tackett@wivax.UUCP (Raymond Tackett) (07/03/84)
The person who takes passport applications at the Nashua, New Hampshire, Post Office refuses to accept U.S. currency in payment of the fee. Only money orders and personal checks are acceptable. An agency of the United States government refusing its own currency? That has interesting implications for the "full faith and credit" of the United States. Whatever happened to "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private"? Is this a government response to Reaganomics? -- Random Access is IMMORAL! Ray Tackett
evans@wivax.UUCP (Barry Evans) (07/03/84)
I know of some offices/etc which really try to avoid any exchange in currency, instead they would rather deal with money orders or checks. One such place is the management office at my apartment. They claim that there are just too many people around, which might encouraged theft, and, if this were the case, it would be extremely difficult to trace. -barry -- Barry Evans - Wang Institute (617) 649-9731 x383 [apollo, bbncca, cadmus, decvax, harvard, linus, masscomp]!wivax!evans evans%Wang-Inst@Csnet-Relay
drr@ihopa.UUCP (D. R. Rueckheim) (07/06/84)
Speaking of legal currency in the US, I believe that the constitution states that the only legal currency is "gold or silver coins". Also to the best of my knowledge there has never been an ammendment to the constitution that has changed that. Is there anyone out there that can shed some light on this issue. -- D. R. Rueckheim ..!ihnp4!ihopa!drr AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il.
tac@teldata.UUCP () (07/09/84)
, (sop to the blank line eaters--consider it a religious sacrifice) The problem is that it is legal tender, not payment. Check out the meanings of the words and you will find that while "tender" could include money, it is not limited to that. It also is "offered in payment". Perhaps you will consider this nit-picking, but that is what legal documents and laws are all about. Harking (harping) back to an old discussion there is a phrase in the Constitution of the US which grants to the US Government the authority "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;". This taken from my simulated parchment copy of the Constitution, with the capital letters as they appear in the script as written. I don't see anything about printing money there, and since one of the problems that was being solved with this constitution was rampant inflation caused by continental dollars being printed as fast as they were needed, it is reasonable to assume that they chose these words as carefully as they chose all of the others used in this document. From the Lecturn of Tom Condon {...!uw-beaver!teltone!teldata!tac} A Radical A Day Keeps The Government At Bay. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are those of everyone who matters, but not necessarily anyone you know, and most certainly not my employers!
mpr@mb2c.UUCP (Mark Reina) (07/10/84)
In the United States Constitution, the phrase "to coin money, regulate the value thereof" grants the Federal Government to print paper money, prosecute counterfeiters, switch from gold and silver backing, and whatever else is deemed necessary by the US Congress. You'll to trust me on this one.
eac@drutx.UUCP (07/10/84)
It is interesting that they were trying to beat inflation with precious metal coinage. In the late 1800's it was just the fact that coinage was made out of precious metals (silver and gold) that prompted the use of silver and gold certificates. The value of the metal was increasing so fast that coins were forced to be made smaller and smaller to keep people from melting them down. This lead to the trend of making the metal worth less than the face value of the coin--which defeated the original purpose of the coin. For example--a "double eagle" (twenty dollar gold piece) was supposed to contain twenty dollars worth of gold. These would go out of circulation quite quickly when the gold in a single coin became worth more than twenty dollars. So now we have come full swing--the actual value of the printed dollar and the coins is practically nill. Only convention dictates that a twenty dollar bill is worth twenty dollars. Betsy Cvetic ihnp4!drutx!eac
dee@cca.UUCP (Donald Eastlake) (07/10/84)
US Constitution Artilce I, Section 8: The Congress shall have Power ... To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measurers. ... Article I, Section 10: No >>STATE<< shall ... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin Tender in Payment of Debts; ... I think it will be clear to anyone who will bothers to read the Constitution and the context of these provisions that any resriction to gold and silver effects only States that are authorizing coins when it happens that they are being permitted to do so by Congress. -- + Donald E. Eastlake, III ARPA: dee@CCA-UNIX usenet: {decvax,linus}!cca!dee