Q: Is gold legal tender?

Article 1 Section 10 reads in part: "No state shall ... make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debt"

Can gold be used a legal tender to pay debts or obligations to the US or state governments by private citizens? Could I send a few ounces of gold to my county courthouse to pay property taxes? Or show up at the DMV counter with some gold to register my car?

The Founders totally abhorred fiat currency and reluctantly allow reedemable currency. Jefferson talked about citizens being "filched" by treasury notes (not the modern T-notes) and looking forward to getting rid of them. But do I have the right to pay my government(s) in gold? Or can I only use whatever us defined as "legal tender" (by a stamp on a piece of paper)?

You make too many assumptions.

(1) The Constitution does not limit the Federal government to gold and silver as money - it limits the abilities of the states to issue their own money in the form of anything other than gold or silver.

(2) The verb "to coin" had broader meaning in the langauge then than it does today - and it certainly had broader meaning in the English Common Law.

It could even mean the stamping of certain goods for sale with an official royal approval.

And the concept that money could only exist in the form of metal coinage would be wholly alien to the Founders - banknotes had been currency for almost a century by the time the Constitution was written.

To: cleoning
Article 1 Section 10 reads in part: “No state shall ... make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debt”
;
This just means that states can’t print their own currency. I suppose a state could pass a law allowing debts owed to the state to be paid in gold or silver, but I doubt any state does that.

That is not what it means. It is referring to legal tender not the creation or stamping of money. It says that the only money that can be used to complete a legal transaction is gold or silver.

ie: tender for payment of a debt.

tender meaning a legally recognized means of exchange.

I am not a big wiki fan but they were convenient and i will say they have it right up to this point, you can google it yourself if you feel it is incorrect.

Legal tender
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Legal tender or forced tender is payment that, by law, cannot be refused in settlement of a debt denominated in the same currency.

Legal tender is a status which may be conferred on certain examples of money, which may depend on circumstances including the amount of money. The term legal tender does not refer to the money itself.

So the congress has to power to create and regulate and both the states have the obligation and power to enforce.

The reason that precious metals are used is that there is a limited quantity of it. In a fiat system money is worthless paper that is given a ficticious value and has no real value. In addition it is money based on a system of debt, rather than equity.

Using gold and silver is “quid pro que” or equal value of gold for equal value of labor, services or product. In other words something of value for something of value exchange.

In the fiat system you are exchanging something of value, for paper with no “real” value. Something with no real value that is nothing more than an entry in a ledger book.

here is some interesting reading

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/debtfree.html

http://worldnewsstand.net/money/the-mahoney-case.html

cheers

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