In a Slashdot post about Apple’s new policy that purchases of iPhones sold at Apple Stores can only be done by credit or debit card, and not cash, and in reaction to concern that refusing cash as payment for goods or services might be illegal, the post links to this U.S. Treasury Department page, which states that private businesses, organizations and individuals can have their own policies about compensation for goods and services. However, since Federal Reserve Notes and (older) U.S. Notes (and other instruments representing their transfer) are legal tender for the payment of taxes, fees, dues, fines, etc. to the Federal government, virtually all private businesses, organizations and individuals, and state and local governments, find it convenient to accept them for their private transactions.
In the July-September 2006 issue of the Citizens Informer, the official dead tree and ink quarterly of the Council of Conservative Citizens, the feature article was about the Liberty Dollar. One thing we found out in the article is that the U.S. Mint, a division of the Treasury Department, tried to claim (but later retracted) that neither Liberty Dollars nor anything other than Federal Reserve Notes and U.S. Notes are legal tender for private transactions. However, they are right that Liberty Dollars cannot be used to pay taxes to the Federal government.
This is yet another example of the lack of communication within government agencies, much less between them. And I thought nothing could top the IE-FEMA spat from 2005.
Related: Ron Paul’s visage minted on Liberty Dollars; Massachusetts towns develop their own media of exchange
