Twelve states consider gold and silver coinage, two have already approved it: Feds crack down on private coiners

Seth Lipsky at the Wall Street Journal (access via Google), “When Private Money Becomes a Felony Offense: The popular revolt against a declining dollar leads to a curious conviction“: But it is not clear that there is a constitutional basis or a logic for prohibiting individuals from making and selling pieces of gold and silver and using them, on a voluntary basis, as money—i.e., to “compete with” the official coinage of the U.S. Certainly it’s a loser’s game to suppress private money that is sound in order to protect government-issued money that is unsound. For, as was once said by the same Abraham Lincoln who brought in the greenback to finance the great cause of the Union, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.

Gold Alert: Utah Approves Gold, Silver as Legal Tender

CNN: Utah: Forget dollars. How about gold?
“But he said that by eliminating taxes on the exchange of the coins, they would be on the same playing field as paper currency. And, he said, banks might step in and create accounts backed by gold and silver coins.”

John R. Smith writing at the Orlando Sentinel, Florida lawmakers should permit the use of gold as currency
“Did you see it? Legislatures in Utah and Virginia just passed bills allowing silver and gold coins as legal tender within their borders. A dozen other states are considering such laws, using the power granted to the states under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. These states are exploring how to set up monetary systems to offset a terrible plunge in the value of federal paper money.”

U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 10, Clause 1: Contracts Clause
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.