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| Union of North America |
| First of all I will thank Erik V. McCrea to gather the below information on specimen issues of Amero by various designers. Amero is a proposed currency of North America, that would be used by Canada, Mexico and Unites States of America. | ||||
| These private-issue fantasy pattern coins were designed by Mr. Daniel Carr. They “will be struck as an annual series (until such time as it is no longer legal to do so)…The 2007 designs feature various Seated Liberty obverses and a similar Eagle & Globe reverse”. In addition to the “regular issue” Ameros, Mr. Carr also plans to make a special yearly Amero medallion (the 2007 piece is the Jamestown 400th Anniversary commemorative issue which features Pocahontas). In terms of precedence, the Amero series is immediately reminiscent of the coins issued by the República del Centro de América (1824-1851), the Unión Centro-Americana (1889), the Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (1970), and the Organización de Estados Centroamericanos (1971). I believe that the existence of the Union of North America coinage is a very historic event, numismatically. Once in a blue moon, the line between “fantasy” coins and “real-world” coins becomes blurred. These Ameros truly reflect a realistic modern-day geo-political scenario, and I think they are definitely “crossover” pieces that will have major implications in our community that go far beyond the usual impact made by a typical privately minted coin. Just days after the first pieces had been produced, members of at least one online numismatic forum were already suggesting, with some very hostile words, that Mr. Carr may be part of a conspiracy to replace the dollar under a global dictatorship. Mr. Carr, a member of that forum, replied: “Wow, I really stirred up a hornet's nest here…I guess the nest was just waiting all along and I just happened to be the one to stir it up. The coins pictured are private-issue fantasy patterns that I've designed and minted as collector's items. Maybe someday there will be government-issue ‘Amero’ currency. There is currently no law that says I can't mint and distribute Amero coins. But in the future, there may come a time when it will be illegal to make private-issue ‘Amero’ coins. But regardless of what happens, my Amero coins are the first!” We must bear in mind that Mr. Carr is an artist and he has to earn a living by selling his work. Amidst all the fuss, he reminded everyone that “The goal of any art work is to provoke some sort of thought or emotion.” He also attempted to reassure them that he was not “responsible for the entire North American Union [NAU] proposal.” All the controversy stemming from that particular scenario “was there floating around long before I came along and shined a flashlight on it. For the record, my interests have nothing to do with promoting a North American Union. I just like making coins.” Meanwhile, a popular right-wing radio talk-show host was railing against the Amero at his Web-site: “One thing is absolutely clear: The governments of the USA, Canada & Mexico are engaged in a conspiracy to merge the three countries without the knowledge or consent of ‘The People.’ In furtherance of this conspiracy, the government of the United States is intentionally spending the nation into absolute, unrecoverable Bankruptcy with the intention that the monetary system collapses. When the U.S. currency collpases, it will take with it, both the Canadian dollar and Mexican Peso because both countries are so heavily invested in the U.S. dollar through trade with the US. During such a collapse, when hundreds of millions of average citizens face absolute destitution because their currencies have been wiped out, these Conspirators will turn to ‘The People’ of each nation and say ‘your only hope is to merge all three countries and make a new start.’ The thinking is that the populations will rush to embrace the merger and forget all about our individual history, rights and systems. In one fell swoop, the Conspirators will clobber us into absolute despotism and we will be helpless to do anything because our money will have become worthless!” Because the coins are dated 2007, he speculates that “this plan seems awfully far along. I guess this means the collapse will be this year?” He views the Amero as evidence of evil treachery on a superlatively massive scale: “This is betrayal folks! Betrayal by our highest elected officials! Deliberate, intentional despicable deceit!” | ||||
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Over the years, Mr. Carr has become a major figure in
the field of American numismatics. “A design by Daniel Carr was one of seven
official US Mint finalists for the reverse of the Sacagawea dollar. Daniel
Carr also designed the actual 2001 New York and Rhode Island state quarters
for the US Mint.” Mr. Carr “has worked extensively in the Computer Aided
Design (CAD), computer graphics, image processing, and visual arts fields.
