# Texas to make gold and silver legal tender **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 2, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409 "2025-07-02T17:33:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/1 "2025-07-02T17:33:44Z")
I know there is a “Fuck Texas” thread in the pit, but this is so political that I put it here. > **[Texans allowed to pay using gold and silver](https://www.newsweek.com/texans-can-pay-using-gold-silver-2093585)** > > The new law comes into effect on May 1 2027. > Texans are to be allowed to pay with with gold and silver for everyday transactions after Governor [Greg Abbott](https://www.newsweek.com/topic/greg-abbott) [signed House Bill 1056 into law](https://www.chron.com/politics/article/gold-silver-texas-currency-20401113.php). The law, which was championed by [Republican](https://www.newsweek.com/topic/republican) state representative Mark Dorazio, designates the precious metals as legal tender in the state And, > Critics, including industry groups and independent observers, warn of substantial costs, legal complexities, and potential consumer risks associated with managing gold- and silver-based transactions. Of course. this is simply theater for the rubes. The idea is the State of Texas has a gold depository. Texans who transfer their gold an silver to the Texas Gold Depository will receive a debit card (Gold Card?). When used at a retailer, the US Dollar amount is converted to a gold or sliver equivalent weight and deduct that from the user’s account. The user can then replenish their account by depositing additional gold, silver, or cash. To me, this simply opens an additional avenue for fraud and corruption. There really is no benefit for the average citizen. I can envision myriad regulations needed to address, but remember those who write the regulations are the ones behind the corruption, so the majority of users will lose a small “fee” while a few "highly compensated personnel"will make out. They’ll be doing the same for bitcoin next. Man, these guys are destructive! ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/2 "2025-07-02T17:38:06Z")
Congrats Texas! You reinvented the credit card and made it more difficult to use! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/3 "2025-07-02T21:49:42Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > To me, this simply opens an additional avenue for fraud and corruption. There really is no benefit for the average citizen. I can envision myriad regulations needed to address, but remember those who write the regulations are the ones behind the corruption, so the majority of users will lose a small “fee” while a few "highly compensated personnel"will make out. Sounds like another way to monetize the whole “gold bug” thing that goes on around with conservatives, and that often means you are just buying into a share or participation in a gold/silver trading account but you don’t actually get to lay hands on any gold. Bet that there have already incorporated on TX a whole bunch of middlemen who will purport to turn your regular dollars into bullion held by Texas, for a “modest” fee or commission, and to likewise “manage your account”, saving you from having to yourself directly replenish it. And of course Texas will contract to some obviously respectable, safe, and totally objectively and impartially selected private entity to do the actual management of their side of the whole scheme. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/4 "2025-07-02T22:00:27Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > Of course. this is simply theater for the rubes. The idea is the State of Texas has a gold depository. Texans who transfer their gold an silver to the Texas Gold Depository will receive a debit card (Gold Card?). When used at a retailer, the US Dollar amount is converted to a gold or sliver equivalent weight and deduct that from the user’s account. The user can then replenish their account by depositing additional gold, silver, or cash. ROFLMAO. So is someone in the central Texas gold depository actually going to cut little bits of gold off the bars and move them from safe to safe? Or is this just a really weird investment account? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/5 "2025-07-02T22:40:05Z")
Who has control over the official exchange rate? Because whoever that person is, they’re going to make out like a bandit. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2025, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/6 "2025-07-02T22:52:10Z")
Is it a coincidence that gold and silver are selling at such a high price? I suspect the plan is 1. Get the metals 2. Sell them 3. Keep the actual money and all of the customers’ money is electronic 4. When the price goes down, so does the value of the customers’ account that Texas needs to pay out 5. Profit ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/7 "2025-07-03T12:53:38Z")
And yet - no actual gold/silver changes hands - you still pay with ‘dollars’ - you buy the gold/silver (ostensibly) with ‘dollars’. You still couldn’t walk into the local quickie mart with a bar of gold to buy your gas. This changes nothing - nothing at all. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/8 "2025-07-03T12:57:55Z")
> [@simster](#): > > This changes nothing - nothing at all. No, it does change one thing: The dollar value of your account fluctuates wildly and randomly for reasons that you have no control over. But which someone, somewhere in the state government does have control over. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/9 "2025-07-03T13:11:16Z")
Fair enough - I was speaking to the actual usage of gold/silver at the POS. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/10 "2025-07-03T14:06:57Z")
