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ULTIMATE STATE OF TÆDIVM:
This is the creation of Mr. Chaim Dov Shiboleth, a colleague of mine for several years, and a fellow
Charter Member of the Unrecognised States Numismatic Society
(http://www.usns.info/ and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnrecognisedStatesNumismaticSociety/). The breathtaking ½ Gaap (½ Yawn), dated 2005, is his personal
addition to a small (but expanding) corner of our field.
At his Web-site (http://www.taedivm.org/), Chaim offers an extremely well-written explanation for his numismatic project.
He begins by asking us to “Visualise the clock, the hours of the day ticking away: Daily,
you start work at 9 a.m. (maybe earlier, maybe later). You greet your colleagues with a nod of the head; maybe you have a chat about the weather, the daily
traffic jams, redecorating, the game last night, international politics. You get your cup of coffee
(one sugar or two? or do you drink tea?), check your mailbox (chances are you turn on the computer) and start your daily routine. Possibly you work with
people, responding to their needs, a teacher, guide, salesman; maybe you work with artefacts,
consumer goods; you might be a scholar, a thinker, a writer, using words or numbers as the tools of your trade. It's all the same. Daily, at 5 p.m. (or maybe a while
later) you'll pack your bag, wish the colleagues a fine evening and join the other commuters,
those taking the train or those ploughing their way through clogged traffic routes, following the well-known paths leading homewards. At home, you'll greet
your spouse, your children (if you have them), eat your supper, read the evening paper or watch
the latest news (or soap, or comedy) on TV. Possibly you'll follow up on your sport or your hobby or go online to order the latest gadget or bauble that has
been designed to convince you into thinking your life will be improved by owning it. Filling the
hole in your time or in your collection (or is it the hole in your life) you'll feel good for a fleeting moment. But, the salesman's promise to fulfil your
dreams never occurs.” Chaim then continues to illustrate the dilemma of our mundane
lives, our submission to the treadmill of experiential repetitiveness: “Imagine the days of the week, the weeks in every year: Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly
following the same pattern, same routine. Stagnation. Imagine a lifetime, your life. Do you find
the life you're leading really fulfilling, does it arouse your natural intellectual curiosity? Or is it the comfort and safety of the known that keeps you
following the ticking of the clock? Do you make a difference? Are you sure? Or do you recognise
an internal feeling of existential boredom? Take this feeling, this boredom, this emptiness. This tedium. Hold it tight; embrace it for all it's worth! Think
about it as a State of Mind. Welcome to the Ultimate State of Tædivm. We'll welcome you
with half a yawn and lull you back to sleep. No promises made, none kept. Happy landing!”
Having been told about this boredom-quelling coin sometime in 2004, I awaited its production with immense anticipation. In my opinion, even if for some
inexplicable reason no other “fantasy”/“unusual” coin besides the ½
Gaap was to be minted during the entire following year, I was convinced that Chaim would single-handedly make it an outstanding twelvemonth anyhow. Solely taking
his demi-yawn into account, it was abundantly clear that numismatically speaking, 2005 would be
anything but l'année de l'ennui.
Initially, Chaim intended to produce a 1 Gaap (“pronounced with a soft G, similar to the CH of Loch Ness or Chaim”) piece, not a ½ Gaap. In
fact, he tentatively designed TWO coins. The first one was a large, ultra-detailed, bilingual
version (in Dutch, “The Ultimate State of Tædivm” is Het Uiterste Staat van Verveling). The second and smaller one, though much less
elaborate, was quite gorgeous nonetheless. Unfortunately, he was forced to change his plans during
the lengthy pre-production process. Though he utilized some of his original ideas, he basically came up with a whole different design. As a result, the
inaugural coin of Tædivm — “A coin full of compromises to the technical & practical
side of minting” — in his opinion is “only worthy of a pitiful half-a-yawn, a mere ½ Gaap”. Nothing less, “nothing
more.” Chaim also explains
(http://www.taedivm.org/taedivmcoin.html)
how he has imbued the coin with several layers of meaning. The obverse features “A stylised moon in the background, with the value
superimposed; the moon symbolising circularity, emptiness, lunacy. The triangles on the left
symbolise the dials of the clock stopped at 9, when freedom ends and the tædivm of the workday commences.” On the reverse, there are circular,
seemingly spiral-like elements; one of them represents “a clock with the dials set at ‘nine
to five’. The quote on the coin: ‘the hours of folly are measured by a clock’.” Another important feature of the coin is the central
hole: “Symbolising emptiness, the essence of being in an ultimate state of
tædivm…but also giving those who would wish it an opening to all that's beyond tædivm.” The coin was minted by Pressed Metal Products (Vancouver, B.C.) in
three metals: antiqued copper-nickel-zinc, antiqued copper, and silver (unholed). There were
also some pre-release trial pieces made of aluminum and brass. Images of all these beautiful varieties can be viewed elsewhere at the site (http://www.taedivm.org/coin-taedivm1.html). There, Chaim
indicates that even though the coin is “a befitting tribute to tedium”, each one of us must direct his/her hopeful gaze towards infinity: “But
remember to look further…through the coin, through the hole; you might just see a rare glimpse of
all that's beyond tedium, beyond tædivm.”
Chaim and I possess some similar qualities and characteristics: our paths as collectors have evolved in parallel ways, and they've simultaneously brought us
both to the still-untrammeled doorstep of Unusual World Coins. At a time when non-circulating
legal tender (NCLTs) keeps materializing left-and-right from sources who-knows-where, it's not difficult to gradually develop feelings of moderate ambivalence
towards many of these pieces (there are simply too many “viable” statelets around the
globe that theoretically deserve a coin of their own, but one could argue that it may be a tad too easy — though not inexpensive — for someone with
numismatic aspirations to arbitrarily pick one of these locations from an atlas and strike a coin
for it). Chaim understands that we are all susceptible to becoming too accustomed to tediously accumulating coins from the finite world of
“standard” countries. Once we acquire a specimen from every major/minor nation, territory, or dependency
on our carefully constructed want-lists, we may find ourselves in a weary sort of rut, less and less enthralled by our latest acquisitions; the excitement they
provide becomes significantly less potent, and its effects fade away much faster than we would
like. By degrees, we may begin to cultivate an urge to escape this repetitiveness and to stretch our interests. After years of the boring “same-old,
same-old”, it may be inevitable for a collector to investigate and pursue a different
universe of coins, a macrocosm of supra-KM proportions; for him or her to leap, alertly, into the vast numismatic unknown; to take a permanent detour, venturing
light-years beyond the well-worn, dog-eared contents of the best-selling, 2,300-page catalog.
Personally, I chose to dive headlong into the marvelous realm of exonumia. Especially impossible to resist were tokens/chits/tallies/checks from mines and
plantations. While branching out bit by bit in this unrestricted direction, it seemed fairly
natural, by logical extension, to include items from an additional slew of interrelated categories. Afterwards, fleeing even farther from the slightest hint of
monotony and stagnancy, I discovered the blossoming world of micro-national and fantasy coinage. And
this is where I gained the most satisfaction and fulfillment;
this is where I finally felt most at home. Perhaps Chaim shares this same sentiment.
Mr. Shiboleth's witty coin illustrates this newfound sensation with utmost perfection. We are seekers of stimulating and eye-opening coins, hoping to replenish
a smidgen of our youthful passion while attempting to overcome an expanding wave of
interminable dullness induced by our hobby of choice. The Ultimate State of Tædivm leads us away from the stale, colorless humdrum. This State offers us, once we
are fully and lucidly immersed in it, an entirely unconventional and limitless trajectory; one
filled with fantastic surprises and unpredictable thrills; one in which newness is always right around the corner, directly in our sights. Who's to say
Tædiousness isn't capable of filling our gazes with a steady stream of unending
awakenings?
Directly from Chaim (in Den Haag, the Netherlands), I obtained one of the ten “Special Sets” (signed, numbered) intended for USNS members. This
3-piece set contains one specimen of each type of the regular issues (copper-nickel-zinc, copper,
silver). I later sent him both versions of my 2006 Héliopolis medallion.
