Reply #17: Of course, the Constitution also prohibits the States

[Art_from_Ark]

from accepting "any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts" (Article I, Section 10), but that little prohibition has been ignored for decades.

Incidentally, it was common for private companies in the 1830s-1860s to issue their own money, either in the form of gold coins (which were allowed as long as they were of the exact same standards as government-minted gold coins), and paper currency (which was ostensibly backed by gold and silver, but which often was not). During the Civil War and America's first Great Depression (the Panic of 1837), private mints also issued copper coins which were the equivalent of a cent in value. However, when a rail company in New York refused to redeem millions of cent tokens that it had issued, Congress was compelled to pass the Coinage Act of 1864 which effectively prohibited private coinage.