Shire Silver Solutions

We all had a great time at PorcFest. I handed out some brochures introducing the idea. I also gave a small presentation on it at the Alternatives Expo.

Because I log on to this site using an account with all permissions, I see everything. I see stuff that hasn't been approved yet. Thus I didn't notice that several of you have commented on things and the comments aren't showing up for everyone.
I have commenting set so that "regular" users can write comments, but they need to be approved before they can be seen by others. This is very useful in preventing spam, and creates a list of comments needing approval. However, I had forgotten, and hadn't been checking the approval list. This has been going on for months. Sorry.
To help with this, I have created a new role on the site. If you have this role, you can post comments without them needing to be approved. Everyone who had posted non-spam comments now has been assigned this role. So, post away!

This is just a friendly reminder that the Shire Silver Design Contest deadline is just over a month away. We haven't received as many submissions as we would like, and none of them so far meet the specified criteria. Please consider entering your own design.

Nevada, by the way, is known as the Silver State for a reason-its great mining industry produced the precious metal for the beautiful silver dollars minted at the fabled Carson City mint. These constitutional coins, include .775 ounces of silver, in accord with the Coinage Act of 1792. Today these coins, worth $1 in my father's day, have about $14 in silver. That is, the dollar is worth 1/14th of what it was, thanks to the counterfeiting Federal Reserve.

The Fed has again taken our country into a terrible crisis. Who else is talking about honest money that cannot be printed up at will by DC bureaucrats? My opponents in both parties are all some variety of print-and-spend Keynesians. Only we are telling the truth, about who is to blame for this recession, and how we can build real prosperity with sound money, no IRS, no deficit, and strict obedience to the Constitution. And, of course, no hyper-expensive, hyper-dangerous empire all around the globe.

Full Article

Of course this won't get enough support, and it won't likely get a lot of media attention, but it can't hurt: http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2007/cr121307h.htm

13 December 2007

Rep. Ron Paul, M.D.

Madame Speaker, I rise to introduce the Free Competition in Currency Act. This act would eliminate two sections of US Code that, although ostensibly intended to punish counterfeiters, have instead been used by the government to shut down private mints. As anti-counterfeiting measures, these sections are superfluous, as 18 USC 485, 490, and 491 already grant sufficient authority to punish counterfeiters.

The two sections this bill repeals, 18 USC 486 and 489, are so broadly written as to effectively restrict any form of private coinage from competing with the products of the United States Mint. Allowing such statutes to remain in force as a catch-all provision merely encourages prosecutorial abuse. One particular egregious recent example is that of the Liberty Dollar^{Emphasis Added}, in which federal agents seized millions of dollars worth of private currency held by a private mint on behalf of thousands of people across the country.

During World War 2, the British designed a machine gun that could be easily built by anyone with access to a basic metal shop. The result was the Sten gun, which was produced in relatively large numbers in occupied Europe. Similarly, the Liberator could be easily mass produced and was intended to be used by the people of occupied countries. Both of these products worked on a massively distributed basis.

We can use the same idea for producing a currency. By creating the design and allowing others to actually produce the currency, we can decentralize it so there is no "head" to cut off.

Apparently, a minting press can be constructed from small hydraulic devices like car jacks or wood splitters. Anyone with a die set and a hydraulic press can mint their own silver pieces.