National value

US Mint Buys Cartel Gold, Sells It as American

It’s a bit unsettling, isn’t it, to think that the very symbols of American value, stamped with icons like the bald eagle and legally guaranteed as “100 percent American,” might have a much murkier origin story? The core of this whole discussion revolves around the U.S. Mint buying gold and then selling it to the public, seemingly as a pure American product. The law, as it stands, mandates that the Secretary of the Treasury acquire gold for these coins primarily from gold mined in the United States. However, it also offers a crucial loophole: if U.S.-mined gold isn’t available at the average world price, the Secretary can dip into existing U.S.… Continue reading