Panel examines making gold and silver legal tender and transactional in Florida

Tallahassee — The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee convened a panel discussion on whether Florida should recognize gold and silver as legal tender and adopt transactional systems that let vendors and citizens use precious metals in commerce.

Chair Angolia introduced four panelists: Marlo Oakes, State Treasurer of Utah (remote); Kevin Freeman, chartered financial analyst and author; Russell Weigel, Commissioner of the Office of Financial Regulation (OFR); and Tanner Collins, Director, Division of Treasury, Florida Department of Financial Services. Akila Mirza, deputy chief executive and general counsel of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), joined in person and described LBMA standards and refinery accreditation.

Treasurer Marlo Oakes described Utah’s path: a 2011 legal-tender act and a 2024 law authorizing the treasurer to invest up to 10% of the state rainy-day fund in physical gold and to pursue a procurement process for a precious-metals–backed electronic transactional platform. Oakes said the platform would let vendors opt to receive payment in gold without the state directly holding or disbursing gold for payments: "The state would still pay in dollars, it would pay it onto the platform, the platform would then convert those monies to gold that the vendor could then use and basically use it like a debit card," Oakes said.

Kevin Freeman advocated for allowing transactional precious-metal use and argued gold and silver have historically preserved purchasing power better than fiat currency. He described available technology for fractional, electronic gold transactions and said states have constitutional authority to enable gold and silver use under Article I, Section 10. Freeman and other panelists noted federal tax treatment of precious metals (collected as collectibles at a higher capital-gains rate under IRS rules) can hinder transactional use and that coordinated state action could press for tax changes.

Commissioner Weigel (OFR) said his office is not a tax authority but that OFR has reviewed the bills and prefers a legislative framework that lays foundations rather than embedding a single transactional system in statute. "We support the building of a framework where transactions can be conducted," he said, and recommended regulated custodians and a clear regulatory scope if the legislature moves forward.

Tanner Collins (DFS Treasury) stressed logistics: transactional platforms and custody models should minimize state operational complexity. He recommended third-party audits of physical holdings and financials for any depository and emphasized regulatory compliance (including anti-money-laundering and KYC). Akila Mirza (LBMA) described international standards for refinery accreditation and "incident management" (a process for investigating and reporting issues with refiners and removing them from the LBMA good-delivery list when appropriate) to preserve market trust.

Panelists and later public commenters (including industry representatives Kinesis Monetary, United Precious Metals Association, and Citizens for Sound Money) urged legislation that promotes choice, uses established rails (trust companies, money-transmitter frameworks), protects consumers through audits and custodial standards, and avoids creating a monopoly. Utah’s experience was presented as an operational model that uses a platform to convert state-dollar payments into precious-metal account balances for vendors that opt in; the state does not itself take physical bullion in lieu of dollars in its normal operations.

Committee members asked logistical questions—where bullion would be stored (panelists recommended in-state depositories), how transactional cards would fluctuate with metal prices (panelists said debit-like cards would reflect bullion valuation and that price volatility is a feature, not necessarily a defect), and how the model compares to cryptocurrencies (panelists said the systems are distinct: gold-backed transactional platforms differ from blockchain-native cryptocurrencies in custody and legal‑tender treatment).

Several industry witnesses urged use of U.S.-minted coin or internationally accepted bullion standards to avoid federal legal pitfalls and to simplify taxation and valuation. No committee vote on policy changes occurred at the panel; senators asked staff to continue examining the issues.