> [@simster](#): > > And yet - no actual gold/silver changes hands - you still pay with ‘dollars’ - you buy the gold/silver (ostensibly) with ‘dollars’. This feels almost like Texas creating its own gold backed currency. Can they really do that? If Texas wanted to create the Official Texas GoldBucks Currency, and treat that as legal tender in Texas, would that be cool with the feds? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/11 "2025-07-03T14:22:39Z")
Plenty of private entities create their own currencies. Why shouldn’t a state be able to? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/12 "2025-07-03T14:30:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Why shouldn’t a state be able to? Article I Section 10: _No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; **coin Money;** emit Bills of Credit; **make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;** pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility._ If Texas GoldBucks are a distinct thing from real gold - and you make a good case for this being the case above - this would seem like a problem? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/13 "2025-07-03T14:32:35Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Is it a coincidence that gold and silver are selling at such a high price? I suspect the plan is > > 1. Get the metals > 2. Sell them > 3. Keep the actual money and all of the customers’ money is electronic > 4. When the price goes down, so does the value of the customers’ account that Texas needs to pay out > 5. Profit Except for minor short-term fluctuations when has the price of gold measured in dollars gone down? It’s far more likely that the Federal government will eventually have to devalue the dollar to avoid defaulting on the national debt, in which case the price of gold may be something like $150,000 an ounce. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/14 "2025-07-03T14:35:49Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Congrats Texas! You reinvented the credit card and made it more difficult to use Well, they reinvented the debit card, since it’s linked to how much gold you actually have on deposit. Of course, the buying power of that deposit will fluctuate from day to day as the price of gold fluctuates, so you’d better check the markets before going to the, well, _markets_. If gold is down, it’s generics for you! ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/15 "2025-07-03T14:37:04Z")
> [@simster](#): > > This changes nothing - nothing at all. Yeah, there have been a few laws like this, and as best as I can tell it’s mostly just gold fanboys declaring their little hobby to be Legal Tender, which has no bearing on anything. Legal tender is not a very important legal concept in either direction. This law goes a little further by creating these silly accounts, which again just seem pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/16 "2025-07-03T14:41:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Plenty of private entities create their own currencies. Why shouldn’t a state be able to? Private currency is voluntary. A business doesn’t have to accept your Chuck E. Cheese tickets as payment unless it wants to. This law says that businesses are legally required to accept Texas GoldBucks as payment. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/17 "2025-07-03T14:48:38Z")
I was wondering how people were going to make change for gold ingots and the like but I guess it’s answered. Hey, do these “goldbugs” trust the Texas government sufficiently to trust them with their gold? As opposed to the people hiding physical gold under the beds or whatever. My in-laws are like that. There was a point where my late spouse and I cashed in a small gold ingot, and it was useful (we paid 2 months of rent and bought groceries with it, as I recall) but I wouldn’t call the process of covering to spendable money convenient or quick. I suppose the “repository” and “gold card” gets around some of that, but merchants will need to make conversions on at least a daily basis. Sounds like a solution in search of a problem to me. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/18 "2025-07-03T14:52:41Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Sounds like a solution in search of a problem to me. Oh, it absolutely is. It’s nothing more than pandering to a particularly small fringe group of Republican voters. It doesn’t really cost the GOP anything, as Texas will foot the bill for creating this system, and as discussed above, they can find several ways to grift off if it, but it secures the long-term loyalty of a group of crazy voters, so why not? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/19 "2025-07-03T14:55:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > This law says that businesses are legally required to accept Texas GoldBucks as payment. [No it doesn’t.](https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB1056/id/3249023) > (d) A person may not be required to offer or accept gold and > silver specie or gold and silver currency as legal tender for the > payment of a debt, for deposit, or for any other purpose. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409/20 "2025-07-03T15:10:41Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Except for minor short-term fluctuations when has the price of gold measured in dollars gone down? The real (inflation adjusted) price of gold fluctuates pretty widely over time. Here’s a [cite](https://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart). For example, in October, 1980, it was $630 and fell from there and didn’t recover until around April, 2006. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-to-make-gold-and-silver-legal-tender/1020409.md?page=2)