Gold & Silver Are Now Legal Tender In Florida

On Tuesday this week, Florida's governor signed CS/HB 999 into law to begin the process of recognizing gold and silver as "legal tender". This means gold and silver coins can again be used to buy and sell things, or to pay state taxes. Florida is the twelfth state to declare such recognition, and will begin minting its own gold and silver coins by July 1, 2026.

Other states recently declaring gold and silver "legal tender" are: Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, West Virginia, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Texas and Utah have even created their own bullion depositories, otherwise known as a bullion bank.

So what? What is "legal tender" anyway?

Well, in simple terms, it is an official declaration of something as "money". Having this legal tender designation means the value of that thing can go up (or down) and there will be no capital gain or loss. Today, if you hold an ounce of gold you purchased for $3000, and sell it for $3500 (i.e. bought something else valued at $3500 with your ounce of gold), you would owe taxes on the $500 difference.

Given the dollar's 99% depreciation since 1914, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could deduct that loss? Unfortunately, because the U.S. Dollar is also a declared form of legal tender, deducting losses in its value is illegal.

Legal tender status also means Florida residents can pay taxes with that form of money. In this case, state taxes, not federal.

When I look at America's history, I am not sure why this is so unusual. Article 1, Section 10, of the U.S. Constitution still says:

"No State shall..... make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts."

This means the ONLY thing states can declare as money is gold and silver coin. How is it then that the U.S. Dollar can be considered money? After all, it's not gold or silver. And since 1971, gold or silver don't even back the dollar!

This is where I believe the authors of our Constitution erred in their wording. The Constitution says "No State shall.....". In various court cases over this question, the courts made clear that the federal government is not a state. Therefore, the federal government would not be held to the same constitutional intent, and could therefore issue any form of money, not limiting to just gold or silver. It is our federal government that issues the U.S. dollar, and they revoked the use of gold and silver coin as legal tender in 1933.

Because the federal government has created so many dollars, the dollar's value has been decimated. It no longer makes sense for you or I to "save money" because our money goes down in value every day. Eventually, as the dollar becomes worth less, the pace of its decline will accelerate to the point where the dollar becomes worthless. This is the root cause of inflation. As the dollar becomes worth less, it takes more and more of them to buy something.

States like Florida now recognize this decay of the dollar, and are choosing to protect themselves by introducing an alternate form of money should our dollar inevitably collapse. There is no possible way to fund the $37 TRILLION federal debt without further lowering the dollar's value.

Throughout our world history, there have been over 30,000 known fiat currencies. A fiat currency means a currency declared by law, where people use it as money because the government says it is money. Fiat currency is not backed by anything else of value. Of the 30,000, none have survived indefinitely, with an average lifespan of 30 years. The longest lifespan was 300 years. As a fiat currency, the U.S. dollar is now 54 years old. Historically, we are overdue for a significant change in our financial system.

The states declaring gold and silver as "legal tender" will be the winners in the future of finance. By having a stable currency like gold, their inflation rate will be zero, and their economies will remain strong. Gold and silver have a 6000 year history of success.

I would like nothing more than to see our federal government declare not only gold and silver as "legal tender", but also Bitcoin. Why not offer choices, as is expected in a free economy? Why do we allow banks to have a monopoly on money? Even with the monopoly they have, they have ruined America by destroying and inflating our currency!

The issue is this. If we had sound money like gold and silver, or Bitcoin, everyone would immediately sell their depreciating dollars in exchange for gold and silver, or Bitcoin. Who wants to hold something going down in value (dollars) when you can have something that retains value?

Yes, the biggest opponents of gold and silver, as well as Bitcoin, are the banks. (JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon calls on US to stockpile bullets, rare earth instead of bitcoin) Collectively, this is known as the Federal Reserve System. A system which is neither federal (it is not part of the government), and nor do they have any reserves! The money they lend you is created from thin air, where they charge real interest on their fake money.

For more information, watch this short talk by Florida's Governor DeSantes as he signed the bill into law on Tuesday:

DeBanking: DeSantis says gold & silver are "legal tender" (Youtube)