New Hampshire Granites

[Russell Kanning]

The whole point of the Liberty Dollar is to allow people to use it in transactions just like they do with the FRNs, to get them used to money. Once enough people are used to actually using money again, we can convert over to a more principled currency that just uses weights.

That kinda makes sense, but if there is a more principled way to do something, then we should do that right away.

[cathleeninnh]

You aren't going to get people to use good money if bad money is accepted. IF, you refused to do business with me unless I use good money, THEN I would have to consider if doing business with you is worth the extra cost of giving up something of better value. I might with you guys, of course. With others, if they accept either, give em the junk money.

Cathleen

[Ron Helwig]

You aren't going to get people to use good money if bad money is accepted. IF, you refused to do business with me unless I use good money, THEN I would have to consider if doing business with you is worth the extra cost of giving up something of better value. I might with you guys, of course. With others, if they accept either, give em the junk money.

Which is why there's a difference between the FRN denomination od LDs and the spot price. You can get the LD at various discounts, depending on your affiliation with NORFED.

Of course most people using LDs are at least partly doing it to educate.

[tracysaboe]

You don't need a state currency. let individuals decide whatever currency they want to use.

Tracy

[Dreepa]

Message to Utopians...............


Today we have FRN, LD, silver rounds, and some other stuff.  JP is trying to offer another option.

I think I know why we can't have a libertarian/anarchist state.  It is because everyone is purer than the next, and they know the shining path of truth.  Lets just work to get things going.

[tracysaboe]

I hope you're not refering to me. I don't have a problem with JP trying to start his own currency project.

What I take issue with is somebody said we need a State currency.

And we don't. If NH secedes, it is the hope that NH won't take over that function of the fed. That people will be allowed to choose of their own accord which meadian(s) of exchange they want to use.

If some choose to use the NH GRanite, let them.

Tracy

[Caleb]

Well, at the risk of upsetting the purists ...

When NH secedes, I don't see a way around the Republic of NH doing *something* about the currency.  Ideally, they would simply demoninate a "granite" as a simple ounce of silver, and allow banks (or anyone else, for that matter) to issue notes, $100 percent redeemable in silver coin.

But if NH doesn't give their "official" support to it ... the currency is likely to be completely valueless from the standpoint of the rest of the world.

That having been said ...

If NH can resist the urge to meddle in the currency, there would be nothing to keep us from using Euros, Francs, Pounds, or even dollars to trade with the rest of the world.

Caleb

[Dreepa]

I hope you're not refering to me. I don't have a problem with JP trying to start his own currency project.

What I take issue with is somebody said we need a State currency.

And we don't. If NH secedes, it is the hope that NH won't take over that function of the fed. That people will be allowed to choose of their own accord which meadian(s) of exchange they want to use.

If some choose to use the NH GRanite, let them.

Tracy

Currency is number #998 on my list of things to fix.
I don't think that JP's Granite will ever take off.

I think that many people have libertarian pie in the sky ideas and bitch about all the problems and never do anything about  it.  They bitch unless it is 'pure'.   Well I say make it better now and work for pure later.

For example....I am fighting for lower property taxes in my town... I am trying to get 0% increase for 2006-7.  Others might say... it should be zero taxes IN reality that is not going to happen but there is a chance that we might have 0% increase.

So before everyone gets offended... if you are trying to fix things (in whatever manner you see fit).. then good on you.
If you just like to bitch then this post was for you.

I think this is why I avoided LP meetings all those years ago.  It is the reason why I wasn't going to go to porcfest... I am afraid it will be an LP bitchfest.

/off soapbox.