REPUBLIC OF TEXAS
In the “Questions and Answers” portion
(http://www.republic-of-texas.net/q&a.shtml)
of the Web-site of the Republic of Texas Interim
Government, an understandable admission is made: “The concept of Texas as an independent nation seems strange to some, and unobtainable to others. Here we have
tried to anticipate some of your questions regarding independence and give the best answers to
them.” What, then, is the Republic of Texas? “To answer this question we must begin by telling you what the Republic of Texas is not. The Republic of
Texas is not an organization, a social club, a fraternity, a militia, a terrorist group, or a
political party. The Republic of Texas is an independent nation comprised of Texans or Texians. The Republic of Texas is a constitutional republic; a government
with very limited national powers. The nation is currently in transition as we begin to move
toward independence. The Republic of Texas will governed by the ‘true’ consent of its citizens as free and sovereign individuals who elect
representative bodies on a national, district, county and city level. The current national body is a
Interim Government whose purpose is to coordinate efforts to free Texas from its current occupation and then facilitate a referendum on Independence and the first
general election. Upon conclusion of the general election, the Interim Government will dissolve in
favor of the new governing bodies. Funding for the Interim government is obtained by voluntary donations. The national government exists to establish and
institute foreign policy and to coordinate national defenses. The Districts and Counties of the
Republic maintain infrastructure and administer to the general needs of the citizenry on a day-to-day basis. Taxation will be determined by all Texans at the polls
and not by a handful of beaurocrats. This issue will be determined after Independence is won.
The Republic stands for the belief that all people, regardless of any other consideration, are born to be free and to seek their own way towards happiness and
self-realization. It reasons that the family is the root of all human institutions and is,
therefore, inviolate. It acknowledges that the sole purpose of government is to protect and serve the individual in his or her quest for material and spiritual
fulfillment. The function of the Republic, therefore, is to be a means and not an end.” The
Interim Government of the ROT is based in Overton, TX. Its current President is Daniel A. Miller. The movement began in West Texas when the residents of Jeff Davis
County began a legal process in April of 1994 to regain the state and secure its transition
into a Republic. The inception of its Provisional Government began on December 12/13, 1995, when delegates met in Bulverde (near San Antonio) to elect its
members; this was also when the final documents which were meant to reinstate Texas as a Republic were
filed with the International Court of Justice, at the Hague. On the 27th of that month, John C. VanKirk, standing on the steps of the state Capitol, proclaimed
Texas a neutral nation unto itself. In July of 2003, the Interim Government of the Republic of
Texas — “tasked with moving Texas towards independence” — was established. “It facilitates organization of self-determinate
government on the national, county, and city levels to ensure continuity of government, and to prepare
for the first free elections and the swift and lawful transition to a national constitutional republican form of government…Understand that the Republic of
Texas is a sovereign nation and the Republic of Texas Interim Goverment is an organization
established by representatives under the Plans and Powers that define the duties and powers of this Interim Government. The Texas Independence Movement is the
political faction of the Interim Government formed under the authority of the President's powers to
facilitate any and all efforts to move towards independence.”
According to the Interim Government of the ROT, “In 1836, the Republic of Texas separated from Mexico and became a separate nation.” The actual
date was March 2nd. This lasted until 1845 (Dec. 29), when the ROT “was supposedly brought
into the union by a joint resolution of the United States Congress. Then in 1861, the Republic of Texas decided to annul that agreement, and left the United
States to resume its former status as a sovereign nation.” They formed an alliance with the
Confederate States, without actually becoming one. In 1865, after the Civil War, “The United States invaded the Republic of Texas, conquering it with
military force, and holding it as a captive nation.” The ROT's patriotic adherents believe the
annexation of Texas in 1845 was illegal and invalid, therefore they do not recognize Texas statehood. The Republic “never died — it was just covered
up with a blanket called the State of Texas for a century and a half.” Their modern
mission, in spite of the fact that in April of 1996 a U.S. District Judge ruled that the ROT was an unincorporated company/business and not a sovereign nation, is
“to restore freedom and liberty to Texas” by attempting to “throw off that
dusty blanket and come back into the light”. In 1996, the group even addressed a letter to “All Nations of the World” and to the U.N. General
Assembly, notifying them of its official flag, symbols, emblems, and military insignia. Also in
December of that year, they had sterling silver “Ranger” badges manufactured for their “Defense Forces”. The items, which were made even
though this was prohibited by law, were never delivered; the group did not fully pay for them,
leaving the Austin jewelers — whose business had by then been threatened with destruction — stuck with an inventory of 75 badges they couldn't sell. To
make matters worse for the ROT, at around the same time their mail delivery was even cut off
or “temporarily disrupted” by Postal officials.
For numerous months, the Republic remained beset with internal bickering and chaos among its own ranks. The leaders, though appearing to have the same earnest
objectives, had been driven apart by their own incompatible policies/activities into separate,
squabbling factions; conciliation, for the time being, was out of the question. Depending on who tossed whom out of office, and who fired/suspended/replaced
whom in retaliation, at least 3 or 4 major rival factions arose. The older “provisional
government” was led by Archie Lowe (who was the successor to VanKirk, who was dethroned in March of 1996, and who'd been linked by federal authorities to the
right-wing Freemen of Montana). The newer “provisional government” was led by David
Johnson (who left the Lowe-McLaren faction in the fall of '96) and then Jesse Enloe. There was also a “provisional government” led by Boyce
Halbison (elected in April of '97) and then by Steven Crear (appointed President in May of '97 by
McLaren). They all claimed to be the main arm of the movement. This split in the leadership seemed to indicate that the ROT was beginning to self-destruct.
The organization also weathered a mounting series of ongoing clashes with the judicial system. In July of 1996, A State District Judge was forced to disband
the self-proclaimed Supreme Court of the ROT, issuing a permanent injunction that forbade their 5
“justices” from making rulings and barred them from passing themselves off as judges or a genuine court, or using any purported seal of the state
to give a realistic appearance to any of their documents. In another legal quandary which took
place that same month, Attorney General Dan Morales instituted an action in the District Court which resulted in his obtaining a temporary restraining order
against the group, prohibiting them from filing false liens against public or private property. In
October the courts also ordered the group to rescind and recant letters sent to about 175 banks, which had instructed them to transfer/reassign all monetary
assets held by the state, its agencies and political subdivisions, to the group. Apart from trying
to seize state bank accounts, they were making use of phony court judgments, tampering with government records, interfering with property sales and restraining
trade. The Johnson faction did contend that Richard Lance McLaren, their Chief Ambassador and
Consul General, was behind many of those offences. He and his accomplices from the Lowe faction, “in a crazed and unintelligent move”, supposedly
acted unconstitutionally by entering into a conspiracy to create the “Republic of Texas
Trust”, which was done in secrecy, completely without the knowledge of the Provisional Government. Once the ROT became aware of this, they took several
protective measures against their underhanded doings and disassociated themselves from the culprits
and their wrongful acts. This ultimately led to the impeachment of McLaren and other members of the council. McLaren and his conspirators were ultimately
accused of issuing more than $1.8 billion in bogus documents. “We're going to do this thing 100
percent legal,” vowed Johnson, but some individuals in his faction apparently were not squeaky-clean either; they were also being investigated for
possible banking law violations by selling about 60 Republic banking charters, which were not
recognized by federal or state regulators, for $2,000 each. By January of 1997, Governor George W. Bush and his Attorney General declared the issue an
“emergency”, which cleared the way for lawmakers to make it a high priority and give it immediate
attention, in the hopes of passing legislation that would crack down on the group's filing of fraudulent documents (which they described as “paper
terrorism”). These types of transgressions only exacerbated the political/philosophical
differences within the fractured ROT, making reunification in the foreseeable future seem highly unlikely.