He is currently using special techniques that he has pioneered for sculpting
and engraving coin designs digitally in 3-D.” Mr. Carr has issued numerous
U.S.A. Prototype Small Dollars (Apollo Astronaut “One Roller” and “Two
Rollers”, Bessie Coleman “Non Dollar”) and Prototype State Quarters. He has
also delved into the arena of “fantasy” coinage by producing a series of
Altered States of America “CARRter Dollar” parody State Quarters. It is also
important to mention Moonlight Mint. Established in late 2008, this “private
minting facility” is owned and operated (in association with his two main
Web-sites, DC-Coin and DesignsComputed) by Mr. Carr. “The showpiece of
Moonlight Mint is the Grabener coin press which originally served the U.S.
Denver Mint. Most of the issues offered at
www.DC-Coin.com will now be produced on that Grabener coin press.” The
historic piece of equipment “was actually used in the U.S. Denver Mint from
1986 to 2001. Moonlight Mint, a private facility built by Amero coin minter
Daniel Carr acquired [at auction] this surplus Denver Mint coin press in
early 2007 and completed the restoration of it in late 2008.” Additional
information can be found at the official Web-site of the Moonlight Mint
(http://www.moonlightmint.com/): “Moonlight Mint began operations in late
2008, following the lengthy restoration of the Mint’s Grabener coin press.
Moonlight Mint will continue the tradition established by Daniel Carr by
minting interesting and finely-engraved medals, tokens, and coins such as
the popular Union of North America ‘Amero’ series. Moonlight Mint’s coin
press originally served the U.S. Denver Mint for 15 years before being sold
as surplus. During the restoration process, a number of interesting items
were found inside it. These artifacts confirm the role that this press
played in producing Denver mint-set coins, commemorative coins, and medals.”
Even more information about the Grabener coin press can be found at:
http://www.amerocurrency.com/buyameros.html. In order to fully appreciate Mr. Carr’s Ameros, we must place them in the context of the North American Monetary Union (or North American Currency Union), a speculative entity in which the main countries of North America (Canada, the United States, and Mexico) would share a single/common currency. This idea, which has existed for many years, is based on the common European Union currency, the Euro. The hypothetical currency is sometimes referred to as the “amero”, but I have also seen it referred to as the NAMU (North American Monetary Unit). Upon finding out about the Amero, Mr. Carr read as much as he could about it: “I started asking myself what I would come up with if I was in charge of minting the amero coin for the North American Union.” He decided to change the name to “Union of North America” after giving the matter considerable thought, “because then you end up with U.N.A. and you can say ‘UNA,’ whereas you can't really say ‘NAU’ in a word.” Because he has “received numerous inquiries as to my personal stand on the North American Union (NAU) issue”, Mr. Carr composed the following statement: “My goal with these coins is not to endorse a Union of North America or a common ‘Amero’ currency. I fully support the United States Constitution, and I would not welcome (in any form) a diminishment of its provisions. I expect that these coins will help make more people aware of the issue and the possible ramifications. I leave it up to others to decide if they are in favor of, or against a North American Union. And I encourage citizens to voice their approval or disapproval of government plans that impact them.” More details about these numismatic beauties can be found at: http://www.designscomputed.com/coins/amero.html and http://www.dc-coin.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=8. The idea of a regional currency has been receiving a lot of attention these days. Benn Steil, the Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in the May/June issue of CFR's influential Foreign Affairs magazine that “the world needs to abandon unwanted currencies, replacing them with dollars, euros, and multinational currencies as yet unborn.” He writes, “The right course is not to return to a mythical past of monetary sovereignty, with governments controlling local interest and exchange rates in blissful ignorance of the rest of the world. Governments must let go of the fatal notion that nationhood requires them to make and control the money used in their territory.” He is convinced that economic globalism is irreversible, with national currencies doomed to the dustbin of history. “In order to globalize safely,” he advises, “countries should abandon monetary nationalism and abolish unwanted currencies, the source of much of today's instability.” Steil believes that continued economic growth demands a global flow of capital unimpeded by the barriers inherent to “monetary nationalism”. Obstacles created by monetary nationalism, such as national exchange rates or national monetary policy regimes, inevitably impede capital flow and cause currency crises as a consequence. Therefore, Steil argues that “Monetary nationalism is simply incompatible with globalism.” He imagines the ultimate solution might be to privatize a global currency through a gold-based international monetary system. “A new gold-based international monetary system surely sounds far-fetched,” he admits. “But so, in 1900, did a monetary system without gold. Modern technology makes a revival