Here comes a potentially interesting showdown, from a federalism standpoint.

Article I, Section 10, is pretty clear that a state is forbidden to coin money. Oh, well.

OTOH, a state is also forbidden to make anything but gold and silver coin legal tender for debts. Granting for the sake of argument, at least, that the Federal government's power to make Federal Reserve notes legal tender for some, if not all, debts derives from the Commerce Clause, I see nothing forbidding the state of Nevada from minting 500 million one-ounce fine silver tokens, and mandating that they be accepted at the bullion value within the state.

(Silver was at $4.39/oz. troy today at 1325 EST. My personal objection to the Nevada scheme is that a $20 silver coin would either have to be unusably unwieldy -- I own silver dollars, and I know just how big they are -- or issued at a multiple of the bullion value.)

Sorry, but the argument that a technical violation of the Constitution makes the rest of it a Chinese menu from which one can pick and choose is one of those stupid arguments from the realm of crackpots.

For example, if those bits of green paper aren't really money, then the bill should also prohbit the payment of Nevada state taxes and fees with it, but insist only on gold or silver. No mention of that.

As for Yucca Mountain-- I've spent some time in Nevada doing geology. Once you get past the word "nucular", that place will be far cleaner and safer and aboveboard than just about everything else going on in that state, from the mining to the ranching to the weapons testing to the "escorts" in Vegas.

Hell, Nevada statehood was a technical violation of the Constitution and laws at the time (1863). It lacked the population necessary, for one thing, and was rushed through to make sure Abe got 3 electoral votes in what was thought was going to be a tight race. So maybe all of the acts of the Nevada Legistature should be considered null and void, and the entire area considered an unorganized terrority.

From an economic standpoint, I'm dubious as to whether Nevada can pull it off. After all, we have coins with a face value of $20 and an inherent value of less than a quarter of that. That's great for seniorage and the bottom line (so it looks great from Nevada's point of view), but who's going to honor money with that kind of mark up?

That's great for seniorage and the bottom line (so it looks great from Nevada's point of view), but who's going to honor money with that kind of mark up?

By this I meant that at least US wants you to pay your taxes in dollars. Is Nevada going to require you to pay Nevada taxes in these silver coins? And what happens if you're not from Nevada? Ie, Nevada's coinage isn't even a fiat currency.

Raoul made my point, though it seems to me that the making of money is still done by the U.S. Mint (coins) and the U.S. Bureau of Printing and Engraving (paper).

A technicality perhaps, if the work is done at the direction of the Federal Reserve, but this page, though originally about a different coinage issue, may have some bearing on the question.

Nevada minting its own money?

Reminds me of something James L. Petigru once said of South Carolina.

This is a great plan for metal rich states like Nevada. But what of states like where I now live? North Carolina is still mostly an old southern style agricultural state, heavy in tobaocco and hogs. The only way the Nevada Plan would work here is if they print money ON a tobacco leaf with a hog on one side, and a basketball on the other.

Maybe I'll move back to Kentucky. At least there we could barter and trade with Bourbon as currency. Which no doubt would be bet on basketball, never mind i've dediced I'm moving to Las Vegas.

Boy, this sounds an awful lot like the beginning of the last century.
"Free and unlimited silver"? What's next, a "Cross
of Gold" and bank holidays? It already looks like
this generation's "wobblies" have hit the streets.