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By James Turk
Copyright 2003, The Freemarket Gold amp; Money Report
Used by permission

What is a dollar?

This question seems simple, but it isn't. The answer is
complicated because there are in fact several types of
quot;dollars.quot;

These different dollars include the Federal Reserve
quot;dollar,quot; the gold quot;dollar,quot; and most importantly, a
Constitutional dollar. As the Founding Fathers
understood the term and used it in the Constitution
for quot;We the Peoplequot; to quot;secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,quot; the dollar
is a silver coin weighing 371.25 grains fine, also
known as Spanish quot;pieces of eight.quot;

Most people today have never used a Constitutional
dollar, or C$ for short, let alone have some notion
of what a C$ may be. So the natural question is:
What happened? How did the C$ get forced out of
circulation, and by implication, why does America
today use an unconstitutional money?

The answers are given in quot;Pieces of Eight,quot; a
monumental undertaking by someone who I am honored
to say is a friend, Edwin Vieira. He is this
country's leading scholar on legal and constitutional
issues relating to money, and my adulatory
description of his stature will be clear to
everyone who reads quot;Pieces of Eight,quot; which is
beyond doubt an extraordinarily remarkable
achievement.

Encompassing more than 1,600 pages and listing
6,000 footnotes (the index alone is 50 pages),
quot;Pieces of Eightquot; is certainly the most
outstanding product of scholarship that I have
ever had the pleasure of reading.

And don't be intimidated by its length. One must
read only the first three chapters -- 175 pages
-- to understand the original intent of the
Founders, and to thereby answer the question:
What is a dollar?

This book's achievement is unparalleled. Without
doubt it will stand throughout time as the
definitive account of the descent in the United
States from the sound money imparted by the
Constitution to the unsound debt-contract that
is the inferior, unconstitutional unit of account
that today passes as the quot;dollar.quot;

The breadth of scholarship throughout this book
are overwhelming. Law, politics, economics --
you name it -- each subject is addressed with
the deep understanding understood and capably
demonstrated only by those with specialized
knowledge.

For example, in my area of specialty, monetary
economics, I often see the word quot;intrinsicquot;
misused, and specifically that gold is money
because of its alleged 'intrinsic value.quot;
However, Edwin deftly distinguishes between
legal intrinsic value, which is simply the
quantity of precious metal relative to the
coin's standard, in contrast to economic
intrinsic value, noting that silver and gold
do not have inherent exchange value for the
simple reason that a coin's purchasing power
is a result of the subjective valuation of each
individual. (See Page 69.)

Edwin's scholarship is also continually intermixed
with a lot of common sense. For example, perhaps
one of the most frequently misunderstood monetary
clauses of the Constitution is: quot;The Congress shall
have Power ... To coin Money, regulate the Value
thereof. ...quot; Not only is the Founders' original
intent of this clause -- and particularly the
word quot;regulatequot; -- made clear from an historical,
legal, and linguistic perspective, but Edwin also
applies some basic common sense as well to
elucidate how misinterpretations of this clause
have enabled it to be misused and abused.

Commenting on the widely accepted but horribly
erroneous notion that this clause empowers
Congress to make the dollar whatever it decides
the quot;dollarquot; to be, Edwin notes, quot;The noun 'year'
appears repetitivelyquot; in the Constitution.
quot;Self-evidently the Framers used this term with
the presumption that everyone would implicitly
understand it to mean the time the earth actually
requires for one complete revolution around the
sun -- rather than a mere empty shorthand for an
unfixed unit of time within the discretion of
Congress to adopt or change.quot;

This simple logic of course applies to other
words in the Constitution, like the quot;dollar,quot;
which has a quot;fixed, historically ascertainable
meaning.quot; (Page 135.)

While the folly of bimetallism gets its fair
share of criticism, Edwin leaves his harshest
words for fractional-reserve banking and quot;private
fractional-reserve banksquot; that quot;are the inveterate
enemies of constitutional money.quot; (Page 219.)

Commenting on the collapse of the Great
Depression, he notes: quot;Once again fractional-reserve
banking -- even though cartelized on a national
scale -- had cracked up; and the bankers could
offer no solution other than their hackneyed
device of importuning the government to license
them to suspend specie payments, rather than
honestly admitting the unworkability of fractional
reserves and going out of business to the relief
of all future generations.quot; (Page 881.)

One of the objectives of the Founders, as stated
in the Constitution, was to quot;form a more perfect
Union.quot; They therefore quot;do ordain and establish
this Constitution for the united (sic) States.quot;
This union of independent powers is what we in
today's terms would call a common market, with
the added provision that the union went further
by arranging for a quot;common defence.quot;

We have strayed far from the Founders' vision,
and the centralized national power they so feared
and abhorred has been made possible by the
relentless slide to unconstitutional money. Sound
money was an important quot;check and balancequot; on the
aspirations of spendthrift politicians who all
too quickly found some excuse for spending other
people's money, as is clear from the extensive
coverage in this book of the debates on Capitol
Hill, often with verbatim quotes from the
Congressional Record.

