Cranky Christopher
Posted: January 10th, 2008, 11:41 pm
Christopher Hansen is a cranky dollar-bill curmudgeon.
Thursday, January 10th 2008 — by Mark Andrews
This blog http://www.independentamerican.org/ has seen frequent and recent postings by Christopher Hansen related to the mystery of what a real dollar is. I once thought I knew. In fact, I thought Mr. Hansen was just being cranky and ridiculous to ask me what a dollar is. How could anyone not know what a dollar is? Everyone in America knows. Don’t they? His comments and research are now having an effect on me. Are they on you, also?
I have become quite mystified by the question.
I’ve been asking a lot of other people to tell me what a dollar is. In fact, I usually carry several types of paper and coin instruments that have the word ‘dollar’ printed on them, and then I show these samples to people and ask them which one they believe to be a dollar.
They always think first that it is that green paper thing, the federal reserve note. Then they say that those other things are dollars, too: those cute coins with Suzy’s or Sacagawea’s face, or even the number on their paycheck, or the number total in their online banking statement represents ‘dollars’ to them. Yet no one ever thinks that the one ounce silver coin minted since 1986 with a picture of a walking Liberty figure on it, is a dollar. Nearly always, they ask me what that large heavy silver coin is. And that silver coin actually cost me 17 of the federal reserve notes on the day I last bought one from a coin dealer.
Now here is the problem. Those green things on them say the word ‘dollar’ in various denominations and at the top they say ‘federal reserve note.’ I work in the banking business and I know what a note is; it’s a promise to pay. It’s an evidence of debt. And in this case, the debt is owed to the federal reserve system … which is not our government. It is a club of big banks that have an exclusive deal to own and loan all of these billions of paper notes to the U.S. government and earn interest on them all. The interest is paid by U.S. citizens in vast amounts. We keep paying and paying, yet the debt is never paid off and those notes are never retired. (Hah! Little wonder, considering that we are actually trying to pay off a debt with paper evidences of debt. Did you ever think about that?) I’ve learned from these blog postings that a green paper federal reserve note (frn) is not actually a dollar. In fact, a recent blog here points out that the federal government has said specifically that a promissory note CANNOT be a dollar.
You would think that our 230 year-old nation, with a Treasury Department that prints the paper money, a mint that makes coins, a tax bureau that collects ‘dollars’, other giant bureaus that spend trillions of dollars, a congress that mandates a minimum wage set in dollars, courts that levy fines in dollars, and on and on, including a Secret Service corps that prosecutes people who print their own counterfeit dollars, would know what a dollar is. Wouldn’t you?
They can’t tell you. Mr. Hansen has asked them all for the answer without receiving a single unequivocal answer.
I decided a few months ago to directly ask Nevada’s governing officials to tell me what is the definition of a dollar. Amazingly, Nevada’s government cannot or will not describe it for me. Some actually refuse to describe it. I have their refusals in letter form from the Governor’s office, The State Treasurer’s office, the State Attorney General’s office, The Nevada Secretary of State’s office, and the Director of the Nevada State Tax Division. Some flat out refuse to tell me; others admit that they don’t know; others sidestep the question. Why is that? Are they ignorant of the answer? Are they fearful of answering? Why? Are they concealing something? What?
All the Clark County government officials to whom I wrote (Treasurer, Clerk and Assessor), won’t even answer me back. This is truly amazing, especially considering the fact that every one of those state and county government agencies demand ‘dollars’ from me under penalty of punishment, garnishment, prosecution, seizure of property, and imprisonment if I don’t comply.
I am now quite perplexed over what to call a dollar. The way I see it, the silver liberty coin is the only instrument that has been specifically and legally defined anywhere in language and text as a dollar. (Check the other blogs on this subject in this website for the legal citations. Cranky Christopher Hansen has searched them all out for you.) I intentionally exclude as dollars the multiplicity of U.S. coins (Sacagewea ‘dollar’ coin, Suzy ‘dollar’ coin, ‘gold-ish’ presidential ‘dollar coins’, etc.) and federal reserve notes which describe themselves on their faces as ‘dollars.’ I exclude them because I can’t accept that those cheap, little, tinny metal sandwiches could be equal in value to one ounce of pure silver like the Liberty dollar. Instead, they look like game tokens from Chuck E. Cheese pizza shops. And a federal reserve ‘note’ is a record of debt and therefore cannot be a dollar.
So I pose the question:
If someone offers you a choice between a green piece of paper that says, ‘federal reserve note – one dollar’ in one hand, and a one ounce silver coin that says, ‘one dollar’ in the other hand, which would you take?
