Florida has passed legislation to make transactional gold and silver legal tender. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk for a signature.
Originally passing the House with only one “no” vote and passing the Senate unanimously, H.B. 999 establishes that “gold coin and silver coin are legal tender” for the purpose of “payment of a debt.” Consequently, taxes are removed from the commodities’ exchange.
When asked by this writer at a press conference in Destin, Florida, this week if he would sign the bill, Governor Ron DeSantis responded, “Yes, I would.”
In Good Company
If signed into law, Florida would join Arkansas, as Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed H.B. 1918 this month, allowing for “the use of a bullion depository; and to allow for a precious metals-backed electronic system.” Utah’s state legislature also passed a bill to allow for the use of precious metals as a transactional currency, but Republican Governor Spencer Cox vetoed it. Representative Ken Ivory (R), the bill’s sponsor, expects a veto override.
“We have the ability to make Florida the gold standard in financial opportunity and freedom,” Representative Doug Bankson (R), who sponsored the bill, said on the House floor before the bill went up for a final vote on April 30.
A key leader behind the passage of the bill is the host of Economic War Room on BlazeTV, Kevin Freeman, whom The New American has interviewed several times. “This started as an idea in Texas two years ago,” Freeman told The New American upon the passage of H.B. 999:
Although it didn’t pass, I wrote the book Pirate Money to explain how states, under Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution, could make gold and silver transactional legal tender to help citizens combat inflation and monetary tyranny. A grassroots army, the Pirate Money team, stood up and spread the word. Twenty-five states considered legislation this year, and Arkansas, under Governor Sanders, was first to pass this into law! Florida has passed this in both houses, and Governor DeSantis says he will sign! This serves as a model for other states to follow. States should exercise authorities granted under the Constitution, even in regard to money!
Constitutional Money
As Freeman explained, gold and silver currency is a constitutional issue. Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution demands that “No state shall … coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Additionally, Congress can only “coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.”
Therefore, the Federal Reserve, unconstitutionally instituted by Congress, cannot issue fiat money such as U.S. Federal Reserve Notes.
Moves by the states to reclaim the constitutional mandate of sound money are an encouraging development in the ongoing struggle to reclaim American greatness.
