Sideshow Bobby is at it again.  This time he wants to mint our own money here in Virginia–Not real money but not exactly funny money either.  Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13)  wants to not only mint our own coins but he also wants to establish a bank of Virginia.  From insidenova.com:

The 20-year veteran plans to introduce legislation during the Jan. 12 session of the General Assembly that would call for the Commonwealth to study minting its own coins in order to compete with what he calls “the monopoly of the Federal Reserve System.”

“We can’t mint money, but we can mint gold and silver coins,” Marshall said Wednesday night. “It sounds like a small difference, but it is a difference legally. If you look closely on a [dollar] bill, it doesn’t say that it’s money. It says it is legal tender ‘for all debts, public and private.’”

Marshall said that the Federal Reserve has created inflation that is detrimental to the economy because there is no competition in terms of payment.

“When you have a monopoly, you can do what ever you want,” he said of the Reserve.
The minting of gold and silver coins, which he compared to that of companies making commemorative coins, is something states can legally do as long as the coins meet the weight requirements.

And minting coins is just the first step.

“Obviously, it won’t always be convenient to carry around gold and silver coins,” Marshall said. “You could set up a debit system where you’d have a claim of gold or silver deposited with the trustee.”

Marshall would also like to see a bank of Virginia established.

What will Bob Marshall think of next?  Where is the features, advantages, benefits plan?  What’s in it for Virginians?  Is this just another way to get sued by the feds?  Marshall and Cuccinelli are the Frick and Frack of Virginia politics.  Next thing I know he will come up with a secessionist plan all our very own. 

Delegate Marshall need to go to Richmond and work on jobs and transportation.  He needs to figure out ways to support education and repay the VRS fund.  He needs to help his colleagues develop a plan to lure companies into Virginia to pump up our economy.  We don’t need bad publicity to drive them away.  He and the AG seem to be trying to out do each other on extremist plans to embarrass the state.  What is he thinking?!! 

49 Thoughts to “Minting our own Funny Money”

  1. BS in VA

    People anywhere can already get bags and bags of gold and pre-1964 silver American coins from coin dealers and eBay anytime they want. Marshall thinks out of the box (the nut box) again.

  2. Pat.Herve

    and all along I thought Marshall was a smaller government type of guy…. The minting costs, trustee costs and maintenance costs will be absorbed by who?

  3. LMFAO! I am not usually that vocal against Marshall, but it’s safe to say, his cheese has officially slipped off his cracker.

  4. What is his objective? Why as Virginians would we want that to happen?
    That’s what I can’t figure out.

  5. Cindy B

    Oh, heck, let’s jump off the cracker with him and offer Old Town Manassas as his lab case. We can mint our own historic money with visages for the sesquicentennial, much as the Pope mints money in Vatican City — but you can only spend it in the historic district. There’s at least three banks in Old Town, one might be willing to partner if they can sell the money at a profit. It’s been done in other communities in the US. If I was a tourist, I’d want to play along, but I’d take it home as a souvenir. Everyone’s a winner — he gets his study, Old Town makes a profit, and tourists go home happy.

  6. BS in VA

    Heck, I might as well mint my own money. Wait a minute—- It’s all ready done, they are called checks.

  7. Censored bybvbl

    I can hardly wait to take my Virginia minted gold coin into 7-11 and wait for the clerk to count out the change for my Slurpee purchase!

  8. @Cindy B
    Now THAT’S and idea whose time has come, Cindy! I LOVE IT!

  9. Cindy B

    It’s not new – other small communities are doing it.

  10. Or you guys could just become Chuckie Cheese and serve pizza.

  11. @Moon-howler
    Our cheese has slipped off our pizza so we get paid in tokens?

  12. Cato the Elder

    @Cindy B is right on the money. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BerkShares. In effect, the consumer gets a 5% discount from local businesses for using the currency.

    This isn’t such a nutty idea. It give people incentive to keep money in their local community/region/state.

    1. Paying for it state wide might make it a nutty idea. I don’t see the point.

  13. marinm

    Without knowing the actual plan I can see a positive and negative to this.

    The negative is government interference in the private market. I don’t care that bankers can be fat cats – good on them. I have an issue with the government trying to compete with them.

    The positive is this may encourage more domestic (Virginia) commerce and MAY operate much like a cooperative or credit union.

    So, I’d like to know more about what he’s planning before taking a side. The idea of Virginia money is interesting (though I can already see people making fun of it by making reference to money printed with the Stars and Bars or using ol’ CSA money) in that many communities use it to encourage local commerce and tourism.