The ROT is a true-blue secessionist movement, and some of these anti-government separatists have gone to vehement extremes to prove their seriousness about
being a fully independent country. In 1997, they again made headlines when a “rogue
faction” led by McLaren staged a week-long siege at his compound deep in the Davis Mountains; this metal building in a resort development was the “Embassy
of the Republic of Texas, Office of Foreign Affairs”. McLaren, who was wanted on a
burglary charge (in August of 1995, he helped a woman break into the house she, due to foreclosure, no longer owned) and who was no stranger to the courthouse or the
jailhouse, had been entrenched there since December of '96 because a federal judge had issued an
arrest warrant against him after he refused to appear at civil court hearings. On March 22, 1997, the self-styled commander had already been expelled by
several leaders of the original group for trying to “usurp authority” and wanting to
steer the group into a perilously criminal direction. In the past, McLaren had been careful to insist that the ROT was simply waging a paper war, but he now
advocated an alignment with militias and plotted a violent strategy to remove the federal government
from their Texan turf. Public officials and his fellow ROT members had begun expressing concern that his dangerously risky rhetoric could evolve into a shooting.
It was largely for those reasons, as well as the financial matters, that the ROT became so
intensely divided. Ousted, McLaren then formed his own breakaway clique, comprised of 12-20 militia members who swore allegiance to the wiry-haired McLaren and
continued to consider him the ROT's actual leader. They now found themselves holed up in their
“embassy” (this scene of the siege was sold at auction to The Nature Conservancy of Texas in 1998). Their insurrection occurred because two of their
cohorts had been arrested by law-enforcement officers. McLaren and his “Defense
Forces” then took two neighbors as hostages on April 27; the militant group was then surrounded by police and Texas Rangers; one sheriff was even quoted saying that
he was prepared to take “extreme measures” to arrest the wanted man. McLaren, who
had renounced his U.S. citizenship, issued a faxed press release in which they asserted that the arrests were a “violation of international law.” He
and his group demanded the release of their two comrades and an unconditional statewide
referendum for voters to decide on the independence of Texas. “We are in a declared state of war,” McLaren said during the uprising. “We have two
prisoners of war. They have two of ours.” McLaren had even ordered his loyalists to begin
picking up federal judges, legislators, and IRS agents — all considered “foreigners” — for “immediate deportation” if they were
found on Texas soil. Officers negotiated with the furious group by telephone, and after 12
hours McLaren agreed to release the hostages, one of whom had been wounded during the assault by flying shards of glass, in exchange for one of his jailed men.
Despite having vowed to fight to the death, McLaren ended the highly publicized revolt on May 3rd
by signing a cease-fire agreement and by turning himself over to police about five hours after his wife had surrendered. Meanwhile, two of his camouflaged, armed
followers fled from the hideout into the juniper and pine slopes that dotted the landscape of
this remote area. A massive manhunt ensued, and one of the fugitives was killed during an exchange of gunfire with authorities. McLaren's imprisonment dampened
his partisans' fervor, but in a statement addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Warren
Christopher, they denounced McLaren's arrest as an “unlawful attack” on a Republic citizen. Even after he began serving a 99-year state term for his role in
the kidnapping, in June of 1998 McLaren was sentenced to 12 additional years in federal prison
on state and federal conspiracy/fraud charges; he was also ordered to pay $426,000 in restitution to those he defrauded. The sensible members of the legitimate
and lawful ROT, who “were misinformed and grossly led astray” by McLaren, even
charged him with high treason, sedition and five other offenses. McLaren and his aggressively headstrong associates were but a “splinter cell” of the
Republic and did not represent the peaceful values and beliefs of the Interim Government. In
fact, the ROT disavowed all of the maverick's latest actions. After the dust had settled, it was even disclosed that there was a plot to assassinate, among other
individuals, George W. Bush. McLaren had tried to purchase machine guns and more powerful
weaponry such as an anti-aircraft missile to target the future president's plane. In a related topic, 2 ROT members were convicted in Oct. 1998 of sending threatening
e-mails to top federal, state, local employees and their families (including President Clinton,
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, and FBI Director Louis Freeh), but acquitted on numerous other charges all related to an alleged plot to slay government
officials using cactus needles coated with a deadly biological toxin; they'd planned to infect
their unsuspecting victims by shooting the poisoned, germ-tipped darts out of a modified cigarette lighter.
A sizeable portion of the information presented above was garnered from a fantastic Web-site:
http://personalwebs.myriad.net/steveb/rot.html. It contains a wealth of articles from many sources,
including The Associated Press,
The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle, and The Bryan-College Station Eagle.
Since the siege, and during subsequent trials, the mainstream press has perhaps failed to present the ROT case with balance and impartiality. “The Fort
Davis standoff has been very difficult for us to live down,” stated Miller, who was
unanimously elected President of their Interim Government in August of 2000 after the resignation of Lowe. Miller and other group leaders try to distance their
respective organizations from radical tactics and McLaren. Both groups reiterated that McLaren had
been stripped of his authority. “It appears that Richard McLaren and those acting with him have gone completely off the deep end,” one of them stated.
They insist the Republic of Texas in Overton is “kinder and gentler” and that its
citizens will work within the system to achieve their overall goals. Under Miller's guidance, this wing of the ROT is making a successful comeback. Even Overton
Chief of Police Ed Williams states that the ROT have basically been “good neighbors who
have contributed to the community”. According to Texan Arise — The Republic of Texas: Past, Present and Future, a book written by President
Miller and Vice President Lauren L. Savage, by mid-2002, at least 2 of the disputing factions set
aside their ideological disagreements and joined together. By mid-2003, a newly revitalized ROT “made an about-face”; they successfully regrouped
and began to reassess their means, their aims, and their true intent. It became clear to them
“that a fundamental change in direction had to occur”; this included admitting that during its first 8 years, the ROT had “accomplished next to
nothing” and that the previous councils “had taken the wrong path” due to the
misguided zeal of its leaders. In 2004, the remaining knavish persons who still wanted to do things the old, shady way (in the re-united faction and in the 3rd
“other” faction) were expelled from the movement. The ROT sent them termination
notices, sued them, and won the lawsuit.
There has been no shortage of other obstacles for the Republic to overcome along the way, such as an attempted coup in June 2004: a small group from the
“white-male supremacist” faction, pretending to be visitors, tried to enter the capitol
building (with the acquisition of what had previously been a municipal hospital, the organization established itself there in 2003; it was the first time the
group had an official base) to assume control. The takeover did not succeed. Furthermore, the ROT
claims that in October of 2001, they “possibly became one of the first victims in the United States Government's war against dissident groups on what it
perceives to be it's own soil. The national website was taken down and our email was totally
shut down. Most of the files that we use to publish the website were deleted.”
So if you try to visit their Web-site and it's not available, you'll know why!
The Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836) gave the Congress of the Republic of Texas the power “To regulate commerce, to coin money, to regulate
the value thereof and of foreign coin, to fix the standard of weights and measures; but nothing
but gold and silver shall be made a lawful tender.” The republic, however, never minted any coins. No coins were ever minted by, or for, the republic.
Metallic money was scarce in the United States at that time, and it was even scarcer in Texas.
Paper money (promissory notes), however, was indeed printed by the republic. Interest Notes (they had blank backs) were issued between the fall of 1837 and early
1839; these soon decreased in value. Non-interest bearing notes (referred to as
“redbacks” due to the reddish color on their reverse side) were issued between January 1839 and September 1840 (a few replacement bills, however, were printed after
that time); like the interest bearing notes before them, these collapsed in value almost from
the start. By 1842, the currency system of the Republic of Texas was in such dire straits that even the government would not accept redbacks for payment of
taxes. Other plans were attempted to get the republic's fiscal house in order, but these plans
achieved only slightly better results. However, as the economy in the United States improved and the Texas annexation movement gained momentum, currency in Texas
slowly recovered some of its value before Texas was annexed in 1845.