of gold money, through private gold banks, possible even without government support.” According to Dr. James R. Lee (of the School of International Service at American University), “The introduction of the Euro to the world's financial markets in 1999 made the idea of one currency for numerous countries seem possible, and attractive…The Euro also made other nations more than a little nervous as to how they would manage to compete with this new, and strengthening, currency. These factors led the US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Columbia to begin to explore the feasibility of creating the ‘Amero’ as a counterpart to the Euro. The ‘Amero’ would be a common currency, not necessarily the US dollar, that all of the countries in the Americas would use as their own.” In this instance, “dollarization” (when a foreign country adopts the United States currency as its main form of currency; the foreign currency would be used in parallel to or instead of the domestic currency), can be viewed as “a stepping stone to the proposed ‘Amero.’” In the Americas, the process of adopting an Amero currency may actually begin with “dollarization”. For many nations (El Salvador, since 2001; Ecuador, since 2000; Panama, since 1904; Liberia, from 1904-85) faced with severe economic woes, a dollarized economy has been the proposed panacea. Nevertheless, “Some economists believe that full Dollarization or the ‘Amero’ associated with a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas will not happen for 5-20 years.” The likelihood of this actually happening especially increases if the global economy moves into regional trading blocs. At present, Canada currently uses the US dollar as an unofficial second national currency; many people are of the opinion that de facto dollarization is well underway in Canada. In fact, Canada’s private sector is moving rapidly in this direction via the private dollarization of commerce. As evidence of this transformation of the Canadian economy, an increasing number of Canadian firms have listed their shares in US dollars on American stock exchanges. To meet listing qualifications, their financial reports are issued in US dollars. The salaries of top Canadian employees working for multinationals operating in Canada are paid in US dollars. The athletes in the premier baseball, basketball, and ice-hockey leagues are paid in US dollars. The same is true of the referees working in these best leagues. Furthermore, in terms of Canadian manufacturing production, most of these exports are priced in US dollars, with producers requiring increasingly that their suppliers also price their goods in US dollars. Apparently, Canada has been the source of a good deal of pro-Amero sentiment. The C.D. Howe Institute, a Toronto-based conservative economic and social think tank, advocates the creation of a shared currency for the North American countries. The Fraser Institute, a conservative/libertarian think tank in Vancouver, has also argued in favor of the Amero. Herbert G. Grubel, Professor of Economics (Emeritus) at Simon Fraser University and Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute, wrote a monograph entitled The Case for the Amero: The Economics and Politics of a North American Monetary Union (published in September of 1999). His “study was stimulated by the recent successful launch of the euro, the prospect of official ‘dollarization’ in Argentina and Mexico, the relatively poor performance of the Canadian economy, and the depreciation of the Canadian dollar during the last 25 years — and especially in 1998.” His paper (its entire text can be read at earlier at http://oldfraser.lexi.net/publications/critical_issues/1999/amero/) conveys an interesting vision of a radical economic metamorphosis that could be in store for the Americas, looming just over the horizon: “The plan for a North American Monetary Union presented in this study is designed to include Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Under the proposed plan, bank notes and coins of the currency” are tentatively called (by the author) the “amero”. Upon creation of the Union (Mr. Grubel arbitrarily gives the date as “perhaps on January 1, 2010”), those 3 countries “will replace their national currencies with the amero. On that day, all American dollar notes and coins will be exchanged at the rate of one US dollar for one amero.” The conversion of existing United States, Canadian, and Mexican “currencies into the amero will take place at rates that leave unchanged each country's real income, wealth, and international competitiveness at the time of conversion.” The prices of goods/services, wages, assets, and liabilities in all three countries “will be simultaneously converted into ameros at the rates at which currency notes are exchanged. At the same time, the national central banks of the three countries will be replaced by the North American Central Bank. The operations of that bank will be governed by a constitution like that of the European Central Bank, which makes it responsible solely for maintaining price stability. It is not required to pursue full employment or maintain certain exchange rates. Its personnel policies will be free from political influences, in particular those arising out of partisan national politics in member countries. The board of governors of the North American Central Bank will consist of members from the United States, Canada, and Mexico chosen by their respective governments in numbers