Page 143 - Fruits from a Poisonous Tree

Mel Stamper 127
Payment vs. Discharge of Debt

Did you realize that when you “tender” a debt with a Federal Reserve
Note, or a bank draft, check, credit card, or other forms of money as opposed
to actual money, you are not in any way making payment? You simply made
a promise to pay. The Constitution and the law establish that the only lawful
money is gold and silver coin. You cannot lawfully make payment with
anything but gold and silver coin, unless the parties agree in advance to some
other form of equitable value barter exchange. An FRN has no intrinsic value
and is not evidence of wealth; it is evidence of debt, and unfortunately for
the one who accepts them, they are not even legitimate notes. FRNs fail the
test of legitimacy for notes, because there isn’t a promise to pay anything, and
they’re not redeemable for anything:
Note, n. An instrument containing an express and absolute
promise of signer (i.e. maker) to pay to a specified person or order, or
bearer, a definite sum of money at a specified time. A note not meeting
these requirements may be assignable but not negotiable. – Black’s Law
Dictionary, 6 Ed
“A note is a specific and unconditional promise to pay.” – UCC-304-I
“Intrinsically, a dollar bill is just a piece of paper.” – Modern Money
Mechanics, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

FRNs Do Not “Make Payment.”

What exactly happens then when you make a transaction using an FRN
and acquire property or services?
You have not in fact made payment, but the debt incurred for the “goods”
is thereby discharged. The distinction is significant:
“There is a distinction between a debt discharged and one paid. When
discharged, the debt still exists, though divested of its character as a legal
obligation during the operation of the discharge. Something of the original
vitality of the debt continues to exist, which may be transferred even though
the transferee takes it subject to the disability incident to the discharge. The
fact that it carries something which may be a consideration for a new promise
to pay, so as to make an other wise worthless promise a legal obligation,
makes it the subject of transfer by assignment” – Stanek v. White, 215 N.W
784