I purchased a total of 3 numismatic ROT items from Mr. Savage. To begin with, “the citizens of the Republic of Texas movement minted their first silver
coin.” It is a “One R.T. Unit” (1 Troy ounce of silver) dated 1999. It
features the phrase “A Nation Free Under God” as well as a large silhouette of Texas. This piece was intended solely for collectors (the same goes for
their next coin, which I was unable to acquire from Mr. Savage: a “Remember the Alamo”
R.T. Unit, dated 2000). Secondly, their Treasury minted its first silver coin “to be used as coinage (money) within the Republic of Texas.” It is a
“Texas Silver” piece (eight grams) dated 2003. On one side, it features the phrase
“A Sovereign Nation Under God” as well as a silhouette of Texas; on the other side, it features the phrase “Freedom — Supreme Law For Its
People” as well as an image of the flag. This piece has since been discontinued because
it did not fall into any monetary system. Then there is the first piece minted by their Treasury “and ordered to be a coin of the RT monetary
system.” It is a 2004 (actually undated) One Gerah, which corresponds in value to 1/20th of a Texas
Shekel (as well as 1/20th of an ounce of pure silver). To quote Mr. Savage, this newly adopted “money system was based upon the oldest known system in
history…back to ancient Mesopotamia…It was employed by many countries and adopted by ancient
Israel, too. According to our treasurer all denominations come out in even divisible numbers — not never-ending decimals. In the future we may
‘texanize’ what the coins are called, but they will be based on the same system.” An
article by Simon Romero in The New York Times (February 13, 2005) entitled In Small Town, the Fight Continues for Texas Sovereignty, refers to the Gerah
as an “alternative currency”: the ROT group advocates “the creation of an
alternative monetary system using minted silver and gold coins. One coin made of one gram of silver has a large Texas star in its center and the word
‘Overton’ emblazoned around it.” At one time, this coin could be viewed/purchased at the
Web-site of the Interim Government of the ROT:
http://www.republic-of-texas.net/index2.shtml.
Images of the Gerah can be viewed at the site of Mr. Haseeb Naz's private collection:
http://chiefacoins.com/Database/Micro-Nations/Texas_Republic.htm
From Mr. Larry Johnson, I was fortunate to also purchase the hard-to-find 1836 silver “One Dollar” piece. The obverse shows a front-view of the
Alamo. The reverse features a large Lone Star, along with the words “THERMOPYLÆ HAD
HER MESSENGER OF DEFEAT THE ALAMO HAD NONE” (the comparison between the events at the Battle of the Alamo [February 23 - March 6, 1836] to the Battle of
Thermopylae [480 B.C.] occurred shortly after the Texian defeat; the quotation implies that no one
survived the Alamo battle to tell the Texans' story, but some people did indeed survive [all but two were non-combatants]; the phrase “Thermopylae had
her messenger of defeat — the Alamo had none” was coined by General Edward Burleson,
who served as Vice President of the Republic of Texas in President Sam Houston's second term from 1841-1844; it is said to have been spoken in a famous 1842
speech — ghost-written by Thomas Jefferson Green — before the Alamo; it was soon
afterward included with three other quotations on the first Alamo monument in Austin, TX). Included with the coin was “the old 2x2 Kraft envelope [from the
1950's] with the name of Bill Ross [the collector died in 1961]. This medal came out of the large
Ostheimer Collection of So Called Dollars and medals — it's a real gem.” Bill Ross suggests, in his typewritten text on the envelope, that the coin
might have been made in 1936, on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo. This, by the
way, was the most famous battle of the Texas Revolution (Texas War of Independence), which was fought from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836 between Mexico and
settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The year 1836, as noted
in the second paragraph of this write-up, is also the year in which the Republic of Texas became an independent nation.
So this is something the coin might be commemorating as
well.
The latest incarnation of the ROT on the Internet (it is the site of the Texas Nationalist Movement) seems to be:
http://www.texasnationalist.com/.
Another ROT site, probably a relic from one of the contending factions, is:
http://www.texasrepublic.info/.
Here is another place to visit:
http://www.nationoftexas.com/homepage.shtml.
TEXAS MINT
(based in Whitney, Texas): According to Rick Pinner, an artist and rancher, “I had this idea in 1997 that Texas
needed a commemorative dollar for the Millennium and finally formalized that with my design for
the 2000 issue. I spent a couple of years selling just that one, after I had them made (1998-2000). I've always had some interest in coins, but never knew much
about it. After my first silver dollar sold so well (I even had some minted in .999 gold) I
thought the next year I'd do a 2001, and so it continued.” As a tribute to Texas' entry into the new century, there is a silver dollar for each year since
then, so minting these pieces has turned into an annual tradition. They have received lots of
interest over the years and each coin “depicts someone or something from our great Texas Heritage.” Mr. Pinner had a little cabin in downtown Whitney
from which they were sold, but the Texas Mint & Mercantile has since moved to a larger store.
I purchased the 2001 “buffalo design” Texas Silver Dollar, and 2003 (actually undated) Dragonfly Dime (silver, highlighted in 24K gold) directly from
http://www.texasmint.com
As a companion-piece to the Republican and Texas Mint coinage, I obtained (on eBay) an interesting 1980 Texas Dollar. It was produced by the Papel Mint, Inc.
(of No. Hollywood, CA), and belongs to their “State Dollar Commemorative Series”, in
which a unique “limited collector's edition” was minted for each of the 50 states. These, the maker tells us, are “Not Legal Tender”.
And, as a comrade-piece to accompany the companion-piece, I found an additional Texas Dollar on
eBay. This one is undated, and features a mockingbird (state avis) and the bluebonnet (state flower) on the reverse. Apart from the tiny “©
WNW”, which is present on both sides, I've no clue as to who issued the token (at least 2 more
varieties, with different reverses, also exist). Furthermore, I came across (also on eBay) a silver “One Texas Dollar”
issued by the Don Casey Company, Inc.
KINGDOM OF TORGU
(situated in Estonia, on a part of Saaremaa/Ösel Island known as the Sõrve Peninsula): Instituted on
lands of the former Torgu (Torkenhof) township, by Mr. Kirill Teiter, a member of the
“Royalists” faction of the Estonian Riigikogu (Parliament). Its formation was in strict accordance with article 155 of the Constitution. He was a well-known
person/voice at the time; he was a police officer and his traffic reports could be heard on the
radio.
Many years ago, the Sõrve Peninsula was divided into 2 municipalities: Torgu and Salme. In Soviet times, they were united. Then, in the summer of 1992,
there were administrative reforms. Salme, but not Torgu, was re-established according to the
old boundaries. In September of that year, Mr. Leevi Häng, the president of the Society for Restoration and Development of Sõrve, protested to the
newspapers. He publicly declared the Estonian Kingdom of Torgu, and offered the throne to Mr.
Teiter, who in turn accepted. In October, the country's first elections (after Russian occupation) were held, and Mr. Teiter was elected as a member of the
Riigikogu; including his own, the “Royalists” won 8 seats (out of 101). The results of
this popular referendum were a surprise to the politicians, journalists, and everyone else involved. On November 28, the quasi-koenig was formally appointed king,
in title, during a ball in Kuressaare. On December 9, the Riigikogu approved a decision on the
establishment of local government status to several administrative units, including Torgu. This apparently was satisfactory to Mr. Teiter (now Kirill the
First), who had 2 days earlier submitted a draft resolution because the government had failed to
address the Torgu situation in a timely manner. Though Torgu was not given full-blown Kingdom-rights, he still achieved his goal, which had been to restore
county-rights to the circa 500 citizens who would otherwise not have the right to vote in matters of
self-rule during future elections. On December 18, he was crowned by the Saaremaa Selts (Ösel Society) during a coronation ceremony in Tallinn. He was
originally going to be crowned as the King of Saaremaa, but at the last moment, the islanders became
fearful of political complications/repercussions and presented him with a crown solely for Torgu. And this was not a gift, either; he had to pay 500 Krooni for
this honor. Also, the crown was the leftist National Front's way of protesting against the
right-wing Pro Patria party's ultra-liberal privatization policy. In March of 1993, self-government county-rights were officially restored to Torgu.
