Wait... what (commodities) market uses gold as the quote currency? That's interesting because it means one could trade without USD exposure.

The problem with the value-from-taxes argument is that it only assures a positive value but doesn't imply any particular amount of purchasing power to the monetary unit.

Gold and silver each have their own relative exchange rates with all other goods, so redemption promises imply a specific amount of purchasing power to the money.

Undisciplined

Rather than demonstrating chartalism or a state’s ability to impose money on a people via a combination of legal tender laws and acceptance of their tokens in tax settlement, it demonstrates that the Continentals were only perceived as valuable because they were linked to gold and silver and carried explicit promises of future redemption

I'm no lover of MMT, but couldn't it have been the case that nobody believed articles of confederation era govt was capable of extracting taxes from its citizens?

(And therefore the value imputed to money may still be possible via accepting it in payment of taxes as long as the state is able to back that up by a 

econ

The Continental Bait-and-Switch

>  Rather than demonstrating chartalism or a state’s ability to impose money on a people via a combination of legal tender laws and acceptance of their tokens in tax settlement, it demonstrates that the Continentals were only perceived as valuable because they were linked to gold and silver and carried explicit promises of future redemption

I'm no lover of MMT, but couldn't it have been the case that nobody believed articles of confederation era govt was capable of extracting taxes from its citizens? 

(And therefore the value imputed to money may still be possible via accepting it in payment of taxes as long as the state is able to back that up by a *credible* threat of violence?)