MATTOLE SELF-SUFFICIENCY PROJECT

Mattole Money

The first Mattole money became available on July 9th, 2007 and these have proved to be very popular. The 10 petol pieces consist of one ounce of 0.999 fine silver which is imprinted on the edge of the piece. People ask how much these pieces are worth. The answer is that they are worth one ounce of silver. Since silver is REAL money and Federal Reserve Notes are NOT (they are fiat money), the proper question is how many Federal Reserve dollars can I buy with my 10 petol piece, i.e., what is the cost of a Federal Reserve dollar in terms of petols. The exchange rate will depend on the current exchange rate between Federal Reserve dollars and silver metal. There is also an additional cost since the NWT Mint does not provide the services of making the dies and stamping the pieces for nothing. I was taken on a tour of their facilities (they are the largest private mint west of the Mississippi River) and shown the various steps in making coins. This is NOT something we would be able to do ourselves or at least, not without a rather large investment. The premium for the 10 petol piece over the spot price of silver metal is about US$4.50. That includes the cost of making the dies, stamping the coins, shipping and handling, and taxes.

In order to maintain a relatively stable exchange rate between petols and dollars, the following chart is used as follows. The price of silver in US dollars in August was about $12.85 and the price of a 10 petol piece was US$17.00. As long as the price of silver (Ag) remained in the range of $11.00 and $13.00, the price of the 10 petol piece remained at US$17.00. On September 18th, 2007, the price of silver went to US$13.04. This exceeded the upper limit for the US$17 price for the 10 petol piece and therefore the price of the 10 petol piece went up to US$18.00. Since then, the 10 petol piece has risen as high as US$25 and has remained consistently above US$20 since late 2007.

The reason for this type of pricing structure is to stabilize the exchange rate so that it doesn't change every day.

The salmon and the river on the obverse of the 10 petol coin are obvious Mattole symbols. The sun rising represents the rise of a new paradigm of sustainability. The reverse theme on the 10 petol coin is food; where does a sustainable society obtain its food? A sustainable society produces the great majority of its own food thru gardening, ranching, and gathering. The culture, ecology, and economy represent the three pillars of a sustainable society with the culture being the way people think about how they live. If people do not consider how their actions may affect the environment and the economy within which they live and modify their actions to maintain sustainable balances in the environment and economy, then their society will not be sustainable. The plan is to use the same obverse design for all the different denominations (with different year dates) but have different themes for the reverse of each different denomination. Other possible themes include energy, transportation, and clothes/fabrics.

Altho one ounce of silver can be sold pretty much anywhere in the world for its silver value, Mattole money is bought and sold by the Mattole Coin Shop which will be at the MSSP Farmer's Market and at other times/places during the year. There will be a 1% differential between the "buy" and "sell" price with this 1% being added to the fund for subsequent minting. The buy and sell prices are posted on the index page of the MSSP website.

What you do with Mattole money is a matter of personal preference. You can make them into pendants or simply put them away as a good investment. You can trade them back and forth as with bartering. Just don't take them into a bank and try to exchange them for US Federal Reserve notes. If you want to exchange them for Federal Reserve notes, contact the Mattole Coin Shop which will be at the Farmer's Markets on third Sunday of each month from February thru September. Mattole money is intended to commemorate life in the Mattole and the concepts of sustainability.

Note that the US Federal government has claimed exclusive use of the word "coin" to refer to the metal money that it circulates in denominations from one cent to one dollar.  Only the one cent piece actually has an intrinsic value close to its exchange value.  None of the coins that the US government has in circulation are legal money according to the US Constitution.  Rather than refer to the pieces of Mattole money as "small round pieces of metal that serve as money but cannot be called coins because the US government harasses people who do so" or "SRPMTSAMBCBCCBUSGHPWDS" for short, perhaps we should refer to them "lromps" (pronounced el-romps) for little round metal pieces.  Meanwhile, WE know what they are.

Measuring Value

The value of anything should be measured in terms of what you can exchange it for in terms of REAL goods (food, clothes) or labor.  These real goods should be things that people NEED rather than things they simply WANT.  We all need food in order to live.  Hence, basic food stuffs are a suitable measure of value.  We may WANT steak but we only NEED a source of protein and that can be hamburger, beans, or a great many less expensive foods that steak.

