The Two-bit Folly, by Corey Langeslay

Exclusive to TLE

The Governor of Texas is spending time on the States' nickel worrying about the design of the U.S. Mint design of the "tails" side of the Texas Commemorative Quarter. This article...

"Tails of Texas: Flip a quarter to see which design will prevail" - Austin American Statesman, Wednesday, April 3, 2002 - Page A1- By Laylan Copelin (Also available at www.statesman.com)

...shows the extravagant tax spending by the Governor for a committee appointed to decide the little picture stamped on the back of the quarter-dollar that will be distributed in the year 2004 is obvious to everyone except the writer and the Governor's office. Also there is the major objection that the twenty-five-cent coin is not made of silver or gold as specified in the Constitution Article 1 Section 10 that states:

"No State shall...coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts".

No one thinks that the U.S. Mint still makes silver quarters, but I know they are violating the Constitution. Of course the news articles wouldn't point out this glaring violation.

When President Nixon removed the United States from the "Gold Standard" he violated the Constitution and sent us on this path. Prior to Nixon's order, at least in a back handed way, the currency was "Redeemable for Gold or Silver" at any U.S. Mint (these were the paper Silver or Gold Certificates) and quarters were made of silver. After Nixon's order it became paper, or nickel, or zinc, backed by the value placed on it by market trading conditions, not gold or silver. Texas and the other forty-nine states are involved with another violation of the Constitution. We see the violation, can clearly understand the plain writing of the Constitution, and can equate the deed with the violation of oaths of office and unconstitutional actions.

I am disgusted by the waste of taxes to study coins that violate the Constitution, we get garbage about what the design motif will be on the back of a quarter dollar and pabulum for those that want to collect shiny bits of nickel and zinc. Instead we should be reading and seeing major news articles that blast the Governor's office and the U.S. Mint for violations of the Constitution. I don't think 10% of the people of the United States even realize there are strict rules on what "Money" is, or that the Constitution lays out those rules.

Nor do I think that the 90% who don't know also don't know that we haven't had legal tender since Nixon was President, of course why should they, it still works to buy food and people accept it for the rent each month. Wait until the day they need to exchange it for goods and services and it has no value. The founding fathers made gold and silver legal tender because it would not matter what the credit standing of the United States was, the material had always had value. It freed the people from having to worry about their government's worthiness to back the value of money. It was valuable without them. There is the true crime, the coin makes slaves of the people because without the Government money has NO VALUE. It was put in the Constitution to defeat just this point. Now the coin has defeated another part of the Constitution. Without the coin holding value on it's own it is just a worthless piece of metal with a pretty picture. I guess that's why the Governor of Texas is spending so much on the design of the Commemorative Texas Quarter, if it is worthless it might as well be pretty.

Corey Langeslay is a Libertarian that left the lakes and rivers of Minnesota and moved to Central Texas and works hard at converting the masses from Socialists drones to freethinking Libertarians. Writes essays about humor and freedom, and generally tries to live free in any way he can. He has dogs, cats and a wife that for some unknown reason love him anyway. You can e-mail him at [email protected]

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The Two-bit Folly

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The Two-bit Folly

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