Article I of Section X of the United States Constitution provides that "No State shall” ... “coin Money” nor “make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;" By contrast, Section 8 of the same Article vests the power to coin money in Congress. These complementary provisions provide an apt example of vertical checks and balances between State and Federal governments. In other words, States have an important role to play in setting monetary policy.

As of the end of 2022, six states had enacted laws expressly recognizing gold and silver coin as legal tender. See, Arizona Revised Statutes Annotated. §§ 6-851, 43-1021 - 1022, and 43-1121 -1122; Colorado Revised Statutes Annotated § 11-61-101; Vernon's Annotated Missouri Statutes § 408.010; Oklahoma Statutes § 62-4500; Utah Code Annotated (UCA) § 59-1-1501, et seq.; and Wyoming Statutes Annotated § 9-4-1301 et seq. As a testament to the growing interest in restoring sound money, four of these six states, adopted their specie legal tender laws within the last decade or so. At present, many other states are contemplating similar enactments.

The U.S. Supreme Court recognized in Lane County v. Oregon, 74 U. S. 71 (1868) that in the performance of its “essential functions” a State possesses broad powers to specify acceptable tender for the payment of taxes:

If, therefore, the condition of any State, in the judgment of its legislature, requires the collection of taxes in kind, that is to say, by the delivery to the proper officers of a certain proportion of products, or in gold and silver bullion, or in gold and silver coin, it is not easy to see upon what principle the national legislature can interfere with the exercise, to that end, of this power, original in the States, and never as yet surrendered.

Exercising such authority, Utah passed specific provisions in 2012 regarding the collection of sales tax on transactions consummated in specie legal tender. See UCA § 59-12-107(3)(h).