    ALl boils down to…what’s the plan and endgame?

  14. […] out there today questioning his sanity, or using it as a convenient excuse to engage in a little snarky name calling (BTW – “Sideshow Bob” is every bit as clever today as is was when it was first […]

  15. Steve Thomas

    @Cindy B

    Cindy,

    I am very familiar with an establishment that mints and distributes it’s own coinage…Chuck E Cheese.

  16. Steve Thomas

    Seriously, this may not be a kookie as some are making it out to be. The US has only used fiat currency since 1971, when Nixon moved us off the old standard. There is a growing movement advocating the return to a currency backed by tangible wealth, as a means to avoid inflation, and maintain primacy of the dollar as the worlds reserve currency. “Money” is nothing more than an agreement between all parties that a thing can be representative of value, but the “thing” itself has little or no intrinsic value. If you look at the scale of complexity of an economic system, from low-complexity “barter for gods and services” to high-complexity “Electronic Credits” the medium of exchange becomes thinner the more complex the system becomes. The biggest driver is “convenience”. If my medium is salt, as it once was in acnient times, it had intrinsic value. I could use it as salt, or trade it for goods and services, because it was a tangible item with real value. It was easily divided into smaller units. The problem was it was bulky, and fragile if exposed to moisture. Gold, Silver and other rare metals were used because they had percieved value. Ask yourself “why?” You can make stuff with it, like jewelry, but beyond that, why do we all value it? “Coinage” is nothing more than taking a large piece of some metal, precious or otherwise, and subdividing it into standardized units of measure, that are easily recognizable as having value. If they are made from a precious metal, they are not fiat currencies. If they are made of a common metal, but redeemable for an agreed upon amount of a precious metal, then they are currency. If the coin is made of a common metal, and redeemable for nothing, then they are fiat currency…backed by faith alone.

    So the real question is, if VA produces coins made from a precious metal in a standardized weight and measure, and citizens are willing to accept them as payment for goods and services, where is the harm? I would only see real issues if VA decided it would only accept these coins and not “greenbacks”, or offerred no method of conversion from “greenbacks” to gold coin, ie. currency exchange which would violate the commerce clause of the Constitution.

  17. Only the Congress is authorized to coin money, defined as gold and silver. So Virginia would have to issue its own fiat money based on value to gold and silver. Interestingly, the feds have never clarified if gold is still money or not. If it is money, then a $5 gold coin is worth five bucks. If it is not, then when was the Amendment passed that removed that definition from the Constitution?

  18. Cindy B

    How did I make it through parenthood with just one trip to Chuck E. Cheese?

  19. Steve Thomas

    Cargo,

    Mel Tappan wrote there was a time when a $20-bill and a $20 gold piece had equal value, and would buy you a really nice suit. Now, a $20-bill will only buy you a cheap tie, but a $20-gold piece will buy the suit, a tie, a couple of shirts, and suspenders. What changed it the move to fiat currency. While I can see where the fed gets exclusive power to “coin money”, as the original definition of “money” was understood at the time, but have never figured out where they derive the power to print fiat currency. It’s only “money” as long as the citizenry will accept it as such, since it has no intrinsic value, nor is it redeemable on demand for a certain amount of tangible gold, silver, etc.

  20. Lafayette

    Cindy B :How did I make it through parenthood with just one trip to Chuck E. Cheese?

    Cindy, If your like me, once was ENOUGH and vowed I would NEVER subject myself to that again. I’m thankful for my “brave” family and friends that took the Queen.

  21. Steve Thomas

    I took Mrs. T

    Lafayette :

    Cindy B :How did I make it through parenthood with just one trip to Chuck E. Cheese?

    Cindy, If your like me, once was ENOUGH and vowed I would NEVER subject myself to that again. I’m thankful for my “brave” family and friends that took the Queen.

    I took Mrs T there for her birthday one year, way before we had kids. She’d never went as a kid. I surprised her, and she loved it.

  22. Big Dog

    http://www.leesburgva.org/index.aspc?page=597

    Even better, let local jurisdictions print “dog money”!

  23. Gainesville Resident

    Lafayette :

    Cindy B :How did I make it through parenthood with just one trip to Chuck E. Cheese?

    Cindy, If your like me, once was ENOUGH and vowed I would NEVER subject myself to that again. I’m thankful for my “brave” family and friends that took the Queen.

    I went there once with my brother and his children. NEVER AGAIN!

