As a consequence,
not many are aware that the wording on U.S. Currency has gone through a number
of changes over the last 100 years. In the
beginning, any “paper” currency was essentially a promise that the government
treasury held an equivalent amount of gold and/or silver equal to the face
value stated on the paper. The dollar value
of gold or silver was fixed by the U.S. Treasury and known to all.
Not too long after
the creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1913, the wording on a gold or
silver certificate was replaced with a “Federal Reserve Note”. Even then it was technically supposed to
represent an amount of solid (metal) currency on deposit in the Treasury of the
United States. The final blow to a valid
currency was the imprint, “legal tender for all debts public or private”. Now as citizens we had finally been had. The paper we were using to pay bills, etc.,
had no intrinsic value. The government
declared it to be “legal tender” but with no backing, real or imagined. There was no indication on the printed paper
that it was convertible into “real money.”
Thus, if you wished
to “convert” your paper into hard currency, you might be surprised to find out
that you could not do so, even if you demanded that you receive metal in an
equivalent amount to the face of the paper you wished to surrender. The coins you would receive are no longer
“solid” metal with intrinsic or real value. They are laminated metal coins (called
“clad”) stamped by the same mint that used to produce real money. Instead, because they are now bimetallic,
they are worth in the marketplace only the basic value of the metals contained,
irrespective of the amount stamped on their face. By government
diktat they are useable for their face value in payment of debts, public
or private!
Here are the facts: “The
Congress shall have Power To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of
foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures . . .” (Art. I, Sec, 8) In short, only Congress can
decide what your money is worth. No such
power is granted any other body, including the Federal Reserve.
Article I, Sec. 10
states “ . . . No States shall . . . coin money; emit Bills of Credit; make any
Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts . . .”
Not only have we
“strayed” from the direction provided by the Founders, we have been subjected
to the wisdom of the
liberal economist and fiat money banks where today the paper dollar you hold in
your hand is worth only 2
cents in hard currency as compared to its value and, more importantly, its
purchasing power in 1913. How has this
happened and why didn’t you notice? The
simplest explanation is “planned inflation.”
All governments like inflation: they can “borrow” money at the current
day’s interest rate and repay it later with the same number of dollars but
which cost them less since they are worth less.
The Federal Reserve has stated repeatedly that they are “shooting” for
an inflation rate of 2%. Doesn’t sound
like much, but over the years it has taken its toll and we are now at the level
noted above.
©Copyright
2015 Hillard W.Welch