that reflect their economic importance and population. As in Europe, membership in the union will require that countries do not incur persistent budget deficits…It is important to realize that immediately after the adoption of the amero, the living standards and wealth of citizens in all three countries will be completely unchanged.” Furthermore, members of the amero zone “will receive the profits from the issuance of ameros used domestically. Trade among the members of the monetary union will be stimulated by the elimination of the costs of currency trading and risk. There will be greater price stability and, importantly, interest rates in Canada will fall by about one percentage point.” Mr. Grubel astutely admits that “Many Canadians will oppose a North American Monetary Union on the grounds that it will interfere with national cultural sovereignty and that it represents a further step in a process that will ultimately lead to the political absorption of Canada by the United States.” By joining such a Union, they believe that they would sacrifice too much of Canada’s economic and political autonomy. However, “Nationalists do not have a good case to oppose the amero except on the grounds that it results in the loss of national monetary and fiscal sovereignty. But…this loss is incurred in the expectation of large economic gains.” Elsewhere, he adds: “Canada's cultural sovereignty and political independence are not affected by monetary union. Just as in the case of free trade, there is nothing in any treaty for monetary union that interferes with Canada's ability to pursue taxation, spending, social, regulatory, or foreign policies different from those of the United States. A small political movement for monetary union already exists. It will gain strength if the Canadian economy continues its recent record of poor performance. Even if the world prices of commodities and the exchange rate should recover, history shows that the exchange rate will not return to its old level. All Canadians will be permanently poorer. At the same time, the rise in the exchange rate taking place will cause unemployment and government deficits. Business and the general public will increasingly look to monetary union as a solution to these problems, especially if the euro succeeds. The United States has less to gain from a monetary union than Canada and Mexico but there will be some benefits. Monetary union will reduce the threat to the power of the US dollar resulting from the greater use of the euro in place of the dollar in the rest of the world. Further, the United States will benefit from having more stable and prosperous countries as neighbours. When the United States joined other international organizations like the IMF, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the North American Free Trade Agreement, the expected economic and political gains appeared to offset the surrender of some national sovereignty. In this tradition, the United States may well find it worthwhile to join the proposed monetary union.” What would Mr. Grubel’s version of the controversial currency look like? “The amero notes and coins will have in common abstract designs on one side” and “national emblems on the other to preserve important symbols of national identity.” They “will be produced in each of the three countries according to their own demand”. These “currencies will circulate at par in all three countries and those spent in other member countries will be returned to their countries of origin whenever they find their way into a commercial bank. Therefore, at all times citizens of each country will deal predominantly in notes and coins that carry their national symbols on one side.” Mr. Grubel is keenly aware that “some people believe that symbols of nationalism are important for human well-being since they satisfy the need for affinity to larger human groupings and national identities. The flag, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, geographic landmarks like Lake Louise and Niagara Falls, the design of passports, and the architecture of the Houses of Parliament are such symbols. Canada's history, the settling of a wild continent, the heroics of her armies, multiculturalism, and generous social security nets are intangible but no less important symbols of a national identity. Ranked high on the list of such symbols is the currency bearing images of the Queen, important Canadians, and outstanding geographic sites. Nationalists will deplore the loss of Canada's national currency as a major disaster and will oppose monetary union on these grounds. I agree with the proposition that symbols are an important part of a country's national identity, which is important to many people and can provide social cohesion and peace. Therefore, to minimize the loss of national symbols brought on by a common currency, my proposal envisages the design of North American notes and coins with national symbols on one side and abstract symbols on the other. This solution may not satisfy the most ardent nationalists but I am hopeful that their opinions will not carry the day and that others will remember that the currency is only one of a long list of nationalist symbols important to the Canadian identity. The Canadian identity should be strong and vibrant enough to survive the reduced strength of the currency as a nationalist symbol.” Out of curiosity, I contacted Mr. Grubel in order to ascertain if he had indeed been the first person to coin the terms “North