So for a few years, Kirill I was the “eye-stopper king” of Torgu. There were parties, interviews for television shows, an upsurge in tourism, and
meetings with foreign investors. He left Parliament in 1995. He now lives in Tallinn, and is a
group commander and specialist who co-ordinates all mass-media and public relations activities for their Fire and Rescue Department. He refers to himself as the
king-in-exile, and he still has the costly crown in his “book-cupboard”. The daily
demands of royalty can be very taxing on an ordinary, non-blue-blooded person; in his own words, “naturally I have not so much money to be a real or
irreal king.”
Though I've corresponded with Mr. Teiter numerous times, I bought two of the coins in my collection from someone else, Mr. Andy Kirss: the 1993 coin (issued
June 23; 2000 pieces), and the 1998 “V” coin (issued in the summer of that year, to
commemorate the 5th anniversary of the 1st coin; 500 pieces). From Mr. Oded Paz, founder of the Unrecognised States Numismatic Society (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnrecognisedStatesNumismaticSociety/ and http://www.usns.info/), I purchased the 2002 “X” coin (commemorating the Kingdom's
10th anniversary; 250 pieces). At that point in time, there was only one additional coin:
Kirill's personal 50th birthday/Jubilee “L” coin, dated 25.08.2002 (75 pieces). It is worth noting that Mr. Teiter presented one of Torgu's first
numismatic pieces to former Estonian President Lennart Meri. “This was Autumn 1993, Mr
President has a coffee-time in Kadriorg Castle with royalist faction. Finally he told to us about ancient Arabian dirhems buried treasure in Prangli Island in Finnish
Bay. After them I gave to him my coin and Mr. Meri said humorous-seriously: Oh,
thanks…but…don't gild the lilly, boy!”
The initial two coins in Mr. Teiter's series (perhaps even all four) were ostensibly worth a 50 centiliter (1/2 liter) bottle of vodka in the confines of the
Kuningriik. Mr. Teiter confirms that Torgu's coinage still changes hands as actual money. They
are accepted by merchants and bartenders, and because their purchasing power is pegged to that of “Viru Valge”/Estonian White, their commercial
worth has risen 300% in 10 years. In 1993 the value of 1 coin was 20-25 EEK; in 1998 it increased
to 40 EEK; in 2003 it climbed to 60-70 EEK.
From Mr. Jorge Fernández Vidal (also a member of the USNS), I later purchased a 2008 “XV” coin (commemorating the 15th anniversary of the
1st coin) specifically denominated “½ ltr.”
(liter).
Images of Torgu's coinage can be viewed at the site of Mr. Chaim Dov Shiboleth's private collection:
http://www.taedivm.org/torgu.html
Images of the “XV” coin could be viewed at the Web-site of Mr. Vidal:
http://www.jfvcoins.com/Productos/micronations_english=catTZ.html
EMPIRE OF TREBIZOND:
Its shores are located along the southeastern coastal region of the Black Sea, in what is now Turkey's Trabzon
province. This Empire flourished from 1204 to 1461. Their final emperor was David Angelus
Comnenus. He and nearly all other male Comneni were put to death after Trebizond was conquered and annexed by the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad II. The Certificate of
Authenticity states that this 1955 3-coin set (20 Francs in gold, 5 Francs in silver, and 10
Centimes in copper) was produced just 6 years prior to the 5th centenary of the fall of the Empire. The Imperial and Royal House Angelus-Comnenus of Thessaly decided
to issue the coins, “without deliverable value but only at historical and numismatic
interest, according to the expired Monetary Convention of the Latin League of Geneve in 1865.” On December 4, 1954 the contemporary heir to the
Comnenus dynasty, H.I.R.H. Michael III, authorized the production of 100 sets. The project was
realized under the creative supervision of “Baron Dr. Cesare Gamberini from Scarfea — Expert and Numismatic Counsellor of the I.R. August House Angelus
Comnenus from Thessaly, who has placed on the exergue, as mint-Master mark, one of the
sea-crabs of his ancient blason.” I obtained a set (though I have re-sold one of the coins to another colleague) from Mr. Liu Jian.
Rebels, Pretenders, and Impostors, by Clive Cheesman and Jonathan Williams is a work which “pays due attention to the significance of material
culture” for the dreamers and hoaxers profiled in its pages, “particularly to the
coins and banknotes they produced.” The book gives extensive details about the numerous fake claimants to the Byzantine throne, all attempting, through
overweening self-promotion, to establish their purported descent from the emperors of Byzantium. In
his analysis, Cheesman tells us that the fall of Constantinople “prompted every kind of claim and counter-claim”, and that the 20th century has
“produced the richest crop of false Constantines”, each one (including prominent
opportunists, obsessive social climbers, and outright charlatans) maintaining to be the rightful heir to the Byzantine throne. One of the men nursing these
“monarchic aspirations” was Mario Bernardo Pierangeli, an Italian tax lawyer who, after the
Second World War, began to take a keen “interest in his own glorious genealogical past. Changing his name little by little through the 1950s, he gradually
emerged as Michele Angelo-Comneno di Tessaglia, or, in full, His Royal and Imperial Highness
Michael III, Prince of Thessaly and Epirus, chief of the name and arms of the sovereign house of Angelus-Comnenus.” Minting coins and “bestowing
lofty-sounding titles, Michael III had acquired quite a few loyal followers by the time he died in
the late 1980s. It is to this côterie that we are indebted for a range of respectful works in various languages recounting not just their patron's splendid
ancestry, but — more importantly — his personal merits and achievements, his
democratic ideals and sense of historical obligation, his true nobility of spirit. Like all genuine bluebloods, we are told, Prince Michael was dismissive of those who
paid excessive attention to the details of his lineage. Well might he have been, for it was
completely false.” Pierangeli also wrote several books and articles on the historical splendor of Italy's colonial possessions.
A couple of years after composing the preceding pair of paragraphs — let's refer to it as the “original” write-up — I received an
e-mail from Mr. Manuele Ferrari Angelo-Comneno, a Political Specialist/Political Assistant at the
U.S. Consulate General in Naples (“I am a Foreign Service National hired by the Department of States”). He asked me to delete the defamatory portrayal
of Mario Bernardo Angelo Comneno (H.I.R.H. Michael III) from this listing: “The book you
are mentioning…makes a big mistake mentioning my family as a fake and this is has been proved several times on tribunals.” The book (he claims there is
also a version in French) “has been object of a trial” and Cheesman's section
“is false and it has been already proved by judicial authorities.” Mr. Manuele Ferrari Angelo-Comneno believed strongly that the book cast H.I.R.H.
Michael III in a not-so-favorable light, and that the inclusion of Mario Bernardo Angelo Comneno
amongst all of the duplicitous masqueraders depicted in that chapter was unjustifiable. Quite understandably, he strongly objected to my unquestioning use of
the book's unflattering characterization of Mario Bernardo Angelo Comneno, whom he felt did not
belong in such an unseemly context. Not wanting to delete my listing in its entirety, I asked him to kindly provide me with at least a small amount of useful
information to utilize in a revised write-up. He merely provided me with: “Mario Bernardo
Angelo Comneno was my grandfather. As you know Angelo Comneno is an Imperial family form the Byzantine period and in XIII century a branch of that family came
into Italy. Elena Comneno married with Prince Manfredi of the Two Sicily's Kingdom.”
When his grandfather became “Chief of the Family” in the 1950s, he began using (“only for signing documents concerning the family”) the
name Michele III (Michele II had been the most famous and important emperor of the Comneno
family). “When my grandfather was 40 years old a friend of him (Mr. Gamberini from Florence) thought to create some coins (a limited series) to commemorate his
birthday. He designed them in 1954 but the issue was postponed till 1955 as you correctly report
in your web site. My grandfather, born in June 12, 1914, a well known lawyer in Italy, has been honored by several medals during the war in Libya and Eritrea
in 1395-1937, in Albania in 1941 and in 1944-1945 by Americans and English. He died in July 4,
1988.” Mario Bernardo Angelo Comneno “never claimed to be the king of Trebizond”.
