Wyoming House Alternative Currency Task Force, House Bill 85

I think it makes good sense. Even if nothing ever happens,it may help the states fine tune the bureaucracies they have and help them see deficiencies. A thorough self-assessment is never a bad idea,we as individuals do it all the time(at least I and my family do).

Perhaps they could raise money by issuing copper, silver and gold tokens at first to raise money. God knows, I would buy one! But there should be some affordable items also!
The possibilities are endless...also, why NOT make a competing currency? Competition is healthy...

I genuinely believe they should have more pressing things to consider. I suspect that this is all for show since they aren't actually funding the task force that they seek to create.

Private individuals and corporations like NORFED are allowed to attempt to make their own alternative currencies, so long as they don't resemble US legal tender too closely - and "Liberty Dollars" were indeed way too close.

But state governments aren't allowed to do so. By the US Constitution (Article 1 Sect. 10), states cannot "coin money, emit bills of credit" or declare anything but gold and silver coins (which they aren't allowed to make themselves, remember - that would be "coining money") legal tender.

So the steps that have to happen for Wyoming to issue its own currency are:

1. Secede from the United States.

2. Write a new Constitution for Wyoming that gives itself the authority to issue legal tender coins and notes.

3. Issue the coins and notes.

Alternatively, Wyoming could join with the other states wishing to issue their own currencies and lobby Congress to get the constitutional obstruction removed. Or if two-thirds of US states all wanted to issue currency, they could force Congress to call a constitutional convention on the issue.

Ok what makes headlines like this a joke is this - strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.

What are they going to float these things in these rivers? Bighorn River, Green River, Belle Fourche River, Powder River, North Platte River.

Oh wait they have some lakes - Yellowstone Lake, Glendo Reservoir, Bighorn Lake, Boysen Reservoir, Flaming Gorge Reservoir, Seminoe Reservoir, Alcova Reservoir, Keyhole Reservoir.

Well, sure. They can do that right now, without any special legislation at all. So long as they never call them "coins" or "money" or any synonym thereof, or attempt to pass laws recognising them as legal tender in payments, public or private. That would make them "money", by any reasonable definition. A currency unit called the "Wyoming ounce" would be just as unconstitutional as a currency unit called the "Wyoming dollar" or "Wyoming whatchamacallit".

But what's in it for the state to do this? Where's their profit? They'd have to pay to buy the silver, pay for the diework, pay to get the silver minted into coin, pay for whatever sales and distribution system they implement... all to see the wretched things sold for maybe a tiny percentage above bullion value? They'd make a loss on each one. Many of them would be souvenired by coin collectors and tourists, so they'd need to make a lot more than they'd really need for commerce. Making "money" is supposed to be profitable for a government, thanks to seigniorage. If there's no face value, there can't be any seigniorage. If it costs them too much money, no state is going to be bothered with introducing such a scheme.



Ah, the Upham defence. Wouldn't have helped Upham if the Confederates had ever gotten their hands on him. Didn't help the makers of Evasion tokens in Britain in the late 1700's, either. And if the state even hints anywhere in it's promotional material that the intent of such "medals" is to be used as money, that defence goes out the window. How is a currency whose existence is a state secret supposed to catch on with the general public?

There are further legal problems. Take counterfeiting. If there's no official recognition of them as "money", then counterfeiting them isn't a crime, is it? The state could write its own laws criminalizing the issue and use as money of "counterfeit medals" (all the while managing to stay quiet about using "real medals" as money) but how will that stop, say, a neighbouring state from making cheap fakes and flooding the market with them? This was a major problem in China in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Chinese provinces were ruled by rival warlords.



So, you're really advocating the state issue three new currency units: the gold ounce, silver ounce and copper ounce, with no fixed exchange rate between each other or the US dollar? The state couldn't fix exchange rates, or even publish a list of officially recognised exchange rates, without risking the "medals" being considered "money". People would have to work out the exchange rates for themselves. How many storekeepers are going to enjoy posting four different values on their merchandise, constantly changing them as their values go up and down with respect to each other? Ultimately, people will choose to use an alternative money system only if it is more convenient than what they currently have, and this doesn't sound convenient at all.

Don't get me wrong - I would love it if the United States fragmented into dozens of warring petty states, each issuing their own coinage. That would be many more countries for me to collect. I'm just pointing out there are legal and technical obstacles to overcome before this happens, the biggest of which is the US Constitution.

EXACTLY!



That is correct. These would be state medallions, nothing more. But it is likely that individuals would enter into barter arrangements with each other using these are media of exchange. They would do this by free will and not because any government entity requires them to be recognized as money, currency, legal tender, etc.



There would be profit in the making and selling of collectible medallions. If and when the US dollar collapses, THEN they would be available to be money and likely acclaimed as such. Until then, they are just medallions.



States, counties, and cities are notorious for spending money on things that do not create wealth. This would not be terribly exceptional.



And the American founding fathers would all have been hung as traitors to the crown if captured by the British.



Good point. I'm not saying that there would not be problems associated with any of this but am dubious as to whether they would be insurmountable.



Precisely! The state should not be in the business of setting exchange rates. Let the free market do that. No coercion needed.



Perhaps there would be a lot less of this bouncing up and down of prices under such a system? Without trying it, no one will ever know for certain. As to convenience, yes, that is an issue but certainly not the only one. Digital money is VERY convenient but loss or theft of it becomes a lot easier too. Some people would like to eliminate coins and currency altogether and go 100% digital with money. Unfortunately, that seems like an idea that solves some problems but also creates many others. Is there a perfect currency system? No... and the one that we have now is a LONG ways from it.



Something tells me that you would be in a rather small minority with that. Of course, North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, and Venezuela would absolutely love it.



I don't think that anyone would seriously dispute that. I know that I am not. I'm only saying that we need to look at LOTS of alternatives to the current US monetary system because what we have is in serious jeopardy of falling apart as we speak. Paper currencies can and have been printed to extinction and it looks a lot as if the US is trying hard to join that group. I have seen pictures of those $1,000,000,000,000 Zimbabwe bank notes and have no desire to see the US dollar in a similar fix. If, however, that were to happen, what then? Obviously, the dollar would have to be replaced by a new US currency but it would have to have at least some inherent value or people would not trust it as a store of value any more than they did the old collapsed dollar. If that turned out to be a commodity backed currency of some type, well, money has been made from gold, silver, and copper for a LONG time.

As to the US Constitution... people seem to bring this up as a matter of convenience. When it suits what they want to do, then it is the By Golly Law of The Land! When it opposes what they want to do, then it is an out-dated document that hasn't kept up with the times and we should just go ahead and do what we believe is right whether or not the constitution allows it. Cynic or keen observer? Arguments can be made for both, I suppose.