Interesting commentary on the US Mint.

Mesquite

This is an interesting read - for what it's worth.

link

fcloud

You can't win they are the government, so why try.

These are the same mint people who sold a bunch of stuff, so people could resell at a profit. Who cares.

jetpro

Must reading!!

quattrocoins

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Dear Mr. or Mrs. Mint:

Are you people insane? First, you declared trafficking in Norfed's Liberty coins a crime. This, despite the fact that there is no legal proscription against barter. If my neighbour wants to accept my silver in lieu of Federal Reserve Notes for an item we've agreed he will sell to me, that's nobody's business.

But this business of telling me what I can and cannot do with my pennies and nickels is a haughty, unconstitutional affront. An insult. Have you people not ever heard of the concept of private property? My pennies and nickels are my property. I obtained them through my labours. Now, forgive a little digression here, but are these pennies and nickels not my property, if I have obtained them legally?

When does what I do or not do with my property become the business of the United States Mint? What's next? Are you going to tell me I can't recycle my newspapers, because wood is scarce? Or re-impose that old law against removing the tags from my bedding? And if I obey your proposed directive and continue to accumulate pennies and nickels – because there is nothing else to do with them except as perhaps the poor-man's option play on base metals – are you later going to accuse me of hoarding? And will this then lead to another federal rule: That I cannot hoard my zinc pennies and nickels, and must surrender them to the United Snakes Government for a paper instrument that is any more not even a receipt or certificate?

Of course, we are ignoring the larger question of, Why is a stack of 100 pennies or 20 nickels worth more than a FedNote? You've admitted as much in your proposed and wretchedly repugnant regulation. You refer to “prevailing prices of copper, nickel and zinc” exceeding the face value of your coins. Well, Mr. and Mrs. Mint, whose fault is that? To the extent that you're in cahoots with the Federal Reserve, it's your fault. But it is more important to point out to you is that the real prices of copper, nickel, zinc, lead, silver and gold have been relatively static over the past three decades, indeed in steady decline over the past millennium. What's changed is the dollar's ability to purchase these metals. This is not our fault. It's the fault of your masters.

So to avoid your proposed sanctions, we are compelled to insist that future payment for our labours be made not in pennies or nickels, but in Norfed Liberty dollars, the melting-down of which you do not propose to criminalize.

However, brace yourselves for good news. You have an alternative to criminalizing our behaviour with regard to our private property. You can further debase the currency, just as you did with our quarters, dimes, halves and dollars back in the 1960s. You can issue, Ahem! the Wooden Nickel!

Now, we've been advised since we were knee-high to the proverbial grass-hopper not to take wooden nickels. But a wooden nickel issued by the U.S. Mint? Why, we could take that to the bank. Pay off W's multi-trillion-dollar debts to China and Europe with wooden nickels. Just declare the wooden nickel legal tender for all debts public and private – the way the paper FedNote is so declared now. QED, all current account deficit problems solved. Yes, the Wooden Nickel. It's time is come.

From the Melting Pot and with no respect intended we remain,

Yours Truly,
The Guilty <<<