I did indeed compose/upload a “new” write-up, but all I had truly done — for the sake of appeasement — was to shift some sentences around
and intersperse them with the words of Mr. Manuele Ferrari Angelo-Comneno, along with a wee
bit of my own bland commentary. I also felt that the latest “controversy” also managed to enliven the entire listing. So I left it at that. Several
months afterwards, I was delighted to receive a cordial message from Mr. Clive Cheesman himself,
after he had encountered the “revised” listing: “I read that you have been contacted by the grandson of Mario Bernardo Pierangeli who claimed
to be head of a family of imperial Byzantine origin called Angelo-Comneno, Prince of Thessaly
and Epirus, etc., and as a result have withdrawn your unquestioning acceptance of what I wrote in Rebels, Pretenders and Impostors (2000). I quite
understand your reaction to this…But I thought you might like to know that Rebels, Pretenders and
Impostors has not been translated into French and has never, to my knowledge, been ‘object of a trial’. It may well be that Pierangeli (the
grandfather) obtained judgments in his favour from local courts in Italy…Certainly no action has ever
been brought against me or the publishers of the book. Nothing you quote from Manuele Ferrari Angelo-Comneno establishes the veracity of Pierangeli's claimed
descent from the emperors of Byzantium, which seems merely to have been reasserted without any
details. Did he supply anything that lended support to the claim? I would be the first to admit my error if there were proof that the descent were true and as
claimed. Unfortunately the nature of the claim itself, and its similarities to many other similar
claims by others, makes one very pessimistic about it ever being established as true in Pierangeli's case.”
I thereupon decided to return the first two paragraphs to their original state (and I scrapped the altered/hybridized version). After all, the text was much
more coherent, structurally, without the interjections of Mr. Manuele Ferrari Angelo-Comneno. But
since his point of view still deserved to be heard (and perhaps even considered, by some parties), I concluded that one succinct paragraph — centrally
couched between the jottings of Mr. Cheesman — would address his dissatisfaction in a manner
that was more aesthetically pleasing.
Images of Trebizond's coins can be viewed at the site of Mr. Chaim Dov Shiboleth's private collection:
http://www.taedivm.org/coin-trebizond.html
TYROLEAN HOUR:
Known as “Tiroler Stunde”, this is a regional project based in the Austrian province of Tyrol (also known as Nordtirol).
The coordinator of this endeavor is
Mr. Georg Pleger, who is based in the village of Völs. Their first piece was called the
Mozart-Hour-Coin, thusly named because it commemorates the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth. “The institution behind the Mozart Hour Coin is my
company together with a network of colleagues, focussing on OpenSource — OpenContent —
OpenMoney. I started with my OpenSource agency four years ago and then extended my activities to OpenContent. I'm also coordinator of Austrian part of Creative
Commons. For me and some colleagues it is quite ovious that for regular structures of
information sharing as in Open Source and Open Content projects it would be quite helpful to have an exchange system which is designed to support collaboration. So the
idea of an hour-based complementary money has grown.” The piece is used as a way of
showing appreciation to producers of OpenSource and OpenContent, whereby their efforts towards the “production of digital commons will be rewarded with hour
coins. One coin is worth 20 Euros. At the moment the coins are accepted within a small network of
companies and educational institutions.” Their “main circulation is planned for but not restricted to the Austrian State Tyrol.” It should be
noted that Tyrol is also the name of a broader region, divided into 3 parts: Nordtirol,
Osttirol (another Austrian province), and Südtirol (in Italy). The Mozart-Stunden-Münze piece was in fact “only the starting point in a series of
coins. The coin was a special edition out of the bigger project of hour coins”. Mr. Pleger
was the “Projektinitiator” who introduced this 1 Stunde/hour/horo piece, but Mr. Michael Graf, “Tyrolean mentor of the idea of complementary
currencies,” minted it. The second piece, a 15-Minutes-Coin (the equivalent of 5 Euros), was
coined “by the Tyrolean bishop”. On this piece, the image of Mozart is replaced by the Tyrolean Eagle. For the purposes of thanking “someone
who has worked for 15 minutes”, it has the following text in German, English and Italian:
“Danke für — 15 — Minuten, Thanks for — 15 — minutes, Grazie per — 15 — minuti”. Both pieces, dated 2006, were
struck by the Hall Mint (“The birthplace of the taler and the dollar”). I obtained
them both from Mr. Pleger. The official Web-site of the Tiroler Stunde is:
http://www.stunde.at/muenzpraegung
Digital Commons is a catch-all term that describes digitized information (words, numbers, pictures, sound) and digital resources (such as the Internet) that
can be accessed by all members of a community. This digitally-encoded information allows new
possibilities of social interaction to flourish, including unlimited communication in virtual space and time. The existence of a Digital Commons is made possible by
the advent of Open Source and Open Content. Each developer in this community is able to take
from and contribute to the Commons. This shared social domain in cyberspace may one day become the global equivalent of the ancient Athenian agora. If so, then
its unit of currency could very likely be something that is referred to as “open
money”. The term “open money” was defined by Michael Wade Linton and Ernie Yacub.
The official Web-site of the Openmoney project (http://www.openmoney.org/top/omanifesto.html) contains
a “manifesto” that is both “an active document” and “a
declaration of intent”. Because the notions of open money aren't really owned by anyone, “The manifesto is an open set of ideas — the concepts are there
for extension, development, refinement”. This mission statement outlines their beliefs,
which they intend to act upon and implement. “Open money is a means of exchange freely available to all.” Any community, network, association,
organization, business — “indeed, any body” — can have their own money. This
is central to their convictions. Open money was designed to work as a complement to the conventional money we use on a daily basis. The problems (pertaining to
supply, distribution, cost) with this “official” money stem entirely from how it
“is normally issued — it is created by central banks in limited supply.” There are three things we know about this money. “We know what it
does — it comes and it goes” in all directions, flowing erratically in and out of our
communities. “We know what it is — it's scarce and hard to get. And we know where it's from — it's from ‘them’, not us.”
These characteristics, “common to all national currencies, determine that we constantly have
to compete”, often ruthlessly, “for a share of the limited amount of the ‘stuff’ that makes the world go round. This money can go
anywhere, and so it inevitably does, leaving the community deprived of its means of exchange.”
It is merely the nature of conventional money that by its coming and going (driven by the patterns of everyday social interactions) it creates harmful
conditions of competition and scarcity, within and between communities, regions, and nations. The
inescapable outcome, at every level, is an economic context in which strategies of rivalry dominate. Individuals and groups of people, steered by the rhetoric of the
marketplace and cynical self-interest, “have scramble for money to survive” and
they suffer because our imperfect money gives rise to dependencies that are detrimental to the economy. “But above all, at a cost beyond counting, our
monetarily driven behaviour has utterly disastrous effects on our society and the global
environment.” Up until recently, we've had no other choice but to be subservient to this money, “despite its evident failings.” Basically, money has value
only because it has the “right” markings on it. “A purely imaginary, social
valuation, money is merely a promise,” an unnatural item “that provides its carrier with the expectation of something real. But yet it still is
thought of as real — by economists and bankers, by adults and children.” As a
generation, our reliance on this problematic and ephemeral “money of theirs” is far too great. We ignore the “consequences our excesses and negligence
bring for others, now and in the future.” But this crisis can be resolved. The “good
news”, in spite of all the inherent deficiencies of conventional money, is that the familiar monetary quandaries they cause can be easily fixed
“with money that's better designed.” After all, “There is no good reason for a
community to be without money. To be short of money when there's work to get done is like not having enough inches to build a house.” Imagine you are prepared to
build something, and you already have the materials, the bricks, the wood, the tools, the
time, the inclination, the training, the skills, the blueprints, the space, the necessary permits, and whatever else you might require. But today, there are no
inches available! You used too many yesterday, and now all the inches in town are over at the big
construction site on the south side. “This is obviously absurd — but it is just exactly the way we talk about money.” Why should a person be
short of inches? Why be short of money? If someone told you there were no inches, you would use a
different way to measure. Money is just a measuring device; why should a community be short of measures? By the same logic, “you can use a money of your
own when the one from ‘them’ isn't coming to hand.” Ultimately, “Money
is just information, a way we measure what we trade...we can make it ourselves...It's just a matter of devising a scoring system for those who consent to using
it — money is simply a social arrangement.”
