I came across this article about a bill that would allow Floridians to pay bills with gold or silver. Is this a good idea, a bad idea, or just a shrug?
Most people won’t have the proper equipment to tell if the gold and/or silver is real.
Pure pandering to the RW base. Zero real world consequences.
So if I want to buy a candy bar I can just shave off some silver and someone will have to weigh it?
The article says that the “accept gold and silver” isn’t about shavings or random limps of metal. But only of coins of specified purity & weight.
Of course who certifies which brands of coins assertions of their purity and weight are to be trusted and which are not is left silent. As is the risk that said coins might be honestly manufactured then adulterated / shaved while in circulation.
This whole thing recapitulates the history of coinage from the Romans forward to the 19th & 20th century when coins became base metal tokens representing value, not value themselves. It’s so profoundly ignorant it can’t be sincerely intended.
I notice that as a footnote they decided to exempt gold & silver coin sales from sales tax. Which I suspect was the real reason behind this legislation. To deliver a boost to some politically connected gold dealers. Most of whom are likely to be raging rightists, and all of whom rely on raging rightists as the bulk of their customer base.
This is fanservice, not legislation.
Unfortunately, in 2025, fanservice can become legislation.
Granted. Sadly.
It is real legislation with real government authority. The practical effect is fanservice.
The legal tender provisions of this bill are completely symbolic, because they’re opt-in…which is exactly how it already worked (you can voluntarily accept anything as payment for a debt).
The linked article from the OP says that Utah enacted a similar law in 2011. So how has that worked there? Does any public or private entity accept gold or silver? Can I, for instance, walk into a gun show and buy a handgun with a one-ounce gold coin? Would I get change in silver coins?
The Utah law (PDF) appears to do absolutely nothing whatsoever, other than perhaps create a couple of tax exemptions (but I don’t know what the tax law was before that).
Actually, I agree that sales of gold and silver bullion should be exempt from sales tax.
Thanks, I had a good laugh over this.
Yeah, it’s kind of weird. You buy a $100 gold coin to pay your bills with, and it costs you $115 after taxes. Good job destroying wealth, there, goldbug.
Fifteen percent sales tax? Where is that a thing?
I wonder whether it’s a ploy by the bullion dealers to promote the use of Goldbacks:
“The Goldback® is a versatile and legal currency made from 24-karat gold, designed to solve the 2,600-year-old “small coin problem.” Each Goldback contains real gold, giving it intrinsic value, and can be bartered like other forms of non-current money worldwide. They are recognized as legal tender in U.S. states like Florida, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, New Hampshire, and South Dakota. Goldbacks combine gold’s timeless value with modern craftsmanship for practical, everyday use.”
Of course, if you haven’t guessed, Goldbacks are a VERY expensive way to buy a VERY small amount of gold – the dealer premium on these things is huge.
Were I a criminal, I’d love the idea. LOL
This is a bad idea. The MAGA crowd will think it benefits them and that it fights “big government “. It actually benefits De Santis, dealers selling gold and silver, and the very wealthy who can make large purchases by paying a small fee to convert cash into gold or silver and avoid paying a larger amount in state tax.
A dollar is always worth a dollar. The average person living in America can easily and quickly tell real US currency from fake. The value of gold and silver is not fixed. The exact amount needed to pay changes from day to day. Most people cannot tell real gold and silver from iron pyrite or brass. Even if they can tell the difference, how pure is the metal in question? What is it alloyed with? Is something coated with gold or silver or is it solid? Even if we know all these things, we still need a precise, accurate and trustworthy scale and we need the current market value of the metal.
This is a much more complicated and lengthy transaction than a seller telling the customer a price and the customer producing that amount in cash.
Nowhere, unless there’s a special tax added on to precious metals somewhere that I’m unfamiliar with.
The highest sales tax in the US (combining state and local taxes) is less than 11%. In my own state (Washington) it depends on the city you’re in, though it can be over 10% in many places. (It is 10.3% where I live.)
Sometimes they add extra tax on top of that for certain purchases. In Seattle, for example, you might pay 12.5% for a restaurant bill. So, in theory, there may be a jurisdiction that could levy a 15% tax on gold/silver sales (though I’m not aware of any).
And you’ll need a pretty good balance, too, when you need to weigh 10mg to pay for it.
Balances that good can be impacted by someone walking by, unless you have a heavy granite table for it.
So mostly just a stupid idea.
The article states:
Governmental entities can also accept gold or silver but only in the form of electronic transfer, the bill states.
Which is to say, the State of Florida will not be accepting gold or silver.
Personally, I am wiling to accept payment in Gold Eagles all day long at their $50 face value.