Will Gold Coins Suffer the Fate of the $10,000 Bill?

The conspiracy theorists will love this one. Buried deep in the bowels of the 2,000 page health care bill is a new requirement for gold dealers to file Form 1099’s for all retail sales by individuals over $600. Specifically, the measure can be found in section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordability Act of 2010.

For foreign readers unencumbered by such concerns, Internal Revenue Service Form 1099’s are required to report miscellaneous income associated with services rendered by independent contractors and self employed individuals. The IRS has long despised the barbaric relic (GLD) as an ideal medium to make invisible large transactions. Did you ever wonder what happened to $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 bills?

Although the Federal Reserve claims on their website that they were withdrawn because of lack of use (click here for the link), the word at the time was that they disappeared to clamp down on money laundering operations by the mafia. In fact, the goal was to flush out income from the rest of us. Dan Lundgren, a republican from California’s 3^rd congressional district, a rural gerrymander east of Sacramento that includes the gold bearing Sierras, has introduced legislation to repeal the requirement, claiming that it places an unaffordable burden on small business.

Even the IRS is doubtful that it can initially deal with the tidal wave of paper that the measure would create. Currency trivia question of the day: whose picture is engraved on the $10,000 bill? You guessed it, Salmon P. Chase, Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury.