A Practical Guide to

Written By: Dr. Edwin Vieira, Jr., Ph.D., J.D.  |  Posted: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

As most of my readers know, I have long advocated the use of alternative currencies, consisting of silver and gold, in order to return America to constitutional and sound money. There are three means by which such alternative currencies could be introduced into the economy: (i) through an act of Congress; (ii) by State legislation, one State at a time; and (iii) by the private action of individuals. At the present time, option (i) is likely impossible; and option (ii) will require a fair amount of political organizing and "grass-roots" lobbying in suitable "target" States before the first such statute can be enacted. For the time being, then, that leaves option (iii) as the only way to move ahead immediately. Of course, purely private action alone cannot reform even one State's monetary system.

But, besides protecting those individuals who learn how to use alternative currencies in their own financial transactions, private action can help to educate other members of the general public about this issue, so that they can be mobilized for political action. In some situations (such as this offer), where the value of silver and gold are rapidly fluctuating in the marketplace as against paper currency, where the monetary value of the transaction is relatively small, and where the likely number of such transactions occurring over a lengthy period of time may be large, "gold clauses" may prove to be too cumbersome to use. But in many other situations, particularly when a significant length of time may occur before the payment for some good or service is finally made, they can provide a major degree of protection against loss in the real value of a contract that would otherwise occur were some paper currency employed as the medium of exchange and legal tender for the transaction.

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