Appeal No. 2006-2083
Reexamination Control No. 90/006,352
The paper certificate includes a serial number (A1680048B) and a printed signature of the
Treasurer of the United States. Insofar as the examiner did not expressly state, we take official
notice that the serial number is for identification purposes and the printed signature is at least in
part for authentication purposes. The examiner relied on the silver certificate to show a
commodity-based cash system including an inventory of silver at a storage site, presumably
secure, silver certificates denominated and payable on demand in a specified amount of the
stored silver, where the amount covered by the certificates is less than or equal to the amount in
storage and whereby financial transactions are conducted by transferring possession of the paper
certificates. The examiner has made out a prima facie case for those determinations. We take
official notice that the United States Treasury has a secure facility to store silver on deposit with
the United States. And because the silver certificate itself states that the deposited silver is
payable to the bearer on demand, that is sufficient to establish at least a prima facie case that the
outstanding amount of silver redeemable by the silver certificates is less than or equal to the
amount of silver held in storage at the United States Treasury. The prima facie case is rebuttable
by the patentee. But as explained below, the patentee’s argument is unpersuasive.
The patentee argues (Brief at 8-9):
Moreover, the 1923 Silver certificate was not a deposit currency that was
100% asset backed as required by the present invention. The 1923 Silver
certificate itself was ultimately susceptible to the problems of fractional banking.
As explained by the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Bankers’ Trust Co., 294 U.S. 240
(1935):
“The Joint resolution of June 5, 1933, was one of a series of
measures relating to the currency. These measures disclose not
only the purpose of the Congress but also the situations which
existed at the time the Joint Resolution was adopted and when the
payments under the ‘gold clauses’ were sought. On March 6,
1933, the President, stating that there had been ‘heavy and
unwarranted withdrawals of gold and currency from our banking
institutions for the purpose of hoarding’ and ‘extensive speculative
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