I ordered a Manhattan at the bar a few nights ago because spiritually, I’m 63 years old. They’re not great, but I feel a certain kinship with the concoction. My mom tells stories of learning to drive with her dad in the passenger seat drinking Manhattans in bulk out of a plastic cup. It should be acknowledged, before we go any farther, that there is/was a certain piquant strain of alcoholism that ran in the family – hence the cocktails on-the-go.

I say this, not because I want you to start drawing conclusions, but because I want to set up a scene for you. If I tried to pay for that rye and vermouth concoction with a silver coin I dug out of a shipwreck somewhere, or a gold Krugerrand I obtained from a sketchy columnist contact, the bartender would look at me and laugh. Gone are the days of tossing a handful of doubloons on the counter and demanding rotgut for the house.

However, there are factions within the House that believe gold and silver currency might be making a comeback, and have put forth proposals to streamline the use of these precious metals as a means to buy and sell products.

Representative Kevin McCabe’s (R – Big Lake) House Bill 3 is one such proposal – indeed, the only one this term focused on the exchange of metals on the market. Essentially, McCabe, whose bill is co-sponsored by Representatives George Rauscher (R – Sutton) and DeLena Johnson (R – Palmer), wants to remove taxes on stamped, printed, state-endorsed gold and silver currencies. The example provided by McCabe were Goldbacks, which are thin 24k gold bills, sandwiched in a thin clear polymer. The Utah-based company that produces the bills has already expanded to Nevada, New Hampshire, and Wyoming in recent years. Now, it seems, the notorious Big Goldback Lobby has set its sights on Alaska.

McCabe passed a handful of these Goldbacks around during Thursday’s State Affairs meeting, and the intricate inlaid design caught the attention of all the committee members. To be honest, it does look pretty sick – like Monopoly Money dipped in molten gold.

McCabe’s bill, which was spawned by one of his Big Lake constituents who “doesn’t like banks,” hopes to remove some of the barriers to Alaskans using stamped gold and silver in everyday transactions. These needn’t necessarily be Goldbacks, though the fact that McCabe brought several in to show the committee might indicate a kinship with the company. However, the state could mint its own versions, if the bill were to pass.

But there are other problems as well. Even if the bill passes, and even if Goldbacks (or their equivalent) go into circulation, there’s no guarantee that businesses have to accept them. In fact, the bill explicitly states a person or business is “not required to accept gold or silver specie as tender.”

Additionally, Representative Andi Story (D – Juneau) questioned, given the fluctuating price of gold and silver, how a business is to determine the worth of a piece of gold, if a customer tries to pay for goods or services. They’d have to determine the current market value, McCabe responded, which would necessitate the business looking up the spot price of gold or silver.

I’ve lost enough money buying and selling crypto to know what it’s like to use a non-dollar currency to pay for stuff. Bitcoin (and any number of spinoffs) has sort of wormed its way into the world of exchange because it’s easy to buy and sell things with it. Everything’s automated – you plug your wallet code into a computer, verify that you have access to the wallet, and you’re buying illegal firearms and Chinese synthetic heroin in no time. The price fluctuates, sure, but as long as you know the current worth of the bitcoin you have, you know what you can buy.

Gold and silver, on the other hand, are physical objects. To use these as means of payment in a strict currency sense means you have to constantly be aware of what an ounce (or a 1/1000th of an ounce) is worth when you go to pay for something. You also leave the door open for counterfeiting – though, with Goldbacks, McCabe claimed, there’s no way to successfully counterfeit them, since the verification technology is top-of-the-line.

Five dollars is worth five dollars (by the time I finish this sentence, it’ll be more like $3.99, but you get the point) but an ounce of gold – well, that’s a different story. It’s not as volatile as certain other commodities, but the price changes enough on the global market that anyone who wants to pay for an oil change with gold bars ought to keep abreast of the market value.

With all of this said, I think McCabe’s bill might be worth considering. By removing sales tax on the sale of specie, it would allow people who are distrustful enough of banks and financially savvy enough with commodities to have a different way to spend their money. Personally (and this is a whole different issue) I’ve never been overly fond of fiat currency – I think they call it Fiat because it’s perpetually broken and sort of shitty.

Opening the door a little to Alaskans to pay for things with gold and silver is, in general, a pretty good move. If we were to do it, however, I would vouch for the notes (or bars, ounces, however they’re delineated) to be printed at home, in house, rather than outsourcing to Utah.

Someday, maybe, I’ll be able to throw a sack of minted Alaskan gold pieces on the counter, look the clerk square in the eye, and demand his largest firearm and his fanciest shaped bottle of whiskey – for they’re after me precious silver and jewels.