The Goldback is a fractional gold commercial product marketed as a

local currency In economics, a local currency is a currency that can be spent in a particular geographical locality at participating organisations. A regional currency is a form of local currency encompassing a larger geographical area, while a community curren ...

and

commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic goods, good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the Market (economics), market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to w ...

which has seen limited use in some

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

s, and is sold and marketed by Goldback, Inc. of

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. The Goldback contains a thin layer of gold within a polymer coating equivalent to 1/1000 of an ounce.

Overview

Goldbacks are shaped like banknotes but contain a small amount of

24 karat The fineness of a precious metal object (coin, bar, jewelry, etc.) represents the weight of ''fine metal'' therein, in proportion to the total weight which includes alloying base metals and any impurities. Alloy metals are added to increase hard ...

gold. The gold is contained between two layers of clear, decorated polyester. Goldbacks are sold in increments labelled 1/2, 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 each containing proportionally larger amounts of gold. Goldbacks are minted by Valaurum, a private mint. Valaurum uses a

vacuum deposition Vacuum deposition is a group of processes used to deposit layers of material atom-by-atom or molecule-by-molecule on a solid surface. These processes operate at pressures well below atmospheric pressure (i.e., vacuum). The deposited layers can r ...

process to fuse gold together into thin sheets encased in a plastic film designed to hold the gold. The Utah Goldback was released in 2019, with series for

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

, and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

launched in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively. The Florida series was released on January 15 of 2025. File:One Goldback Front (New Hampshire).jpg, Front side of a single (one) New Hampshire edition Goldback File:One Goldback Back (New Hampshire).jpg, Back side of a single (one) New Hampshire edition Goldback

Reported use

KSL 5 TV, the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

affiliate of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, reported a small number of local businesses accepting using Goldbacks for everyday transactions. In association with members of the libertarian

Free State Project The Free State Project (FSP) is an American political migration movement founded in 2001 to recruit at least 20,000 libertarians to move to a single low-population state to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas. New Hampshire was s ...

in New Hampshire, widespread use has been reported of people spending Goldbacks on various goods and services within the state.

Design

Each Goldback features a figure representing a

cardinal virtue The cardinal virtues are four virtues of mind and character in classical philosophy. They are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. They form a virtue theory of ethics. The term ''cardinal'' comes from the Latin (hinge); these four v ...

, as well as animals and plants native to the state they are being marketed in. While each series is different in design, they all contain the same amount of gold. First Utah Goldback series 1-50

Local legislation

The Goldback has not been adopted by any state government; it is privately issued and developed to be used at the local state level. In Utah, the

Utah State Legislature The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 state representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 state senators. There are no term ...

expanded the definition of gold for legal tender—explicitly making gold with a "polymer holder" or "coating" not subject to the state sales tax—specifically any metal that, "...has a gold, silver, or platinum metallic content of 50% or more, exclusive of any transparent polymer holder, coating, or encasement..." The first Goldbacks were made for Utah, partly as a result of the legalization of gold and silver as legal tender in Utah in 2011 as part of the

Utah Legal Tender Act The Utah Legal Tender Act, passed March 10, 2011, recognizes gold and silver coins issued by the United States as legal tender in the state of Utah. This includes allowing the state of Utah to pay off debts in gold and silver and allowing individu ...

, and partly because the founder and first employees were based out of Utah. In order to avoid issues with federal counterfeit laws, each Goldback is printed with statements such as, "voluntary negotiable instrument" "for circulation" specific to whichever state the particular Goldback in question was 'printed' for. Also, the text "Privately Issued, Not U.S. Dollar Legal Tender. US & International Patents Pending" appears on each Goldback.

Criticism

Some commentators have stated that one potential downside of the Goldback is the premium that each Goldback costs over the

spot price In finance, a spot contract, spot transaction, or simply spot, is a contract of buying or selling a commodity, security or currency for immediate settlement (payment and delivery) on the spot date, which is normally two business days after t ...

of gold embedded within each note. Currently, as of April 2025, the premium-to-gold price is around 100%.

References