Re: we don't need no stinkin constitution..

[Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>]

>At 06:14 PM 6/22/99 -0700, Michael Motyka wrote:
>>/*
>>   Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or
>>   confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit
>>   bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in
>>   payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or
>>   law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of
>>   nobility.
>>*/
>>Leaving the field open for individuals, corporations and any government
>>agency from counties on down to the local level.

As Jim Choate points out, this forbids state governments, and their
subsidiaries, to coining money or make anything but gold or silver legal
tender.

However, a corporation is not part of a state government, even if that
government grants it a corporate charter - so the state can't delegate
to it the power of making things tender for contracts not involving it,
but there's no reason the corporation can't mint round pieces of gold
saying "1 troy ounce 99.999% pure gold, certified by Yoyodyne" 
and have that satisfy contracts for people who want to accept it -
as long as they're minting coins of honest weight (unlike states
that would really like to force people to accept underweight coins.)
Similarly, the corporation can print plastic Yoyobucks and accept
them as payments for debts people owe it, and try to convince other people
to accept them as well, unless there are specific laws to the contrary
(which there often are, e.g. laws against using casino chips as money.)
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
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