The Legality of Specie Today
A federal court ruling in Texas raises new questions about state-issued gold and silver products, legal tender laws, and the future of “sound money” in America.
It isn’t sufficiently widespread to call it a trend, but the move to reintroduce specie as money not only continues but appears to be viewed as legal by at least one court. A federal court in Austin recently knocked down an injunction against Texas Acting Comptroller of Public Accounts Kelly Hancock by Texas Precious Metals, through which TPM claimed the state infringed on their intellectual property rights by operating the Texas Bullion Depository.
The bullion depository offers its own gold and silver coins, which were created by Texas House Bill 483, which established the depository in 2025. Later that year, Hancock announced the state would begin offering “commemorative precious metal products to investors and collectors.” Texas Lone Star Coins and Modern Texas Redback Gold Notes are currently legal tenders in Texas. Merchants have the option to accept them.
The next question may be whether they can be considered legal tender in the other states that have recently resurrected specie. The U.S. Constitution states individual states can’t coin money or emit bills of credit; however, in addition to Texas, the states of Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming have each passed “sound money” laws recognizing U.S. Mint-produced specie coinage as being legal tender within their realms.
A slippery legal slope appears when you consider that GoldBacks containing 1/1000th of an ounce of gold produced by GoldBack Inc. and Valaurum Inc. could be treated as legal tender in those states. Could other products follow? Remember, in 2011, Bernard von NotHaus was convicted of making and selling silver coins. Would he be convicted in a “sound money” state today?
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