KALISPELL — A legislator from Columbia Falls is asking the state to pay him in gold and silver coins because he is skeptical about the future of the dollar.

Republican Rep. Jerry O'Neil justified his request in his letter to Montana Legislative Services this week by saying a clause in the U.S. Constitution says no state shall "make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts."

O'Neil writes that he thinks the high national debt makes it possible that the bottom will fall out from under the U.S. dollar.

O'Neil says he does not know how Legislative Services will respond.

But he said he is trying to get people to start thinking about what will happen if the U.S. currency collapses.