I distinguish between a gold standard founded on custom-based or “private” law, and one resting upon statute or “public” law, that is, on government legislation. I then argue that the development and flourishing of the historical gold standard depended crucially upon its moorings in...

The “money question” — which is to say, the question concerning the proper meaning of a “standard” U.S. dollar — was hotly contested throughout most of U.S. history, and partly for this reason a gold standard that was both official and functioning was in effect only for a period...

There is, in informal discussions and even in some academic writings, a tendency to treat U.S. monetary history as divided between a gold standard past and a fiat dollar present. In truth, the legal meaning of a "standard" U.S. dollar has been contested, often hotly, throughout U.S. history, and...