As evidenced by their writings, Linton and Yacub are also not fans of the local money systems that have existed throughout history, either. Because these have
simply been small-scale versions of the larger national currencies, they don't tend to function
any better at the local level than they do at the national level. Issued in narrow supply by some regional authority, “they are inherently even less
stable than their national counterparts, and prone to embarrassing and irrecoverable collapse. To
paraphrase Einstein, the problems we face cannot be resolved using the tools that created them. There is nothing positive that can be done within the current
context. The form of any design for a new money should avoid any of the faults of the old.”
Open money, on the other hand, exists in sufficient supply, it can only be used within a specific community, and it is created by its users. It is
“virtual, personal, and free”. It is also “flat money”, meaning it “confers no
power of one over another...Exploitation is no problem...And there's no monopoly, all systems coexist in the same space. Flatter than flat — open
money is superflat.” This new money will still need to be earned — just like
“old” money — in order to be respected. “When you issue it, you are obliged to redeem it — your money is your word.” It is your
commitment, which you honor at your own rate. “It's just a matter of your reputation in your
community.” Open money can then successfully “meet our needs, and in an open context so that all can contribute and be acknowledged.” The new
complementary money will circulate and re-circulate, thereby enabling business and trade
“within the networks and communities it serves, quite legally and virtually free, by design.”
Open money is synonymous with LETS (Local Exchange Trading System), the first of which was designed by the Vancouver-based Linton in 1982. His active role in
the development of a community currency for the Comox Valley of British Columbia led to a
breakthrough, and the primary prototype of the project began operating in 1983. The LETSystem “is a new form of economic organization applicable to any
community. It is a self-regulating economic network which allows its members to generate and manage
their own (completely legal) currency system independent of and parallel to the federal money system. It offers communities everywhere the tools to stabilize and
support their local economy without diminishing their participation in the whole. It allows
members of the local community to exchange goods and services on a ‘green dollar’ basis when federal dollars are scarce or unavailable. Being a member
of a LETSystem is as simple as having another bank account. Member accounts hold green dollars,
a quasi-currency, equivalent in value to the federal dollar, but no money is ever deposited or issued. All accounts start at zero and members can use green
dollars only with other members. If you provide some product or service to another member, your
account is increased and his/hers is decreased by the value you agree on. The system is thus always exactly balanced with some of the members in credit and the
others in debit...In the LETSystem the money I issue never leaves the community. It's always
available for me to re-earn,” and since there is never any shortage, “it is less likely that competition for it will exclude me from earning.” The
LETSystem connects “people to people, business to business, each to the other.”
Because it enables people to trade equitably and efficiently, it has become the best known and most widely used open money system anywhere on the globe, resulting
in thousands of LETS communities worldwide. One of the most recent developments of the LETS
project are smart cards (memory microchips on plastic cards), which employ the open source software development model. Smarter than credit/debit cards, “One
smart card can carry many independent virtual community moneys, just as a normal wallet can
hold several sorts of money bills — Yen, $, Francs — but the smart card doesn't get them mixed up. A network of on-line internet accounts and off-line
smart cards creates a perpetual money machine — a friction free energy circuit for all the
moneys needed for a fully functioning community economy.” The open money project is basically a continuation of the LETSystem. For this listing, in
addition to the information I obtained from the “manifesto” mentioned above, I also quoted
certain other passages penned by Linton and Yacub
(http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/lintontext.html).
The alternative currency system they jointly pioneered is clearly
described as a non-material, simulated currency, as opposed to tangible specie or paper that can actually be held in one's hands. The Tiroler Stunde (in the form of
three-dimensional coins), while paying ample tribute to open moneys, does not seem to fully
adhere to the strict criteria its authors have established. Nevertheless, as a complementary currency, the Tyrolean Hour still deserves a great compliment!
The official Web-site of the Local Exchange Trading System is:
http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/
WORKING-HOUR:
The “Arbeitsstunde” (which also translates to “Man-Hour”) is another Austrian attempt at an
innovative Stunde-type coin. It can be viewed at the Web-site of the Unterguggenberger Institute
(http://www.unterguggenberger.org/page.php?id=103), a non-profit organization (founded in June of
2003) based in Wörgl (Tyrol province). The Institute is not only named after Michael
Unterguggenberger — the mayor of Wörgl who in the early 1930s implemented the use of a historic local currency — but is also located within the very
house in which he lived. Thus, one of the Institute's purposes is to promote Unterguggenberger's
“Freigeld” (Free Money) monetary system, which effectively worked to stimulate the economic recovery of this Tyrolean community.
Veronika Spielbichler, Obfrau (Chairman) of the Unterguggenberger Institute, explained to me that “The coin is not issued by the Unterguggenberger
Institut — it is issued by the town of Wörgl in memoriam of Michael Unterguggenberger and
the ‘Freigeld-Experiment’.” The coin came about after the “Gemeinderat” (the local government of Wörgl) declared that 2007
would be designated as a special year, the “Freigeldjahr” (Free Money Year). As a
result, Mrs. Spielbichler became Projektleitung (Project Chief) of the “Wörgler Freigeldjahr 2007”, and helped develop Wörgls'
“Freigeldjahr-Gedenkmünze” (Free Money Year Commemorative Coin). “The first coin was
struck on January 26th [of 2007] at an important event, the ‘Neujahrsempfang’ of the town, to which the Bürgermeister — mayor of the town
— invites people from economy, culture and politic.” Beginning on February 9th, with
the assistance of employees from the Hall Mint (which supplied the professionally-engraved dies), it then became possible to produce these pieces at the
Institute itself. “At the Wörgler Filmtage or at the theatre performances in our
eventcenter Komma people can make their coins themselves at this place.” The obverse of this 1 Arbeitsstunde piece, dated 2007, features the likeness of Michael
Unterguggenberger; the reverse shows the Wörgler coat-of-arms. Each coin is endowed with a
special fixed value of “one working hour”. Because the coin is part of a fundraising initiative, its sale-price should amount to at least 10 Euro.
When the coins are sold, “The community takes this money in order of getting people to work
by doing jobs for the community like building bridges, streets and touristic attractions.” I was initially under the impression that the Arbeitsstunde
was a type of “komplementärwährung” (complementary currency), but Mrs.
Spielbichler informed me that it really isn't. Its main purpose is to help finance the ongoing cultural/educational projects of the Freigeldjahr, and it was specifically
“created to collect money for the several events, which are taking place at several
places, not only in the Institute. We want to start with this coins also the discussion about the worth of work, but you cannot buy anything in our little town with
this coins at this moment…Our Institut is still a small institution — and I hope it
will grow in the next years.” Currently, the Unterguggenberger Institute has been playing an active role on introducing “I-motion”, a local
initiative to promote the youth's communitarian activities. The Institute, as well as other places
in Wörgl which have an important connection to Unterguggenberger's local currency, have also received many visits from people who advocate the ongoing
practices of “Regiogeld” (regional currency) in German-speaking
countries.
