an expert witness numismatist exactly what a "coin" is, and whether the Goldback is a "coin" or not.

Personal opinion: it all sounds like legal weaselry, dressed up in a gold bug costume to appeal to that demographic. And I'm not entirely sure how easy it would be in practice to recover the gold out of the notes, nor am I certain that Goldback's quality control is sufficient to guarantee the specified amounts of gold are indeed contained in each note. Meanwhile, anyone actually wanting to use them as money has to (a) find someone willing to take it, and (b) still has to carry around regular US currency to make change, since the smallest currency unit in the goldback system is 1 goldback, currently valued at US$3.99. Want to buy a $4.99 hamburger using goldbacks? That'll be one goldback and, let's see, today? Exactly one US dollar. Or two goldbacks, and you get US$2.99 in change. Of course, the price in US dollars for the hamburger will probably still be the same when you come back next week for another one, but the price in goldbacks will likely have changed with the gold price.

It was inconvenience that ultimately killed off sales tax tokens (the last attempt at issuing state-based coinage) and it is inconvenience that will be the goldback's downfall, because human history shows that when you offer people a choice between "security" and "convenience", most people choose convenience, every time.

The Goldback may serve as a currency (within certain jurisdictions where its authorized by law) or Goldbacks actually may be used almost anywhere in the world for barter transactions who recognize the value of gold should there ever be a need, and its in a spendable form actually made to include gold that is more appropriate for smaller transactions rather than say 1/2 ounce gold coin making it easier to pay for lower cost things. You can use 500 goldbacks for 500 transactions or 1/2 ounce gold for 1 unless you shave it etc. It also doesn't require 'barter' at all really - someone gives you 10 Goldbacks to pay for their $38 order, and the Goldback is worth $4 that day after you look up the exchange rate calculator https://www.goldback.com/calculator , you could enter that they gave you $40, or a coupon with a value of $40, and then give change of $2 in Federal Reserve if we are still using that currency. Also it looks like the system if its setup and currently functional is for the value of the goldback to be at the exchange rate value of the goldback rather than the value of its gold such as you would otherwise take it for melting so in that case the premium value you pay is kept when using for transactional purpose which seems where it works best. Kind of nice designs for collecting as well, the designs are here https://www.goldback.com/goldback-art-gallery its also physical like cash currently without tracking but going to have tax issues. The most comparable in a barter situation might be 1/10 oz or smaller fractional gold, 1 ounce silver rounds or junk silver, possibly copper rounds that may not be as easy to exchange? It doesn't do as well for purpose of stacking gold imo due to its premium (in the lower amounts) over the intrinsic value of the gold itself vs other means of acquiring gold unless you cant afford the products with higher amounts of gold and lower premium at all, so stack other gold and buy some of these if you want for lower end payments to transact as an alternative so far from what I see. The new notes have more security features and less issue with lamination issues compared to the ones I've played with so I'll not discuss that. Might make great gifts and introduce people into precious metals or 'sound money' discussions or other reasons. @Sap enjoy your comments, heres one part of the legal https://www.goldback.com/legal and some info on their production and what they mention as part of their quality control https://www.goldback.com/how-goldbacks-are-made

https://www.goldback.com/where-to-buy-goldbacks

interesting. I had never heard of these before. thanks for posting it!

my gut reaction is that most people dont carry cash. even before the pandemic many places were moving towards cashless. convincing people to use a more complicated version of cash that isn't universally accepted is a nonstarter. I doubt this will gain widespread acceptance.

the art is nice though.