American Monetary Union” and “Amero”. It turns out that The Case for the Amero does indeed contain “the first and original use of the word [Amero] in print.” In the words of Mr. Grubel, “The term North American Monetary Union has been around for some time and I do not know who came up with the term. However, after the creation of the European Monetary Union, the term seemed very obvious. The same can really be said about the Amero name as well in the light of the Euro, but I will take credit for having it used first in conversation and print. If my memory serves me correctly, the first appearance in print was in the Fraser Institute publication.” Mr. Grubel’s theories seem to lead the pack of similar philosophers and economists. Robert A. Pastor, Vice President of International Affairs and Professor of International Relations at American University (from 1977-81, he worked at the White House’s National Security Council as Director of the Office of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs), authored a book entitled Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New (2001). In it, he supported Grubel's arguments for the Amero and for the creation of a Central Bank of North America. Hopefully, a successful North American Union would perfect the defects which he believes limited the progress of another super-regional entity, the European Union. I was surprised to learn that the Amero has been discussed on at least two separate occasions on CNBC (one was an interview with Steve Previs, Senior Vice President of Jefferies International Limited, conducted on 11/27/2006). Lastly, there is actually a Web-site called “The ‘Amero’ Currency” (http://www.amerocurrency.com/), whose intent is “to make United States citizens aware of the advancement of the agenda to launch the nations of North America, including the U.S., into a continental union similar to the European Union.” This undertaking, which has a broad scope, is delineated in several documents authored by the Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America (SPP). The overall goal of the program (Promoting Growth, Competitiveness and Quality of Life) is outlined in the “Prosperity Agenda”, released in March of 2005 by the White House Office of the Press Secretary: “To enhance the competitive position of North American industries in the global marketplace and to provide greater economic opportunity for all of our societies, while maintaining high standards of health and safety for our people, the United States, Mexico, and Canada will work together, and in consultation with stakeholders, to:” Improve Productivity (detailed in the sub-headings Regulatory Cooperation to Generate Growth, Sectoral Collaboration to Facilitate Business, and Investing in Our People), Reduce the Costs of Trade (detailed in the sub-headings Efficient Movement of Goods, and Efficient Movement of People), Enhance the Quality of Life (detailed in the sub-headings Joint Stewardship of our Environment, Creating a Safer and More Reliable Food Supply while Facilitating Agricultural Trade, and Protect Our People from Disease). The people who founded AmeroCurrency were not too thrilled by these proposals. “Initially, these goals sound reasonable. However, upon inspection and understanding of the background of the movement, it becomes clear that, once fully implemented, the newly formed organization will usurp authority of the U.S., and redistribute power and wealth among the three North American nations. The brain trusts behind the philosophies that laid the groundwork for the program, in its current and future forms, elaborate a broader view of economics and ‘sovereignty’ that also redistribute economic and legislative powers.” They go on to add: “It is critical to note, the information presented on this site is not conspiracy theory, shock journalism or speculation. The SPP is an international work-in-progress that the U.S. State Department and Department of Commerce have embarked on without the consent or oversight of the U.S. Senate or Congress…The citizens of the United States must awaken to the impending reality that our sovereign nation is being assimilated by an unconstitutional union — a union with two socialist nations. As the data converge, many unexplained phenomenon, such as the mystery of unenforced immigration laws and the ‘Trans-Texas’ international corridor, will illuminate.” AmeroCurrency elaborates upon this topic at a later point: “A strategic goal of the SPP is to ease restrictions on transport of goods. The U.S. being the primary consumer within the union, it is no mystery who the ‘goods’ are headed for. The SPP intends to diminish, or eliminate, security at U.S. borders, preferring a ‘perimeter’ around the three nations. By eliminating U.S. border checkpoints, the SPP will ‘streamline’ the flow of goods and human traffic by avoiding U.S. Ports Of Entry (ports) — thereby subverting U.S. homeland security — avoiding use of U.S. labor (Teamsters and Longshoremen's unions) and creating an ultra-highway system running from deep in Mexico, through the U.S., and well into Canada. The initial leg of this highway system is already underway in South Texas. Cintra-Macquarie, a joint venture between Spanish and Australian companies, has not only secured contracts to construct the U.S.