Does Paper Money Have Any Real Value?

By Seth Maynard

The short answer to this question is: “no”. Unfortunately, the United States dollar is backed by no more than a promise to pay and not by any solid, valuable object with real value. Only gold or silver is capable of such a role and it has not played that role since 1933.

According to then-President Franklin Roosevelt:

“All coins and currencies of the United States… shall be legal tender for all debts… taxes, duties, and dues, except gold coins, when below the standard weight and limit of tolerance provided by law for the single piece, shall be legal tender only at valuation in proportion to their actual weight.”

In 1933, House Joint Resolution 192 was passed. The resolution made paper money and coins created by the Federal Reserve legal tender and replaced the gold coin as the legal standard of currency in the United States of America. Gold coins became worth only their actual weight when their weight fell below acceptable limits. Based on this law, debts, liabilities and dues can be paid by paper money with no actual backing standard as gold was no longer its basis. Eventually, this was held as unconstitutional (Perry v. United States, 1935) and was repealed in 1997 (91 Stat. 1229). It was unconstitutional as the Constitution itself issued the gold standard.

The banks should not be handing out loans and worse, earning interest on them, as they truly had no money to lend from the very beginning. There is no real money as the money in circulation actually has no real value in terms of gold or silver. It is no more than a debt which the U.S. government has promised to pay.

Hence, there is currently no way to pay off debts or make payments in the U.S.A. as the dollar has no real value, only a promise that a debt will be paid and the faith people have placed on that promise. This is so because, although the House Joint Resolution 192 was repealed, the government has made no steps to revert to a gold-based monetary standard. To this day, paper money and coins made by the Federal Reserve remain legal tender and gold coins remain unrecognized.

These and many other illusory and possibly damaging unrealistic are discussed and addressed by Mike Ioane’s book “Boston Tea Party”. Currently in its third edition, the book takes a look at some questionable government practices and offers means of protecting yourself against them. Not only is it a book, it is a resource filled with actual letters, requests and forms that you can use in these