If you revisit the US Constitution’s Article I, Section 10, Clause 1, you will see the principles of the U.S. monetary system: “No State shall… make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” According to this clause, states do not have the authority to “emit Bills of Credit.” This means that the U.S. monetary system was to be managed by the central government. Then, gold and silver were to be the only means of payment.
However, violations of the Constitution regarding money began as early as the 19th century. For example, according to the Coinage Act that was passed in 1873, the minting of US silver dollars was stopped, and only coins of lower denominations remained. It is widely believed that the 1873 Act cancelled the original bimetallic financial system or gold and silver standard, that is. Other experts, however, believe the Act substantially restricted it. On March 14, 1900, the Gold Standard Act came into effect in the US. According to the Act, gold has become the sole metal for backing and redeeming paper currency. This obviously marked the end of the bimetallism era in the US, during which silver was freely exchangeable for gold. The Gold Standard Act was an obvious violation of the Constitution, which had made both gold and silver legitimate means of payment.
Then, in 1933, gold’s status as a means of payment was threatened again. President Franklin Roosevelt’s executive order required citizens to give their gold to the Treasury in exchange for the Fed’s notes. Later, in 1934, commercial banks were also required to exchange their gold reserves—not for dollars, but for gold certificates. Not only was gold currency abolished, but private ownership of gold was effectively banned (with few exceptions). With the help of his executive order Franklin Roosevelt gave the Fed the power to print unbacked currency. Citizens’ rights to own gold began to be fully restored under President Richard Nixon. In 1975, President Gerald Ford fully legalized private gold ownership.
As I have mentioned in my other articles, the USD was later linked with gold prices during the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, during which the gold-dollar standard was established. However, the right to exchange paper dollars for the precious metal was granted only to the monetary authorities of other nations; no such exchange option was provided for American citizens. On August 15, 1971, President Nixon cancelled the direct convertibility of the USD into gold for foreign governments and central bankers.
Under President Joe Biden, efforts were made to begin developing a digital dollar. However, when Donald Trump returned to the White House, he terminated the digital dollar project. Instead, he decided to focus on supporting cryptocurrencies, stablecoins in particular.
The point I am making is that nowadays American money is very far from the idea of the US Constitution. This is particularly true given the fact that the US dollar is consistently depreciating due to inflation. Since the Fed was created in 1913, the dollar has lost over 96% of its purchasing power.
As I have mentioned in many of my previous publications before, the US dollar could lose its status as the world’s reserve currency that it gained during the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. As soon as that happens, America’s debt- fueled economy would likely face a serious crisis.
Interestingly, there were attempts to restore gold and silver as America’s official means of payment. For example, the 40th US President, Ronald Reagan, signed the Liberty Coin and the Gold Bullion Coin Acts. These laws allowed the US Mint to issue gold and silver coins that were supposed to be treated as legal tender. However, these coins never became money. Instead, they were still considered to be investment, collectible, or commemorative coins.
In October 2022, Congressman Alex Mooney of West Virginia introduced a bill to restore the gold standard, aiming to tie the USD to gold in order to cope with inflation, accumulated budget deficits, and the US monetary system’ instability. Obviously, the bill did not get sufficient support and did not become law as a result.
At the state level, however, there are significantly more politicians and officials that support the idea to recognize both gold and silver as legal tender. The Sound Money Defense League (SMDL), a public organization founded in 2014, is active in many states today. The organization’s aim is to have gold and silver recognized as money—at least at the state level for now. After the statewide recognition takes place, work can begin at the federal level. One of the SMDL’s founders is Ron Paul, a longtime congressman who tried to promote federal legislation in Congress to revive the gold standard, yet, without success. Therefore, the decision was made to continue the recognition work at the state level.
According to the SMDL’s Executive Director J.P. Cortez, by mid-2025, 12 U.S. states had signed laws restoring gold’s and silver’s money status. Meanwhile, similar laws were being prepared in 32 America’s states. As Cortez said: “The main reason gold and silver are not used as money today is not that they make for poor money, but rather that the government has burdened all viable alternatives with taxes and regulations.”
Here are the steps one has to take to give gold and silver the status of money. First, it is necessary to eliminate taxes on the purchase, sale, and other transactions involving gold and silver. Second, is to abolish taxes on capital gains arising from the appreciation of precious metal bars or coins. Finally, the government can recognize the precious metals as money. If the monetary status of precious metals gets legalized, this does not mean that they must physically circulate in the form of coins. Gold and silver can exist in paper or electronic form but remain freely convertible into the physical precious metals. However, establishing such a monetary system requires the creation and equipping of specialized precious metal depositories within the states, managed by state financial agencies or treasuries. According to the latest data, 45 out of 50 states have already taken the first step—abolishing taxes on gold and silver transactions.
The greatest resistance to the return of precious metals to the realm of money is observed in states such as California, Maine, and Vermont, while states such as Wyoming, South Dakota, and Alaska have made the most progress in legalizing gold and silver as money. Wyoming recently established a $10 million gold reserve, while Utah created a $180 million physical gold fund. Even though these amounts may seem to be moderate, a start has been made.
In May 2025, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law recognizing gold and silver as legal tender within the state but it officially took effect on July 1 of this year. Under the law, coins bearing information regarding their weight, purity, and place of minting are recognized as legal tender. Although the law does not require the acceptance of gold as payment, it still serves as an alternative payment method subject if the parties involved agree.
Also, in Alaska, following a lengthy process that began back in 2023, a law was finally passed that also gives gold and silver the currency status.
SMDL is currently working to promote the “Goldback”, a local product that possesses characteristics of both a commodity and currency in several states. It takes the form of a banknote but contains a small amount of 24-karat gold. A single Goldback note contains 1/1,000 of a troy ounce of the precious metal, making its value easy to calculate: it is simply the spot price of gold divided by 1,000. Right now, the official price of gold is lingering near the $4,500 per troy ounce mark. So, right now, the value of a Goldback note is equivalent to $4.50.
These gold notes are produced by the private mint Valaurum. However, some refer to the Goldback as a “coin” rather than a “banknote.” In the former case, it is said to be “printed,” while in the latter, it is “minted.” The Goldback was first issued in Utah in 2019. Later, special series were produced for Nevada, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Florida, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Idaho. According to Goldback Inc., as of April 2026, more than 5,000 businesses across the US accept Goldback as a form of payment.
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