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approximately $250 per year. Petitioner's family living expenses
during the years in issue were approximately $6,300 per year,
which included property taxes of $1,272, $1,034, and $874 for
1992, 1993, and 1994, respectively, as well as the cost of food,
clothing, oil and fuel for lights and transportation, and other
miscellaneous expenses.
Petitioner wishes to live on the gold standard and
calculates his living expenses and income on the basis of the
American Eagle gold coin. A 1-ounce American Eagle gold coin has
a face value of $50 and is legal tender at its $50 face value
amount.3 However, the coin's fair market value greatly exceeds
the $50 legal tender amount and will fluctuate with the price of
gold. Occasionally, petitioner is forced to use ordinary
currency, as in dealing with merchants in town, paying property
taxes, and ordering his daughter's textbooks. On such occasions,
petitioner converts the gold coins into Federal reserve notes and
pays with cash or a money order.
Before the years in issue, petitioner purchased some gold-
mining claims and does mining on his own. In 1993 and 1994,
petitioner earned a living by selling timber from the mining land
which he cut and sold to C&D Lumber Co. in Riddle, Oregon (C&D).
Petitioner insisted that he be paid in gold coins with a $50 face
3 Petitioner conceded that at the time of trial the gold
price in Federal Reserve notes was approximately $350 per ounce
and that one American Eagle gold coin with a face value of $50
weighs 1 ounce.
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