Virginia State Currency Closer To Reality as Delegates OK Study

One Republican's crusade to introduce a state currency is one step closer to reality after the Virginia House of Delegates passed a measure to study the proposal.

To fight what he considers an out-of-control central banking system, Delegate Bob Marshall three years ago began a quest to institute a state currency. With support from conservative economists, the House of Delegates voted 65-32 to approve the measure on Monday, according to the Washington Post.

The bill calls for spending $17,440 to create a 10-member commission that would determine the "need, means and schedule for establishing a metallic-based monetary unit," or, in other words, a return to a gold standard.

"Our nation’s most fundamental principles — equal rights, rule of law, private property rights, individual liberty — still require a dependable dollar to be meaningfully preserved," the bill says.

Marshall said an alternative form of currency would also help prevent hackers from ruining the country's financial system in the case of a cyber attack, a valid point given Tuesday's Federal Reserve infiltration by the hacking collective Anonymous.

Democrats have railed against the idea, and a lobbyist even reportedly handed out wooden nickels at a state dinner a few years ago with the words "In Bob We Trust" stamped on them as a joke, the Washington Post said.

"Are we seriously going to spend taxpayer resources studying a replacement to the world's backbone currency? Are we descending into la-la land?" said Delegate Mark D. Sickles, the Democratic Caucus chairman, in a Post interview last month.

It's unclear how the measure will fare in the Senate, and Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, a Republican, has said he does not support Virginia printing its own money, according to the Post.

"But that the bill has made it even this far underscores the depth of distrust among some surrounding the nation's central bank," the Post's Ylan Q. Mui wrote.

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