The American Liberty Dollar

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The Constitution? Or the Liberty dollar?    Either way I agree with you.

The Constitution. I like silver.

[KBCraig]

Constitutionally, the states aren't allowed to require that debts be tendered in pieces of paper. But, they may allow debts to be paid in wampum, chickens, or FRNs.

[Paul Comeau Jr]

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.


Hmmm ... it seems that a state can make gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.  But it cannot coin money.  I'm not well enough versed in the terminology to grok exactly what this implies.

In Article 1 Section 10 of the Constitution (stated above), the term "coin" (with a small c) is not the same as the term "Coin" (with a capital C). The first term "coin" (with the small c) is a verb, which means "to make, create or fabricate something (not necessarily money, even though that's what the Constitution is referring to); where as the second term "Coin" (with the capital C) is a noun specifically meaning "a round piece of metal issued by a government to be used as money". Case in point regarding the first "coin" definition, anyone who has ever played Trivial Pursuit will remember sometimes drawing a card that asks the question "Who was the person that coined the phrase......?". So as you can see, the two terms used in this Section are not the same. Now, it is my belief that the Founding Fathers put this clause into the Constitution to restrict the States from making their own money as they did prior to the Constitution. During the first 10-12 years of our country, the Supreme Law of the Land was known as the Articles of Confederation. And during that time, each state printed their own money called Colonial Script, which was made out of thin air and backed by nothing. Now because there were no restrictions or accountability on how much they could create, they went hog-wilded and kept making more and more and more....until the money became completely worthless and the economy crumbled (much like the FRN (we use to today) are doing to our economy). So the Founding Fathers decided to add this clause to establish a more controlled, honest, morale and valuable form of currency that would provide us with a more stable and prosperous life. So the Constitution prevents the States from "coining Money (round pieces of metal specific to their state only); emit (or issue) Bills of Credit (fiat paper money similar to the Colonial Script); or make any Thing (generic metal, wood, etc.) but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; that would cause a repeat of our past economic failure. So where did we go wrong?

[dalebert]

I believe I mentioned this elsewhere, but a bit of trivia:

The original Wizard of Oz children's book is widely believed to be a political allegory relating to currency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

The book opens not in an imaginary place but in real life Kansas, which in the 1890s was well-known for the hardships of rural life, and for destructive tornadoes. The Panic of 1893 caused widespread distress in rural America. Dorothy is swept away to a colorful land of unlimited resources that nevertheless has serious political problems.[1] This utopia is ruled in part by people designated as wicked. Dorothy and her cyclone kill the Wicked Witch of the East. The Witch had previously controlled the all-powerful silver slippers (which were changed to ruby in the 1939 film). The Wicked Witch of the West tries to seize the silver slippers, but cannot because they are already on Dorothy's feet. The slippers will in the end liberate Dorothy but first she must walk in them down the golden yellow brick road, i.e. she must take silver down the path of gold, the path of free coinage. Following the road of gold leads eventually only to the Emerald City, which may symbolize the fraudulent world of greenback paper money that only pretends to have value, or may symbolize the greenback value that is placed on gold (and for silver, possibly).

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The ability of humans to see patterns, whether they are present or not, never ceases to amaze me.

[penguins4me]

Do you think it would be a good idea to leave a portion of tips in ALDs? Since, technically, you don't have to leave a tip, couldn't you use them in that case?

Huh, very interesting point. In fact, I may start doing that with silver rounds in general, but it would likely be very wise to leave a little note attached explicitly stating that the funny coin is silver and what it is approximately worth, based on a recent spot quote. For that matter, including a website address and/or a brief rundown of why fiat currency is bad might be informative, too.

*goes off to check bank balance and spot prices*

[Paul Comeau Jr]

I've been doing that already, leaving a portion of tips in ALDs. Done it several times at Applebees in Hooksett, NH, several restaurants in North Conway including an Applebees and Friendly's when I was on vacation up there, even at many Dunkin Donuts locations throughout NH. The one question I have is "What are these people doing with the ALDs once they get them?" Do they investigate them? Do they set them aside? Do they throw them away thinking they are a joke? I would like to know.