Thursday, January 10th 2008 — by Mark Andrews
This blog http://www.independentamerican.org/ has seen frequent and recent postings by Christopher Hansen related to the mystery of what a real dollar is. I once thought I knew. In fact, I thought Mr. Hansen was just being cranky and ridiculous to ask me what a dollar is. How could anyone not know what a dollar is? Everyone in America knows. Don’t they? His comments and research are now having an effect on me. Are they on you, also?
I have become quite mystified by the question.
I’ve been asking a lot of other people to tell me what a dollar is. In fact, I usually carry several types of paper and coin instruments that have the word ‘dollar’ printed on them, and then I show these samples to people and ask them which one they believe to be a dollar.
They always think first that it is that green paper thing, the federal reserve note. Then they say that those other things are dollars, too: those cute coins with Suzy’s or Sacagawea’s face, or even the number on their paycheck, or the number total in their online banking statement represents ‘dollars’ to them. Yet no one ever thinks that the one ounce silver coin minted since 1986 with a picture of a walking Liberty figure on it, is a dollar. Nearly always, they ask me what that large heavy silver coin is. And that silver coin actually cost me 17 of the federal reserve notes on the day I last bought one from a coin dealer.
Now here is the problem. Those green things on them say the word ‘dollar’ in various denominations and at the top they say ‘federal reserve note.’ I work in the banking business and I know what a note is; it’s a promise to pay. It’s an evidence of debt. And in this case, the debt is owed to the federal reserve system … which is not our government. It is a club of big banks that have an exclusive deal to own and loan all of these billions of paper notes to the U.S. government and earn interest on them all. The interest is paid by U.S. citizens in vast amounts. We keep paying and paying, yet the debt is never paid off and those notes are never retired. (Hah! Little wonder, considering that we are actually trying to pay off a debt with paper evidences of debt. Did you ever think about that?) I’ve learned from these blog postings that a green paper federal reserve note (frn) is not actually a dollar. In fact, a recent blog here points out that the federal government has said specifically that a promissory note CANNOT be a dollar.
You would think that our 230 year-old nation, with a Treasury Department that prints the paper money, a mint that makes coins, a tax bureau that collects ‘dollars’, other giant bureaus that spend trillions of dollars, a congress that mandates a minimum wage set in dollars, courts that levy fines in dollars, and on and on, including a Secret Service corps that prosecutes people who print their own counterfeit dollars, would know what a dollar is. Wouldn’t you?
They can’t tell you. Mr. Hansen has asked them all for the answer without receiving a single unequivocal answer.
I decided a few months ago to directly ask Nevada’s governing officials to tell me what is the definition of a dollar. Amazingly, Nevada’s government cannot or will not describe it for me. Some actually refuse to describe it. I have their refusals in letter form from the Governor’s office, The State Treasurer’s office, the State Attorney General’s office, The Nevada Secretary of State’s office, and the Director of the Nevada State Tax Division. Some flat out refuse to tell me; others admit that they don’t know; others sidestep the question. Why is that? Are they ignorant of the answer? Are they fearful of answering? Why? Are they concealing something? What?
All the Clark County government officials to whom I wrote (Treasurer, Clerk and Assessor), won’t even answer me back. This is truly amazing, especially considering the fact that every one of those state and county government agencies demand ‘dollars’ from me under penalty of punishment, garnishment, prosecution, seizure of property, and imprisonment if I don’t comply.
I am now quite perplexed over what to call a dollar. The way I see it, the silver liberty coin is the only instrument that has been specifically and legally defined anywhere in language and text as a dollar. (Check the other blogs on this subject in this website for the legal citations. Cranky Christopher Hansen has searched them all out for you.) I intentionally exclude as dollars the multiplicity of U.S. coins (Sacagewea ‘dollar’ coin, Suzy ‘dollar’ coin, ‘gold-ish’ presidential ‘dollar coins’, etc.) and federal reserve notes which describe themselves on their faces as ‘dollars.’ I exclude them because I can’t accept that those cheap, little, tinny metal sandwiches could be equal in value to one ounce of pure silver like the Liberty dollar. Instead, they look like game tokens from Chuck E. Cheese pizza shops. And a federal reserve ‘note’ is a record of debt and therefore cannot be a dollar.
So I pose the question:
If someone offers you a choice between a green piece of paper that says, ‘federal reserve note – one dollar’ in one hand, and a one ounce silver coin that says, ‘one dollar’ in the other hand, which would you take?