Status of Goldbacks

Below we explore various legal aspects of Goldbacks . . .

Utah Quietly Recognized Goldbacks As Currency

25-March-2022

Goldbacks came out in Utah in 2019 and have since become the most popular local currency of all time with ~8,000,000 Goldbacks produced and over ~450,000 users.

Legal Arguments

Beginning in 2009, Lawrence Hilton conceptualized, drafted and then shepherded through the Utah Legislature the Specie Legal Tender Act, which was passed into law in 2011, with important amendments adopted during the 2012 session. By that statute, Utah became the first state in more than one hundred years to formally recognize gold and silver coinage as legal tender. Since then he has actively championed monetary reform measures in Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oklahoma and Texas—with the latter three states having adopted meaningful specie legal tender legislation.

Larry is our more senior partner and is Goldback's General Counsel. In November 2019 Larry wrote legal arguments in an open letter to the Utah State Tax Commission about the Goldback’s potential legal tender status in the state of Utah. You can read that ‘Request for Private Letter Ruling Concerning Goldback Legal Tender and Tax Status’ here . . .

Study of the Ill-Fated Liberty Dollar

When we started working on the Goldback in 2019, the fear of suffering a similar fate to the Liberty Dollar was real. It was like a dark gloomy cloud hanging over the entire project. Why make a cutting edge gold currency if all we are really doing is inviting the boogeyman to come and get us? We documented our research of the Liberty Dollar’s history here . . .