Viewpoint: US mint needs more autonomy, flexibility
stonej
Mike Marotta
> http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=...
It is hard to say everything in 500 words. So, I can accept that Sean
Moffatt had other thoughts on this that he could not present in that
forum. Basically, he is not talking about privatization as we know it
in the USA, but the creation of a quasi-public entity, more akin to
the Royal Canadian Mint or the Federal Reserve Bank.
In a truly privatized operation, the Congress would still define what
a "dollar" is, etc., but the Treasury would just put the production
out for competitive bids. They could write the contracts for all or
part of any production -- 3 billion quarters to one company or a 300
million to each of 10.
The basic purpose of government is defense and justice. Minting is a
business that they do not need to be in.
That said, however, it is important to consider the ARSENAL system
versus the contractor method. In the old days, the governments
maintained their own production facilities for the weapons of war.
When the needs got bigger than they could handle, they went over to
contracting that out. That became what President Eisenhower labeled
"the military-industrial complex" with all of the attendant problems.
We look to the government as the source of money. It is not. It is
the source of govrenment money, a convenience allowed so that it could
do business. The goverment needs to buy a pencil or an aircraft
carrier. They take in taxes, recoin the gold and silver in their own
style and symbols and deliver that to the makes of pencils and
aircraft carriers, thus advertising the virtues of the Republic.
However... in the meantime, as a matter of fact, during that earlier
age, many merchants in America even 50 years after Independence and
the new Constitution continued to keep their books in Pounds-Shillings-
Pence, as that was how they were paid by their customers and how they
bought from their suppliers. Moreover, even in the 1840s and 1850s,
privately-owned banks showed SPANISH (or Mexican, etc.) coins on their
notes as that is what most people recognized as "money." And those
foreign coins were legal tender, as well. (See the Spanish Coins on
American Notes website here:http://scoan.oldnote.org/)
So, if the government wants to run its own Mint, I suppose that's
fine, but, as Sean Moffatt said, the matter is a bit complicated.