When this article was originally published, hard-money supporters in Oklahoma had reason to mark the legislature’s action, as it passed gold and silver legal tender laws that week and was set to take effect on November 1st. Oklahoma became the fifth state to enter this area since Utah first adopted legislation in 2011 recognizing gold and silver as legal tender.
The law stated that no person could be required to accept gold or silver coins as legal tender unless a written contract called for it. Even so, the original article viewed the measure as progress for advocates seeking to eliminate legal-tender laws. Along with Oklahoma and Utah, Texas, Arizona, and Louisiana had enacted gold-and-silver legal-tender laws during the preceding year.
The original article said this development helped place gold and silver on more equal footing with other investments, where taxes were due only on profits from a transaction. It also noted that gold and silver coins once circulated as money. According to the article, the shift toward fiat currency followed FDR’s gold-confiscation act of 1933 and the removal of silver from U.S. coinage in 1965. President Nixon later ended the remaining connection to a gold standard in 1971, effectively ending the Bretton Woods agreement.
