I’ve recently learned of a bill in the state of Idaho to make gold and silver legal tender. This article, https://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/02/idaho-constitutional-money-act-would-recognize-gold-and-silver-as-legal-tender/, describes it and mentions that, “The passage of H177 would make Idaho the sixth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender, as they always should have been doing. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011.  Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana have since joined.”

Simply citing those examples should pique the interest of people everywhere and encourage similar action by the remaining states. If six states can do it, why not every state?

These developments are encouraging, not because metallic money will circulate widely, but because it establishes a proper measure of value and unit of account in which to denominate credit obligations which are the true media of exchange. Coins do not even need to be minted to serve that purpose, they only need to be defined as a specified weight of silver of such and such fineness. The definition that seems most appropriate to adopt is the definition of the US Dollar that was established early in the history of the United States. As I related in my new, revised Chapter 9—The Evolution of Money—From Commodity Money to Credit Money and Beyond:

“To complete the task of defining the monetary unit for the United States in a way that would not disturb commerce, a committee was commissioned to survey the money stock and assay a representative sampling of Spanish dollar coins so that the American dollar would closely approximate those coins already in circulation. This was easily accomplished, and it was quickly settled that the United States dollar should be defined as a silver coin containing 371.25 grains of fine silver. Coins were subsequently minted according to that specification along with gold coins valued in dollars. As the country developed, various expedients were implemented to make money more abundant.”

Once such a standard gets established somewhere, it will be widely adopted elsewhere; that will then lead eventually to a more stable composite standard being defined and adopted.

A state can then encourage municipal governments or private businesses enterprises within the state to issue, individually or collectively, their own credit vouchers denominated in terms of said silver dollar units by spending them into circulation as partial or full payment to suppliers of material inputs to production and to employees and other service providers. Those vouchers can then circulate as money to settle obligations of other actors in the economy. The state government could accept said vouchers, in whole or in part, as payment for taxes, fees, and other obligations due to the state government or the state government might even consider issuing its own modified Tax anticipation warrants (TAWs) in the form of paper notes, ledger entries, or digital tokens denominated in terms of said silver dollar units.

People will accept these modified TAW and use them to pay one another because the warrants can be used to pay taxes and fees that are due to the issuing State government, or to pay private vendors of goods and services. When the government eventually accepts them back as payment for taxes and fees, the warrants are retired. In the interim period between their issuance and their retirement, the warrants can circulate throughout the region as an independent means of payment among the population. As the TAW mature/expire, new series of TAW may be issued in amounts that are not excessive in relation to anticipated revenues.

As the people at large come to better understand and trust the validity and benefits of these payment media, they will increasingly use them in place of national fiat currencies in business dealing within the region, and in doing so will achieve a greater measure of local self-reliance and control over their own affairs.