-Mexico stretch of international tollway, but is actively acquiring billions of dollars and thousands of miles of toll roads throughout the U.S. The flow of traffic through the countries will not be controlled by the ‘union,’ but overseas organizations. The SPP, through NASCO [North America's SuperCorridor Coalition] and NAIPN [North American Inland Ports Network], is redefining our transit, import, export, inspection and distribution networks, at the hands of foreign interests. Goods will be flown into the U.S., directly into the heartland, rather than being stopped and checked at our existing borders. Goods brought in via the ‘Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor’ will not be checked as they enter the U.S. Rather, they will be ‘inspected’ as they enter Mexican ports, then shipped overland within the prosperity union. How will we all pay for this?” With an ominous unitary currency, naturally. “From the mindsets documented above…emerges the concept of the ‘Amero,’ an international currency whereby the American monetary system and our treasury system become homogeneous with those of Mexico and Canada.” Regardless of whether it’s “called the Amero, the Dollar, the Nuevo-Nuevo Peso, or the man in the moon, some system will have to be in place to stabilize and standardize transactions. You can call it whatever you want. For now, we'll call it AmeroCurrency.” The possible threat is understandable. After all, the creation of a new multinational currency might not benefit — fairly and evenly — all the nations involved. “For a ‘middle power’ whose economy is weak and exchange rate declining steadily, such a maneuver may be in the best interest. This is not the case when the strongest economy in the world, the United States of America, considers diluting its monetary system with Mexico, a third world, ‘developing’ nation and Canada, a second socialist nation on our two land borders. Further, U.S. sovereignty is, perhaps, our most precious facet, as defined in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Our sovereignty is part of the formula that makes our Republic the most unique political and cultural experiment in the history of civilization. Rather than try to decode, re-describe and publish commentary on the prevailing philosophies and arguments surrounding the need and advantages for a common hemispheric currency, this site provides links to information from legitimate proponents and detractors.” The Web-site offers some great links leading to additional information about the Amero (none of the official U.S. documents cited by AmeroCurrency ever mention the Amero, of course). Interestingly, the Amero has also grabbed the attention of an outfit called NAUMINT. Located in Wayne, New Jersey, it was established in 2008 by Mr. Philip Prekel. “At NAUMINT, we design and mint prototype currency.” According to its earlier Web-site (http://www.naumint.com/), “The North American Union (NAU) is a theoretical regional union of Canada, Mexico and the United States similar in structure to the European Union, including a common currency called the Amero. The idea has been discussed and proposed in academic and scholarly circles, either as a union or as a North American community as proposed by the Independent Task Force on North America. The amero is the appellation given to what would be the North American Union’s counterpart to the euro.” NAUMINT has issued its own coin for the North American Union. “The NAUMINT Amero prototype currency is designed with no English text. It is after all supposed to be the future currency of 3 nations with several different languages. It does not contain any imagery unique to one nation, reflecting cultural neutrality. The imagery conveys prosperity and cooperation. On the face of the 2008 1 Amero coin, a sun shines down on a full harvest of wheat. On the obverse, three hands come together, symbolizing the three nations of North America in unity. A cityscape behind the hands represents a constructive future.” They also remind us that this “prototype for the theorized NAU” is “not a legal tender.” These coins can be purchased directly from Mr. Prekel. Thanks to Mr. Edwin Johnston, a fellow member of the Unrecognised States Numismatic Society (http://www.usns.info/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UnrecognisedStatesNumismaticSociety/), I learned that there is yet another Amero coin! This one seems to even pre-date the ones made by Daniel Carr. The story behind this coin is explained in a document — Amero nothing new to Truth Radio (http://www.truthradio.com/Bell%27sAmero.pdf) — located at the Web-site of Truth Radio (this Internet-based Christian talk radio station, operated by Mr. Richard Palmquist, is located in Nipomo, CA): “Get ready for a change in your money. The new currency will be called the ‘Amero.’ Photos of the new ‘Amero’ are available on the Internet. Coins are already being produced by the US Mint. The new currency reportedly will be issued for the non-nation conglomeration of ‘Canada-United States-Mexico’ after the borders between those countries have been erased. Of course, the name ‘Amero’ echoes the European unified currency, the ‘Euro.’ With amazing foresight, sometime in the early 1990's, famous Tax Realist (the IRS and Federal Court called him a Tax Protester) Paul Bell of Taft, California, saw this change (pardon the pun) coming. Paul had plenty of time to study monetary policy. He had been unlawfully imprisoned for eight years [a footnote explains that ‘Bell's judge unlawfully refused to allow the jury to view Bell's defense evidence. This is common practice in cases involving the Internal Revenue Service.’] and later, again a political prisoner, he served another two or three years. (He died early in the new century.) Resolute in his belief that his research was accurate, and many years before Congressman Ron Paul publicized the same evidence, Bell came to Truth Radio (Then Radio Station KDNO, Delano, California) with a proposal. He wanted to mint a pure silver coin that would shame the Federal Reserve's fraudulent currency. So, KDNO purchased genuine silver rounds from Sunshine Mining, the most reputable producer of blank silver coins, and Paul crafted a manual table top minting machine, using forms he designed. Then he handpressed dozens of ‘Amero’ coins. Bell's ‘Amero’ weighs one ordinary ounce (avoirdupois rather than troy). It is not ‘Legal Tender.’ Bell labeled the coin ‘Public Tender,’ avoiding any accusation that it pretends to be issued by the government. It is not a substitute for coins produced by the U.S. Mint made of base metals. Bell, with good intentions, made the error of placing a U.S. Dollar designation on the coin. He reasoned that if he used the word ‘Par’ he would not be accused of seeking to mimic issuances of the Mint. Thus, the coin's ‘Par’ grew out of line with its U.S. Dollar equivalent as the value of the U.S. Dollar has diminished. The coin never became well known enough to make that an issue. It should be viewed as merely a medallion.” Mr. Palmquist goes on to state that “The ‘Amero’ medallion is about 90 percent as heavy as a troy ounce…The ‘Amero’ has three kinds of REAL value. It is made of pure silver, it is a memorial to the courage of Paul Bell, and it is a collectible produced more than a decade before the official ‘Amero.’” Specimen can be directly purchased from Mr. Palmquist. The obverse, dated 1992, bears the phrase “Amero” and a denomination of “$10”; it also features an image of the North American continent. The reverse bears the phrases “Ten U.S. Dollars Par”, “Public Tender”, and “Eklampo Ammiy”; it also features a genie’s lamp. I asked Mr. Palmquist if he knew what the phrase “Eklampo Ammiy” signified: “Whew. Good question about ‘Eklampo Ammiy.’ Oh dear. I have forgotten. I think though it means something like ‘enlightening the people.’ I could be right. But maybe wrong.” According to information gleaned from the Internet, “Eklampo” is Greek for “to shine forth” and/or “to be resplendent”; “Ammiy” is Hebrew for “my people” and/or “my family”. I also asked him for his opinion about whether I should classify this Amero medallion under “North American Union” or “Union of North America” (I told him that I was curious if Mr. Bell had used one of these terms in their conversations — after all, he must have conceptually equated his “Amero” with some sort of newfangled geo-political entity/name; if the U.S. and Canada and Mexico were to “unite”, then this resulting “union” would have a unique name of some sort). He replied: “First of all, this silver ‘Amero’ coin was created more than a decade before the ‘union’ issue emerged. The present movement toward unification of the nations of our continent is not healthy, in my opinion, by ANY name.” He later added: “I believe you are correct. I think Paul had a sort of prescient ‘vision’ about what was to come and that he saw our sovereignty crumbling…As to the classification question, in terms of the intent of Paul Bell, you would not categorize it under any other name than patriotic irony. Paul was opposed to any loss of sovereignty by the US. He was also put off by the destruction of value of our currency and favored genuine money: gold and silver. Those thoughts combined with the development of the Euro caused him to come up with the term ‘Amero.’” I then suggested that Mr. Bell hadn’t been the first person to use the term “Amero” and I sent him some of the information about Herbert G. Grubel. Mr. Palmquist then wrote: “As to who-did-it. What did it is that it was a natural…Paul probably came to me [with the idea] in late 1990 [somewhere around then], because it took awhile to put together the plan, create the press and then order and get the silver from Sunshine Mine.” As for the puzzling term, “It was a name that invented itself.” Who spoke “Amero” first? We may never know! In the explanatory text from the Truth Radio Web-site, the assertion that Amero coins “are already being produced by the US Mint” is completely erroneous. But I can understand why there is a mix-up in the minds of many conspiracy theorists. It all has to do with the Grabener coin press (mentioned in the second paragraph of this write-up). Daniel Carr anticipates that all of his Ameros, beginning with the ones dated 2009, “will be stamped” by the aforementioned machine. “Traditionally, all Ameros have had a symbolic ‘D’ mint mark. But now that all Ameros will be struck on a Denver Mint coin press, the ‘D’ takes on additional meaning. Note that the 2008 100-Amero (1/10th oz gold) coins were also struck on this Denver coin press. So anyone who ordered one of those coins can now rightfully claim that it was stamped by a (former) U.S. government coin press.” Overall, the coin seems to fit in with the overall philosophy of Truth Radio. One of their hopes is: “Liberty for every person on earth with ‘We the people’ sovereign over Limited governments…that structure commerce through issuing money as a valid medium of exchange representing units of labor, a stable unit of account immune from speculation, an honest store of value”. |
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| Chiefa Coins |