[Ron Helwig]

I think what we need is a small card to go with the tips with a very short explanation and a URL for more info.

Also, the 1$ Copper Liberties might be good to use as partial tips.

[FTL_Ian]

I've been doing that already, leaving a portion of tips in ALDs. Done it several times at Applebees in Hooksett, NH, several restaurants in North Conway including an Applebees and Friendly's when I was on vacation up there, even at many Dunkin Donuts locations throughout NH. The one question I have is "What are these people doing with the ALDs once they get them?" Do they investigate them? Do they set them aside? Do they throw them away thinking they are a joke? I would like to know.

If you want servers to take your Liberty Dollars seriously, leave one dollar in addition to the tip.  That way, instead of being upset that you did not tip them the full 15%, they will be appreciative of the full tip and instantly curious about the Liberty Dollar.

[Dreepa]

I think what we need is a small card to go with the tips with a very short explanation and a URL for more info.

Also, the 1$ Copper Liberties might be good to use as partial tips.

yeah a slick business card would be a great idea.
Kinda like the 'liberty card'... but dealing with the LD.

[Paul Comeau Jr]

I agree with Ron. A card briefly explaining LDs and their role in the economy would make a great companion to the Silver Certificates or Liberties given as tips to our fellow hard working Americans.

And yes, the wait staff should not get a majority of their tip in LDs just yet. We don't want them feeling as though they got cheated without them fully understanding the concept and benefits of the LDs. At this early stage of introducing the LD to the NH economy, putting a bad taste in people's mouths just might turn them off from ever researching and eventually supporting the Liberty Dollar. We want educate the community, not piss them off. I, myself, only leave a $1 Silver Certificate in addition to the FRN tip for a couple of reasons. 1) I mentioned above regarding the wait staff feeling cheated and 2) if I spend more on just one person, that limits my ability to introduce the LD to as many people as I can.

[jaqeboy]

I think what we need is a small card to go with the tips with a very short explanation and a URL for more info.

Also, the 1$ Copper Liberties might be good to use as partial tips.

at the Common Man, Concord, Wed. night: left tip of $1FRN + $1LD Copper + 1 Deception Dollar - that ought to keep the bartender busy for a while! 

[mvpel]

Following the road of gold leads eventually only to the Emerald City, which may symbolize the fraudulent world of greenback paper money  that only pretends to have value, or may symbolize the greenback value that is placed on gold (and for silver, possibly).

What's interesting, too, is that the only reason the Emerald City appears to be green is because of the spectacles locked onto the heads of everyone visiting.  The spectacles are putatively to protect visitors and residents from the "overwhelming brilliance" of the city, but actually just make everything appear to be green when it's actually plain white - a fraud, in other words.

[Bald Eagle]

I whanged out a little prototype for a Liberty Dollar Gift Card.
I based it on a $5 silver Liberty, and I'll work on adjusting it for other LD's

It holds onto the round pretty well when only printed out on standard printer paper (cuts are made on the 45-degree grey lines with a razor), so I think they'll work out nicely when printed on a good card stock.

Any suggestions for improvements / redesign?

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[Jacobus]

Nice job on the card.  Here are some comments:

Front side:

- I like the layout
- It should be 99.9 % instead of 99.999 %
- Instead of "give you a gift of $___", you might simply offer to exchange it for full face value of FRNs.  You might also consider leaving out this entire sentence.  It is, after all, a gift.

Back side:

- Too much stuffed in there.  I'm not sure if people would really read all of this.  I would suggest instead making a bullet-point list of Liberty Dollar features.  This might work better if printing in the other orientation.

- I would suggest leading them only to NHLibertyDollar.com.  Also mention that they can find local merchants accepting Liberty Dollars there.