Are nickels & pennies unconstitutional?

[Copperhead]

Section 10 - States prohibited from the exercise of certain powers.
1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing 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. ]


I have understand the above to mean that only gold and silver coins are constitutional money. If so, does that mean that nickels and/or pennies are unconstitutional?

[Infidel]

They are illegal, but not because of the metal content

[highroller4321]

Section 10 - States prohibited from the exercise of certain powers.
1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing 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. ]


I have understand the above to mean that only gold and silver coins are constitutional money. If so, does that mean that nickels and/or pennies are unconstitutional?

the state doesnt make them

[Copperhead]

the state doesnt make them

Nor does the state print FRNs. So what's all this about FRNs being unconstitutional?

[Tn...Andy]

Section 10 is a limitation on the powers of States. THEY constitutionally can't use anything but gold or silver in payment of STATE debts......which begs the question as to why no one has ever challenged a State on this.....like a State employee or a vendor of goods or services to a State.....seems quite clear to me that either of those could only be paid in gold or silver if they simply challenged this.

Congress, on the other hand, has the power "to coin money, regulate the value thereof". ( Section 8 )

Now I suspect the writers of the Constitution were clear when they wrote the word "COIN"......as in make an actual COIN......not PRINT, as in a "note"........but that is debatable I suppose. The word COIN would certainly include copper pennies, nickles, even clad coins, or heck.....I guess they could mint "coins" out of aluminum, glass or anything, since they have the power to regulate the value of money.

BUT nowhere in the Constitution does is say that CONgress has the power to turn over any of it's power to someone else !! Thus, giving over the power to the "Federal" Reserve ( which is WHY they put the word FEDERAL in there to start with, even though they are a private bank ) to print money and regulate the value thereof is simply NOT Constitutional.

Therefore, the FRN is not Constitutional because is it NOT issued by the US Govt nor is the value of it controlled by the Govt.

IF one were to take the most liberal use of the word "coin" to include "printing paper money"......and that would be a heck of a stretch....then the US Govt could print a paper note that looked just about like the FRN, and I guess, should it survive a challenge to the word "coin", it would be Constitutional.

By the same token, the "War Powers" act which turns over CONgress's power to declare war to the President is clearly unconstitutional, as are all Presidential Excutive Orders that attempt to apply to anyone outside the excutive branch of government. Congress is the legislative branch, not the President.

Congress has abdicated much of it's given powers thru the years, and assumed other powers it doesn't have. The "general welfare" wording in the Constitution has been the cause of much of the worst of these assumed powers. I suspect the Founding Fathers had NO CLUE how misused that would be or they wouldn't have included it.

[Copperhead]

Now that makes "cents" to me Andy. Thanks!

[Abouthadit]

Made a 70% return on my nickel investment today. Got seven rolls from the bank at $14.00. Melt value: $23.87.
:ARMS1:

[Veritas]

Section 10 - States prohibited from the exercise of certain powers.
1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make any thing 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. ]


I have understand the above to mean that only gold and silver coins are constitutional money. If so, does that mean that nickels and/or pennies are unconstitutional?

Want to argue semantics?

[Copperhead]

Want to argue semantics?


Oh no, not another anti-semantic post!:rofl:

[Veritas]

Oh no, not another anti-semantic post!:rofl:

What can I say? I'm a semantite. :9536:

[Copperhead]

What can I say? I'm a semantite. :9536:

Let's just keep that our little secret around here.:wink:

[Unclad Lad]

Not unconstitutional, per se. Since a "Dollar" represented X amount of Gold or Silver, then it is reasonable for other metals, in varying weights, to represent a fraction of gold. The notion that Copper has a certain value in relation to Gold and and Silver is a reasonable one.

However, with the disappearance of the gold standard--or any tangible backing of the currency-- the penny and nickel may be the only Constitutional coins left, since their face value is (currently) an accurate representation of their metallic content.

Think about THAT one for a while. :bear_wacko: