Utah Didn't Make Gold And Silver Legal Tender

This story is commonly misquoted. Utah did *NOT* declare that gold and silver are legal tender.

All the law did was repeal state capital gains taxes and sales taxes on gold and silver. It only applies to gold and silver coins minted by the Federal government.

Here are things the law did *NOT* do:

1. Federal capital gains taxes are still owed on Utah gold and silver transactions.
2. If you go into a store and buy something with a $50 American Eagle one ounce gold coin, the store only is legally required to give you $50 credit. Really, you should get credit based on melt value and not legal tender value. Utah's law should have said "gold and silver have a legal tender value equal to melt value (plus or minus a small transaction fee)".
3. It's still illegal to operate a gold and silver warehouse receipt bank in Utah. (Such banks aren't explicitly illegal. They're so heavily regulated that it's effectively illegal.)
4. Due to Federal laws, there still will be limited liquidity, for trading gold and silver coins for FRNs.
5. The law only applies to Federal-issued American Eages, and not generic bullion.
   

This law is a half partial measure. It did not declare that gold and silver are legal tender. It merely repealed State sales taxes and capital gains taxes.

In Utah, you still can't use gold and silver as money, valuing it at melt value and not face amount. There still are Federal laws restricting the ability of people to use gold and silver as money.

Specifically, if you use gold or silver as barter money on-the-books, *BOTH* parties owe tax at the 28% barter rate. That's much more unfavorable compared with FRN transactions. This Federal law still applies in Utah.

Utah's law is *NOT* a full nullification of Federal anti-gold and anti-silver laws. Those laws still apply in Utah. This is a weak partial measure falsely touted as a win for free money. All Utah's government did was repeal Utah capital gains taxes and sales taxes.