  24. Raymond Beverage

    I think Bob has tossed out the Consititution and carrying around a copy of the Articles of Confederation instead. The Articles permit both the States and Congress to coin money.

  25. Raymond Beverage

    If we get “dog money” in Manassas, I nominate Big Dog as the Banker!!!!

  26. Lafayette

    Steve Thomas :I took Mrs. T

    Lafayette :

    Cindy B :How did I make it through parenthood with just one trip to Chuck E. Cheese?

    Cindy, If your like me, once was ENOUGH and vowed I would NEVER subject myself to that again. I’m thankful for my “brave” family and friends that took the Queen.

    I took Mrs T there for her birthday one year, way before we had kids. She’d never went as a kid. I surprised her, and she loved it.

    Wow!! What a surprise for Mrs. T. I bet your scored major points for that one. What a very thoughtful thing to do for the Mrs. There are some places I simply can’t tolerate the noise. However, I could have the metal cranked up all day and wouldn’t think twice about. 🙂

  27. Lafayette

    Steve,
    Wow!! What a surprise for Mrs. T. I bet your scored major points for that one. What a very thoughtful thing to do for the Mrs. There are some places I simply can’t tolerate the noise. However, I could have the metal cranked up all day and wouldn’t think twice about. 🙂
    Chris

  28. Lafayette

    Gainesville,
    I’m glad I’m not the “lone ranger” on Chuck E Cheese. Well, there are at least three of us in the “Once Was Enough Club”.

  29. Red Dawn

    Chuck E Cheese was fun when the kids were little but we only visited a few times @ the Fairfax & Herndon locations. I never made it to Dave and Busters though. I liked the skee-ball best 🙂

  30. Someone tell me why VA would want to waste more time and money just to mint its own money. The entire idea seems like just that–a waste. Can we please get down to some real business like fixing the roads? Or will we have to pay tolls with VA certified gold coins?

  31. @Cargosquid
    She must be. I endured more than a dozen CC birthday parties plus various visits.

    In cast you ever have to do it again, go when CC’s first opens. You practically have the place to yourself at 10 or 11 a.m. Then you can get out before the first screamers come in. And what kid will refuse pizza for brunch?

  32. Red Dawn

    Posting as Pinko,

    Yes, Timing is everything! 🙂

  33. […] Moon-howler reacts predicably, Minting our own Funny Money.  […]

  34. @Posting as Pinko
    we only go when its ANOTHER’S kid’s birthday. We have gone to Dave and Busters. Better place and better food.

  35. marinm

    D&B is great but I dare not travel into the Peoples Repulick if I can avoid it.. Kinda neat that CC hand stamps kids/adults..

  36. Starryflights

    How is that “euro” thing working out for Europe? Not very well, I hear. Why in the world would Virginians want to ditch the dollar?

  37. Starry, I don’t think he is suggesting we go THAT far. Not even Sideshow Bob would do that, I don’t think.

  38. marinm

    I would agree with MH. The federales will only accept cash or payments otherwise based on the dollar.

    Just because you give me a chicken in trade for me fixing your computer doesn’t mean the IRS will take the same deal. 😉 Or, in this case Virginian dollars.

    What’s interesting is the amount of greenies that may end up supporting this plan if it ever comes up for a vote. Buying/selling locally supports the tree hugger hippy crowd because things are grown/built locally for local consumption.

  39. Maybe they’ll take the Chinese yuan…..

    Buying locally doesn’t only support the tree hugger hippy crowd. It also supports the local capitalist pig profit mongers, my favorite crowd. And that’s a good thing.

  40. My ancestors tried using funny money about 150 years ago. It worked if they stayed local. Unfortunately, their world changed and suddenly those bills that weren’t green backs were worthless and they lost a fortune. Moral of this story is, stick to green backs. Funny money won’t work.

  41. marinm

    No arguements Cargo. Agreed just saying that it’s amusing that he’ll get support from people that may be generally inclined to not support him.

    I think that the plan really needs to be communicated before I can decide which way I’ll go on this.

    MH is right. If Disney were ever to go under – lots of Disney Dollars that wouldn’t be worth anything.

  42. Andy H

    I admit to maybe not understanding every piece of this but when I read it I thought “Isn’t this why Hamilton (and others) started/advocated for the Bank of the United States?”

  43. You and I thought the same thing, Andy.

  44. George S. Harris

    Has anyone asked if Marshall is in the early stages of some form of dementia? Why do we not require those who govern to undergo some sort of sanity test? We simple ass u me they are sane?

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