Money is Speech

[syrakusos]

The claim that “money is not speech” originated in a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000. The case was Nixon v Shrink Missouri Government PAC, 528 U.S. 377 (2000). Jeremiah (“Jay”) Nixon, the attorney general of Missouri had enforced contribution limits on the campaign of Zev David Fredman, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Missouri state auditor. The case went to the SCOTUS and the justices settled three questions:

• Does federal law govern state elections? (yes)

• Is federal law the only standard for state regulations of election contributions? (no)

• Are campaign spending limits unconstitutional? (no).

Justice John Paul Stevens wrote a concurring opinion.

“Money is property; it is not speech. … Speech has the power to inspire volunteers to perform a multitude of tasks on a campaign trail, on a battleground, or even on a football field. Money, meanwhile, has the power to pay hired laborers to perform the same tasks. It does not follow, however, that the First Amendment provides the same measure of protection to the use of money to accomplish such goals as it provides to the use of ideas to achieve the same results.”

Justice Stevens did allow an exception via a footnote:

“Unless, of course, the prohibition entirely forecloses a channel of communication, such as the use of paid petition circulators. See, e.g., Meyer v. Grant, 486 U. S. 414, 424 (1988) ("Colorado's prohibition of paid petition circulators restricts access to the most effective, fundamental, and perhaps economical avenue of political discourse, direct one-on-one communication. ... The First Amendment protects appellees' right not only to advocate their cause but also to select what they believe to be the most effective means for so doing").

If the justices were numismatists, they would know that money is one of the oldest media for communication. In fact, writing was developed specifically for keeping track of debts and payments. Poetry and all the rest came later.

According to University of Texas scholar, Denise Schmandt-Besserat, writing evolved from the use of clay tokens to keep track of livestock, beer, and other farm goods. The tokens go back to 7500 BCE. Eventually, the tokens were impressed on clay containers into which the tokens themselves were stored. Cuneiform writing evolved about 3500 BCE from these symbols. The oldest known writing on clay tablets are inventory lists and promises to pay. The oldest known epic, the Gilgamesh, is dated to 1000 years later. (All of this is explained in How Writing Came About by Denise Schmandt-Besserat, which can be ordered from the University of Texas Press for less than $20. The MSU Library has the complete original two-volume research compendium, Before Writing: from Counting to Cuneiform. Volume I of that is still available from UT Press for about $50.)

Coins were invented about 550 BCE, and, of course, they carried images of animals and other symbols of their issuers. We believe that the first coins of Athens, the so-called “wappenmuenze” carried the same images as those used on the war shields of the leading citizens. From about 400 BC, local Persian governors of Lydia, Caria, and Lycia were in revolt against a weak central government and these men – Tissaphernes, Pharnebazos, Perikle, and Mithrapata – put the first to put their own images on their coins.

In the Roman republic and empire, coins were common instruments of communication. Julius Caesar boosted his political career by advertising his priesthood on the coins he and his allies issued. The “Ides of March” denarius of Caesar’s assassing, Marcus Junius Brutus, is highly sought at auction today. Over 2000 years ago, money was political speech in a life and death struggle for power.

The military anarchy of the mid-200s CE left us with the coins of generals who sought the imperial purple. Even in the Dark Ages, poor imitations of Roman coins announced the names of tribal kings in England, Gaul, and Germany. As coinage – and literacy – improved after the Renaissance, legends and mottoes carried complex and subtle messages on crowns, thalers, grossi, pistoles, florins and shillings.

The year 1776 saw the publication of two of the greatest works in history: The Wealth of Nations and the Declaration of Independence. There is no separating political freedom from material prosperity. The coins and paper of the American colonies, states, and central governments carried a host of political messages, from “Mind Your Business” to “We Are One.” In the 1790s, British merchants met the need for small change with an astronomical array of tokens. They advertised their shops, touted their towns and made bold political statements.

In 1794, the shoemaker, Thomas Hardy, was the secretary to the London Corresponding Society. His outspoken support for the French Revolution – including his association with a play called :La Guillotine: or, George’s Head – brought him from his shop at 161 Fleet Street to Old Bailey Prison on charges of sedition. He was acquitted by his peers and his lawyers struck a token to celebrate their skill and his good fortune. Today, it is catalogued as Dalton and Hamer Middlesex 204, and you can own one in uncirculated grade for about $150. Less socially strenuous, was another that showed a spaniel: “Gratitude brings servitude,” it warns. :”We were born free and will not be slaves.”

The abolition of slavery was one of the many topics in the popular series of “Hard Times Tokens” from the Jacksonian Era. Partisans heralded or lampooned Jackson – bluntly cartooned as a jackass – Webster, Van Buren, and Benton. Such tokens are easiest to find in circulated grades because for ten years they were passed from hand to hand in daily commerce.

Civil War tokens fall into two broad categories: store cards and politicals. These private issues filled a gap in commerce and carried strong messages. Perhaps the most famous political token of the Civil War shows an American flag: “If anyone dares to tear it down, shoot him on the spot” That American federal government money now carries the message, “In God We Trust” comes from this same period. Among the other political messages on our coins today are Liberty and E Pluribus Unum, with a slew of others courtesy of the 50 State Quarter Program. Any denomination of current American paper money carries about 20 different phrases, sentences, and word sets.

For over 30 years, privately-issued silver art bars have broadcast a wide array of political messages, starting with Watergate and continuing to the Clinton Impeachment and current war the on terrorism.

Perhaps the starkest political statement via money comes from comparing two banknotes. One features Karl Marx. It was issued by the communist government of the German Democratic Republic from 1971 until 1990. On the other hand, the privately-owned Clydesdale Bank of Scotland issued a £50 note celebrating Adam Smith. Adam Smith is also now commemorated on a Bank of England £20 issue. Founded in 1694, the Bank was nationalized in 1946, but achieved nominal independence in 1997. Its governors and directors are appointed by the crown, making it much like the American Federal Reserve, a nominally private entity with close government supervision. It would be interesting to hear what Adam Smith or Karl Marx might have said about that.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I didn't realize this was awaiting moderation. All new threads in the Articles section are automatically moderated. I will change this later when I overhaul the portal, but for now, this kind of glitch happens.

I haven't had time to read it yet.

Michael

[syrakusos]

Ides of March Denarius. Brutus celebrates the assassination of Caesar.

Anti-Slavery merchant's token from Middlesex, c. 1790