[Pat McCotter]

The Free Banking Era: More than 30,000 Different Notes in Circulation

Suppose you found a wallet filled with paper money sometime during the Free Banking Era, which was from 1836 to 1866. This wallet might contain a yellow two-cent note issued by the New York druggist Matthew's Bros. You also might find a three-cent note issued by the Peabody Ladies Furnishing Store in Massachusetts. The most attractive of the bunch might be a pink 25-cent note issued by the Hyson Tea Company in New York. Imagine using some of these notes to pay for something at the store! During the Free Banking Era, consumers could not be sure that merchants would accept their paper money. Although merchants were able to certify currency as genuine by consulting registries called Bank Note Reporters, approximately one-third of all paper money during the Free Banking Era was estimated to be counterfeit.

Before the Free Banking Era went into effect, it was difficult for banks to obtain a commercial charter. During the Free Banking Era, state authorities were created with the sole purpose of issuing bank charters. Any private or municipal authority could operate a bank as long as it could satisfy a minimal set of conditions. The instability of the Free Banking Era was especially obvious in the state of Michigan, where the State legislature passed the General Banking Law of 1837. This law immediately transformed Michigan's banking industry. More than 55 banks were organized in Michigan within one year of the liberal banking law--most of them with the sole purpose of issuing paper money.

Almost all of the banks formed under Michigan's General Banking Law failed or went broke within two years. Some of these "broken banks" attempted to fool bank inspectors by keeping a barrel of nails with a top layer of gold coin as their "reserves." The Bank of Battle Creek, Michigan, had its teller, Tolman W. Hall, run out the back door whenever a noteholder would enter the bank. Another unscrupulous tactic was to locate banks' main offices in remote wilderness areas. These "wildcat banks" would often shuttle the same sack of coins from one location to another to convince the occasional bank inspector that the bank was solvent. One wildcat bank, the Farmers Bank of Sandstone, reportedly offered to redeem its notes in the local merchandise: a sandstone whetstone for each one-dollar note.

[Russell Kanning]

I think this is why I avoided LP meetings all those years ago.  It is the reason why I wasn't going to go to porcfest... I am afraid it will be an LP bitchfest.

be afraid

[Ron Helwig]

paper money.

There's your problem! 

As long as certificates can be counterfeited, they will be. They will always be easier and cheaper to counterfeit than precious metal coins.

It is much more difficult to counterfeit a precious metal coin. There are simple devices available that can do a decent validation of coins.

[Dreepa]

So when I buy a car I have to bring a truck full of silver?

[Pat McCotter]

So when I buy a car I have to bring a truck full of silver?

I'll sell you a new car for 40 oz. of gold.

[AlanM]

Why a currency at all? Stores use to have "house charge" accounts, where regular trusted customers charged items and paid monthly. (or whatever the agreed upon time frame was) Why not just set up a network of similar type charge accounts, payable to a single central place on a monthly basis? Payment could be in FRNs, silver/gold, or whatever is deemed acceptable. Stores would receive their payments on a monthly basis.

[tracysaboe]

I hope you're not refering to me. I don't have a problem with JP trying to start his own currency project.

What I take issue with is somebody said we need a State currency.

And we don't. If NH secedes, it is the hope that NH won't take over that function of the fed. That people will be allowed to choose of their own accord which meadian(s) of exchange they want to use.

If some choose to use the NH GRanite, let them.

Tracy

Currency is number #998 on my list of things to fix.
I don't think that JP's Granite will ever take off.

I think that many people have libertarian pie in the sky ideas and bitch about all the problems and never do anything about  it.  They bitch unless it is 'pure'.   Well I say make it better now and work for pure later.

For example....I am fighting for lower property taxes in my town... I am trying to get 0% increase for 2006-7.  Others might say... it should be zero taxes IN reality that is not going to happen but there is a chance that we might have 0% increase.

Good for you. That's pretty much number 1 on my list too - getting rid of or lowering property taxes. I'm not knocking that.

I just don't see why we should work to create a NH money system, when it's just as easy to create a private one. Probably easier, you can just do it and no need for lobbying government.  So bravo to JP, I hope he does well. And Bravo for you too. 

I have money at number three on my list though. Right behind abolishing property taxes and government schools.

Tracy