It is awkward to use basic foods as a direct measure of value since they are a wide variety of basic foods to choose from and what basic foods that people grow and eat varies from country to country.  It is useful to have a proxy to serve this purpose.  Silver and gold have been used for centuries for this purpose and these have utilitarian value as well, i.e., they are useful metals and have value in addition to any monetary value we may assign to them.

The "value" of silver has remained quite constant for more than 50 years. In 1965, the last year that silver coins were minted for the United States, a loaf of bread cost 25 cents (a coin made of an alloy containing 90% silver). The amount of silver in that coin is equivalent to about US$3 today, which is just about what it costs in dollars to buy a loaf of bread. In other words, the VALUE of silver has remained quite constant pver this period of more than 40 years. The VALUE of the dollar has declined by a factor of 12 and is WORTH about 8% of what it was worth in 1965. This represents an AVERAGE inflation rate of 6% over the past 40+ years! However, the price of silver in US dollars was still only $5 an ounce at the end of 2003. The price has more than tripled since then. Using silver as a reference then, the average inflation rate since 2003 has been 25%. This means the dollar is losing 25% of its purchasing power every year.

When the euro came out in 2003, its exchange rate was US$0.89. Today, it is US$1.58. That is an inflation rate of 15% (against the euro). AND, the euro is also devaluing altho not as fast as the dollar.  Note that ALL paper money, not backed by silver and/or gold, gradually loses value thru inflation.  Inflation is built into the system whereby money is created (see the Primer on Money below).

We have been conditioned to measure the value of things in terms of paper money, which, in and of itself, has NO VALUE.  This makes no sense whatsoever.  We have been conditioned into thinking that the value of things is increasing. House prices go up and we think our house is WORTH more than it was a few years ago, even though nothing has been done to the property to make it any better.  Food prices go up and we think that food is becoming more valuable.  Gasoline prices go up and we think that it is because oil has become more valuable.

We have been conditioned to think this way because the powers-that-be who create our money (again, see the Primer on Money) don't want us to "lose faith" in the US dollar as they progressively debase our US money.  They also don't want us to know the real inflation rate is closer to 25% than the 5-6% that the official figures claim.  They don't want us to know that each dollar we hold for one year, loses 25 cents in value (purchasing power) and this "lost" value winds up in the pockets of those people who create the additional dollars that make each dollar we hold worth less.

Understanding measures of value is essential to understanding what is happening today and helping us become more independent of a monetary system that will only become more and more disfunctional with time.  Silver is NOT an investment that will return MORE value than you put into it.  Silver is an investment that will allow you to KEEP the value that you already have.  Hence, silver is a better investment than any dollar-denominated investment that does not return at least 25% per annum because the dollar loses about 25% of its value (purchasing power) each year.

The End of the Dollar

Plans by the internationalist one-worlders to replace the US dollar, Canadian dollar, and Mexican peso with a new currency, the Amero, are well under-way. This new "money" will be patterned after the Euro that has replaced the national currencies in France, Germany, Italy, and several other European countries. To find out how this will affect you adversely, click here.

A Primer on Money

Part of being self-sufficient is having a medium of exchange to facillitate barter that is relatively independent of national and world influences. Of course, this raises the question as to why a medium of exchange (money) is even needed. The following sections (links) introduce the concept of money, why we have money, how it is presently created, and finally, how it should be created for the benefit of all of the people. The final section is focused on actually implementing a sound local currency for the Mattole.

Each section builds on the previous sections. In order to fully understand subsequent sections, it is important to read the preceeding sections. The sections on notes and Federal Reserve notes include images that may take a while to download.

Why do we have money?

What is money?

What is a note?

Federal reserve notes.

How the Federal Reserve Bank creates money.

How fractional reserve banking works.

Problems inherent in a debt money system

A Sustainable National Treasury System

How a local currency would work.

Petols for the Mattole

References:

Ewart, James E, (1998) Money: ye shall have honest weights and measures, Principia Publishing, Inc., Seattle WA, 324 pp.

Thoren, Richard R & Warner, Richard F. (1994) The Truth in Money Book, Truth in Money, Inc., Chagrin Falls OH, 261 pp.

Thorn, Victor (2003) The New World Order Exposed, Sisyphus Press, State College PA, 565 pp.

Last Updated: 03 May 2008