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Every now and then, a person
comes along that just seems to make a difference in your life. Merrill
Jenkins is one such man. I never had the privilege of meeting him, but have
studied his books and lectures for some time now. He was born in 1919, and
spent his teenage years growing up during the great depression. Like many
young men of his day, he started work at an early age in order to help make
ends meet at home. Mr. Jenkins died relatively young at age 60, in 1979. In between those years, Mr. Jenkins led an interesting life. This is his story.
Somewhere in the early 1960's, Mr. Jenkins invented the automatic stamp
dispensing machines that were installed in Post Office lobbies for after
hours operation. He also went on to invent other vending machines of one sort
or another, including those that changed federal reserve notes for coins
(tokens to be exact). During the course of his work for the Post Office, the
Treasury Department investigated his machines. They were quite impressed with
the way they worked. Mr. Jenkins told them that the only way a slug could
beat his machine is if someone plated a slug with a silver surfacing. For the
rest of his life, he claimed that he was regrettably the guilty person who
gave them the idea.
When the Treasury started issuing token coinage in 1965, Mr. Jenkins started
wondering exactly what this thing called "money" really was
all about. He read and reasoned about the money issue, and eventually wrote
several works. "Money the Greatest Hoax on Earth" was his
first book. It was published in 1971. It was followed by "Everything
I Have, Was Theirs," "Treadmill to Oblivion," and
finally, "Aeonic Monetary Delusion," published after his
death.
Mr. Jenkins writes his books with a hard-hitting logic that is reasoned out
in great detail. Sometimes the details seem over worked, but as he says in
his books, exact definitions of terms are required for a proper understanding
of larger concepts.
He had quite a correspondence with the IRS and the Federal Reserve that he
shares in his book, "Everything I Have Is Theirs". His most
pressing letters result from a couple of questions: "Exactly what is
a dollar?" and "What is the money of account in the United
States?" The replies from these simple questions from all branches
and levels of government, as well as private banks and the Federal Reserve,
are truly astounding. Not one straight answer from all of them.
His most memorable lecture involved the question, "What is a dollar
of money?" In the Coinage Act of 1792, it states that the money of
account shall be expressed in dollars. The term "dollar" is
a unit of measurement just like quart or inch. In and of itself, a unit of
measure represents nothing. In the Coinage Act of 1792, a dollar measure of gold was a certain number of grams of .999 gold, while a dollar measure of
silver was a certain number of grams of .999 silver. A silver dollar should
have been expressed as "a dollar quantity of silver." The
lecture goes on to suggest that since a dollar is a unit of measure of silver
or gold and there is no more silver or gold in circulation, the term "dollar"
in use today is meaningless. He states that a judge stated to him once that
the term dollar is in common use and everyone knows what it is, to which he
replied, "so is the term mermaid, but they don't really exist
either!"
Paper currency used to be "redeemable" in gold and as such
was a note, payable in gold to the bearer upon demand. Now, since it is
redeemable in nothing but another like piece of paper it is technically no
longer a note. Yet we are still supposed to honor it in transactions as if it
were the money (gold or other units of value) itself. He made his point by
illustrating a hat check represented your hat that you checked at the door. It was not the hat itself, only
a claim for the hat at a later date. Certainly, you would not wear the hatcheck
home on your head as if it were the actual hat! He claims that we are now
using the hatchecks as hats themselves with our present system.
The argument that there are no real "dollars" in circulation
anymore and that the lawful money of account was no longer circulating lead to
his next group of letters to the IRS. Since in all the IRS regulations there
is no definition of a dollar, and they could not define the term dollar in
their letters, how could he send in a Form 1040 and swear at the bottom of
the form that he had earned dollars? He even stated that since Federal
Reserve Notes were not "dollars" (and as far as he knew,
there were not any dollars any more), he had been robbed of his labors over
the past years. He asked the IRS to help him and to please return all his tax
"dollars" he had previously sent to them as evidence of the
crime.
Since the dollar is a unit of measure and the modern dollar measures
nothing, then it can only follow that the modern dollar is nothing. Money
used to be redeemable in a hard asset, but the modern dollar is just a
liability or monetized debt. Therefore, a debt is now an asset???
Mr. Jenkins' books are filled with references to court cases and his
correspondence with various officials. They read like a Greek tragedy. I have
only attempted to illustrate a small part of his total work. Throughout his
studies, he developed a list of fifty-two economic truths. It is number
thirty-three that stands out tonight, "Inflation must end with
deflation."
I am sure he would have had fun with the new American Eagles had he been
alive to see them issued. All the following issues are legal tender: Silver
Eagles (at $1.00), Gold Eagles (at $50.00), Federal Reserve Notes (at face
value), old silver and gold certificates (at face value) , pre-1965 coins
with 10% seigniorage (at face value), as well as newer token coins with 97%
seigniorage (at face value)! Each of these items has a market value
that is different from their legal tender value. I am waiting for someone at
the treasury to explain that one. Perhaps I'll write them a letter!
I leave you with a quote from Section 19 of the Coinage Act of 1792.
(Remember the Founding Fathers just had their little experiment with fiat, in
the form of continental dollars, come to a nasty end).
"If any of the gold or silver coins shall be debased ...every such
officer or person who shall commit any or either of said offenses, shall be
deemed guilty of felony, and shall suffer death." (Maybe I should
call Angola and tell them to warm up old sparky.)
Larry Laborde
Silver Trading
Company
www.silvertrading.net
Larry lives in the occupied South with his wife Puddy and sells
precious metals at the Silver Trading Company. Larry can be contacted
at llabord@aol.com. You can view
his web site at www.silvertrading.net.
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