Some -- but unfortunately too few --legislators
did express the timeless wisdom understood by the
Founders. For example, in the debates prior to
the formation of the Federal Reserve,
Representative Lindbergh (father of the famed
aviator) observed: quot;The political cowardice
existing in this Capitol will prevent adequate
[monetary] reform until the people themselves
realize more fully the burden that is placed on
them by the interest, dividends, rents, and
profits allowed by law, and collected by banks
and others who control centralized wealth.quot;
(Page 798.)

This book is essential reading for every American
to understand how quot;the monetary system of the
United States is [today] the very antithesis of
what the Founders contemplated and the Constitution
embodies.quot; (Page 457.) It is also essential reading
so that every American will know and understand what
needs to be done to put the United States back onto
a sound Constitutional footing. It explains what quot;We
the Peoplequot; must know about money, as well as why
money -- the Constitutional dolalr -- is different
from and superior to the money substitute we know as
the Federal Reserve dollar -- the Fed dollar --
which is but the shadow of money itself.

When rightly understood and correctly put into practice, the
Constitution is a powerful beacon, but this light cannot shine
if the original intent of the Founders is ignored. And foremost
among the many strengths of this book is its meticulous
research of the words of the Founders, what those words meant
to them, and how those words were twisted, turned, and
purposely misused by demagogues, charlatans, and other
unscrupulous officeholders after the Constitution's adoption.

After all, quot;Fractional-reserve banking, monetization of public
debt, and the other card tricks and sleight-of-hand of modern
monetary manipulation are profitable, economically and
politicallyquot; (Page 23), to those dishonest politicians who
would use those monetary manipulations and the invisible theft
of property they make possible to thwart the intent as well
as to discredit the wisdom of the Founders. But it's not just
reprobate politicians who deserve scorn; so too do many
dishonest Supreme Court justices.

This book reveals how the Supreme Court is no more bound by
the Constitution than the other branches of the federal
government. Edwin presents a thoroughly detailed historical
account of the perfidy of many of the court's justices,
who -- assuming that they were not acting from inexplicable
stupidity -- are time and again recklessly driven by
perceived political expediency at best, and narrow
self-serving interests at worst, in complete disregard of
the Constitution.

It is self-evident that Constitutional money exists not for the
benefit of the federal government, the Federal Reserve, and the
rest of the banking cartel or their toadies, but rather for the
benefit of We the People. And by allowing an unconstitutional
money to be imposed upon us, We the People have lost those
quot;blessingsquot; the Founders sought so hard to secure.

In conclusion, quot;Pieces of Eightquot; capably and convincingly
demonstrates the inadequacy of a national currency. Even when
restricted by a Constitution and in face of the historical
evidence of the bad consequences that arise from tampering
with the monetary unit, the U.S. experience shows how a
national currency is inevitably impaired and irreparably
damaged by the whims of politicians and justices, lapdogs
all for the moneyed interests.

I'll let Edwin have the last word. He writes that American
monetary history quot;shows how one bad idea (fractional-reserve
banking) led to a worse idea (that the government should
extend special privileges to a monopolistic private bank
to help the bank float its fractional-reserve paper
currency in the market), which led to as yet the worst
idea (that the government should centralize the creation
of a private fractional-reserve currency in a nationwide
system propped up with public debt), which finally led
to the present situation, in which the government purports
to make itself liable to accept for payment of taxes or
to redeem with 'lawful money' all the paper currency of
the national cartel of fractional-reserve banks organized
under the Federal Reserve System -- a situation that
could (and, when it collapses, doubtlessly will) be styled
the great house of monetary cards that political Jacks
built.quot; (Page 389.)

This beautifully hardbound quot;research editionquot; of quot;Pieces
of Eightquot; will be given a special place in my library,
and I'm sure you will want it in yours as well. You can
purchase it for $56.45 including shipping ($58.70 for
Virginia residents). Mail your check or money order --
payable to Edwin Vieira Jr. -- to Pieces of Eight, 13877
Napa Drive, Manassas, Virginia 20112-3821. More details,
including shipping rates outside the United States, are
available at:

a href=http://www.piecesofeight.us/PofE.html.http://www.piecesofeight.us/PofE.h...

This is a great book. It offers a treasure trove of
knowledge. It is a pleasure to read. Buy it, and enjoy
it.

-----------------------

James Turk is editor of the Freemarket Gold and Money Report
and founder of GoldMoney.