Committee Hears Proposal to Recognize Gold and Silver as Legal Tender; Banks, Regulators Raise Practical Concerns

Representative Nathan Toman (District 34) introduced House Bill 1441 to the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee on the bill's intent to add gold and silver to the state's legal-tender definition and to exclude a U.S. central bank digital currency.

The measure would explicitly recognize specie — gold and silver — as legal tender in the state while including language that a person may not be required to offer or accept specie for payment of debts, deposits or other purposes. Representative Toman summarized the bill in the hearing by saying, “House Bill 14 41 is gold as legal tender.”

Proponents said the bill is intended to remove state-level friction for private use of precious metals and to clear tax and regulatory uncertainty that can discourage citizens from adopting gold-backed payment options. Representative Sue Ann Olson (District 8) told the committee she had used an app that allows purchase of gold and issuance of a debit card that spends a user’s gold holdings at the card network’s dollar conversion rate. Olson argued the measure could let North Dakota explore a state bank role in supporting gold-backed payments and said, “I have this app. So what how this works is that you buy gold with…