Whose Image is On the Coin?

Following a recent technical presentation I ended up in a conversation with Ben Cooper (who was there to learn about Seaside). It turns out that in addition to sharing an interest in Smalltalk, we also have similar concerns about the government's role in managing the money supply. I described a paper I wrote many years ago and Ben asked for a copy. I sent him a scanned copy (I only had the paper in hard-copy format), and he arranged for Carrie Bellue to transcribe it and send me a soft copy. I've reformatted it somewhat and am now making it available for download as a PDF.

The basic idea is that private firms ought to be able to issue currency as long as it is not denominated in an existing government money. That is, a Wells Fargo Ducat should not be seen as counterfeit for a United States Dollar. The paper is a rather technical analysis of the legal issues.