In order to fully understand the mission of the Institute, it is important to know a little bit about its eponymous mayor. Unterguggenberger became burgomaster
of Wörgl in 1931. By this time, he had been an advocate for many years of Silvio Gesell's
principles of Free Money, such as the ones proposed in his 1916 book The Natural Economic Order (Gesell's “free-money”, as he called it,
bears a form of negative interest called demurrage. Periodically, a stamp costing a tiny fraction
of the currency's denomination must be affixed to it, in effect a “user fee” or a “maintenance cost”; another way to look at it is that
the currency “goes bad” — depreciates in value — as it ages). The
diminutive market town of Wörgl, like everywhere else at that period, was suffering from a severe recession (the change from the use of coal in railroad trains to
electrification added to the problems of the town). The economic downturn known as the Great
Depression was already underway worldwide. Fortunately, Unterguggenberger's goal was to create a crisis-free economy and to achieve it he was prepared to take
charge of the grim situation in Wörgl.
In a 1934 article from the Annals of Collective Economy entitled The Wörgl Experiment with Depreciating Money (this account was reprinted
from a 1933 Austrian periodical), Alex von Muralt tells us that Wörgl was “one of the
few Tyrolese communes which until recently lived largely by industry. It had cement and cellulose works, which today are shut down.” But by the spring of
1932, as many as 350 people were jobless in a parish with a population of only 4,216 and more
than 200 had already run out of their unemployment insurance. These were economically desolate times. “The tax revenues were falling…The Innsbruck
savings bank to which Wörgl owes the enormous sum of 1.290.000 sch., raised in July 1931 its
interest rate from 7 % to 10 %; the parish treasury was empty; and the Raiffeisen Bank at Wörgl had almost suspended operations, as all its assets, including
those of the parish, were frozen. Urgent demands, such as road repairs, could no longer be
postponed.” In short, Wörgl was on the verge of bankruptcy. Unterguggenberger resolved to introduce a local currency into the community in order to
resolve the plight of his people. “Finding itself in this desperate situation, the parish
council accepted the burgomaster's proposal to issue depreciating money experimentally.” Given the go-ahead, Unterguggenberger “was thus enabled to put
into practice long-cherished and well-considered currency plans within his little empire…At
the beginning of July 1932, the parish arranged for the printing of paper notes to the value of 32.000 schillings, which it called labour certificates.”
The notes circulated so rapidly, that only 12,000 were ever actually put into circulation. The
face values of these numbered bills were 1, 5, and 10 Schillings. “They become only valid after being stamped at the parish hall. These notes depreciate
monthly by 1 % of their nominal value. (Relief tax.) To prevent this devaluation, the owner of the
note must affix on the last day of the month a stamp to the value of the extent of the devaluation. These stamps are purchased at the parish hall. Thus the
depreciation, or relief tax, amounts annually to 12 %, over double the proportion suggested by
Silvio Gesell. At the close of each year the certificates must be exchanged for new ones. There is no charge for the transaction, provided that the required number
of stamps have been affixed to the certificates.” At any given time, the “labor
notes” could be converted into ordinary Schillings at 98% of face value (for each transaction, 2% was deducted from the face value for the “provision
of work contribution”). In order to provide a cover for the “relief
certificates” (especially in case of mass redemption), the trustees had deposited at the Raiffeisen Bank an amount in official currency equivalent to that issued in the
form of depreciating money. “As the director of the bank informs me, the money has been
lent out to trustworthy wholesalers at 6 % interest in the form of sight-bills. The whole of this interest flows into the parish treasury, since the local
savings bank gives its services gratis where a utility transaction is concerned.” During the
run of the experiment, the “stamp scrip” was valid not only within the town, but was also accepted as a means of payment in the outlying areas. The
“labor notes” were also accepted as legal tender for payment of local taxes.
Unterguggenberger's undertaking was extremely successful, especially on account of the “demurrage” charges pertaining to his paper vouchers. Fast
circulation of the bills was virtually assured through the built-in monthly depreciation of
their face value. Therefore, because the bearers of this “relief money” were encouraged to circulate the bills rather than to hoard them, they revived
the economic activities in Wörgl. From the outset, Unterguggenberger had believed that
the slow circulation of ordinary money — now in short supply — had been the primary culprit of the current economic crisis. The amount of legal money in
circulation was shrinking drastically, and this is why substitute money was so necessary. The
entire situation was shaped by deflation: merchandise decreased in value while money increased in value whilst it was hoarded. If purchases were not absolutely
necessary, they were postponed. Falling prices were the logical result. Furthermore, money as a
means of exchange was slipping away from the hands of the working people, ending up in the clutches of a small minority who were not interested in returning it
to the market. They preferred to hold on to it as a means of currency speculation. The
numerous individual initiatives taken to recirculate the “labor certificates” as quickly as possible were crucial for the economically invigorating effect
of Unterguggenberger's experiment. On the average, the velocity of circulation of the local
currency was about fourteen times higher than the national Schillings. In other words, on the average, the same amount of money created fourteen times more jobs.
Not only did the “labor certificates” serve as a catalyst to the local economy,
they brought about an “economic miracle” for the region. Water distribution was generalized throughout, all of the streets were repaved, most houses
were repaired and repainted, taxes were being paid early, and forests around the city were
replanted. Public works projects, road and bridge construction, drainage systems, improvements of infrastructure: all provided work for dozens of men. While the
jobless rate increased continuously in Austria during this time, it decreased in Wörgl by 1/4
(one source actually states that after two years, Wörgl became the first Austrian city to achieve full employment). The experiment was very advantageous
for Wörgl, and a determined collective spirit motivated its citizens. “One is tempted
to say that it comes to this that the manual and clerical workers, and particularly the shopkeepers, gladly agreed to suffer small losses, losses which
eventually proved to be gains for the parish treasury…It is therefore likely that the small
sacrifices demanded were economically justifiable” because the numerous municipal improvements that were made possible by the depreciating money “benefited
all the inhabitants, particularly those who had shops in the main street…Relief money had to
be spent on relief measures”, which brought relief to the entire parish and all of its inhabitants.
However, the boom of this parallel currency was not met with tacit acceptance by the central authorities in Vienna. The non-profit “emergency aid
action” of the Wörgl community frightened the Austrian National Bank — a profitable
private enterprise which controlled the state's currency exchange. They opposed the “labor notes” as an infringement on its powers over the
country's currency, and initiated a battle with the community just a few days after the “value
coupons” were introduced. “A reason which may account for the unyielding attitude of the State Bank, is perhaps the fear of the experiment
spreading.” Unterguggenberger traveled to Vienna three times in order to defend the Wörgl
self-help initiative. Not even the intervention of the Chancellor's office was successful. The state government eventually managed to force Wörgl to halt
the program. Thus, in September of 1933, the so-called “labor certificates” were
prohibited, and the municipal council had to withdraw this wonderful “stamp scrip” from circulation. Nevertheless, “The Wörgl experiment
proves that such a creation of money may in exceptional circumstances prove of considerable
advantage to a given locality.” It inspired other communities — such as Kirchbichl (the neighboring parish) and Kitzbuehel — to introduce their own
Free Money. More than 200 other Austrian communities decided to copy the Wörgl example, but
here again the Central Bank blocked the process. A legal appeal was made all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was lost.
The achievements of Unterguggenberger's cherished currency policy, which proved the effectiveness of Gesell's economic theories/concepts, were reported in
different media around the globe. Newspapers everywhere printed articles, which generated
increasing international interest. Economists (including Irving Fisher) and politicians traveled to Wörgl in order to personally see the amazing results. Many
American towns and communities produced their own Wörgl-style money. “That the stream
of inquirers is economically advantageous to Wörgl, is self-evident. But equally important is a purely psychological aspect. The inhabitants of Wörgl
are conscious that steps are being taken in their parish to check the trade depression; that
it is not simply a question of being resigned or hoping for help from the State (indeed, the State Bank appears here rather as the mischief maker); that, in
fact, the world is watching Wörgl and that serious thinkers side with them. All this impart a
moral strength to the population.” Ultimately, “Wörgl owes its present fame to its stalwart burgomaster,” and the local community still
proudly remembers his “labor certificate” initiative. Unterguggenberger resigned
from office in February of 1934.
Copyright © 2003-2009 Erik Victor McCrea
E-mail: evm111*hotmail.com