# Funny Money **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 9, 2003, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-money/217884 "2003-12-09T08:48:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hypnoboth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@hypnoboth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hypnoboth)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-money/217884/21 "2004-01-09T14:09:26Z")
No more illegal than green stamps, I expect. (Am I the only one that really remembers green stamps?) If it ever gets big, they are going to find out why pegging two precious metals together like this is a bad idea; speculators are going to kill their ass. As soon as the metals fair market value diverges from the proportion that they have pegged, speculators will go into their market, buy (say) gold with their Liberty dollars, go out to the market sell the gold, buy silver, go to them, buy Liberty dollars with the silver, then buy gold, go out to the market again, and repeat until they run out of gold. Then they will have to buy gold — at market price — to redeem the Liberty dollars. Until they go bankrupt. Then they will learn the value of a floating market. Won’t work, long term. As soon as they have enough stores to make it worth the speculators while, they will become dead money. The run will start, and they will be out of business. Pegging the relative value of gold and silver in the presence of a floating market just doesn’t work. As they will quickly find out. Lots of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-money/217884/22 "2004-01-09T15:21:04Z")
Check out the “more quotes” link. You get gems like these: “I had no idea it could be this easy” J. Pratt, Austin, TX “One lady was amazed…” R. Olson, Alcoa, TN “I can’t wait to spend more!” B. Ibarra, Austin, TX “95% of the businesses accept the currency… I simply hand them the silver $10 coin as payment. 95% of the businesses accept the currency… I left the singles as tips. I don’t try to exchange the paper currency as much, as the silver is so much more successful.” C. Athanas, Austin, TX (I’m sure your waitresses are just pleased as punch) …and the best of them all, “It is much more fun to play with real money than monopoly money.” T.J., Calabasas, CA I agree, T.J. I think we all agree. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-money/217884/23 "2004-01-09T20:04:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \* > \*\*Actually, I don’t see anything illegal with it. As long as you don’t try to pass it off as ‘official US currency’ and don’t get upset when someone refuses to take it. > > But if a group of business and people decided they would accept it in trade for goods and services I don’t see the problem there. > > Would there be one…other than the IRS requiring one to convert it somehow for tax purposes? \*\* ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-money/217884/24 "2004-01-09T20:07:10Z")
goddammit. Half-hour wasted. ---
**Author:** ![\_possum\_stalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b77776/32.png) [@\_possum\_stalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_possum_stalker)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-money/217884/25 "2004-01-09T21:22:55Z")
A slight aside: the Catholic Charities Resale Shop in Mattoon has piles of books with titles like _The Next Great Depression: Weathering the Storm_ and _Christian Investing for the End Times_. They all advise a brilliant 100% gold investment plan. The hilarious/depressing part is that most of these books are from the Eighties, so the unfortunates who believed these frauds missed the greatest period of stock growth in American history. But IMO, anyone who buys ANYTHING from a man named Bernard “This is not an Assumed Name” von NotHaus deserves to lose their shirt. Besides, if you really think America’s economy is going to collaspe, wouldn’t it be best to invest in something practical, like gasoline or potatoes? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/funny-money/217884.md?page=1)