The circumstances that led to the Argentine economic crises (1999-2002) seem to have a lot of correlation to our current state of affairs.

I wonder if it would be possible to develop a private, precious-metal backed currency, which people could hold as a hedge against government stupidity and hyper-inflation?

This new currency would be safer than holding precious metal securities (the government has the power to cease stock exchanges from trading), and securities are generally vulnerable to manipulation. Not to mention the vulnerability of 1’s and 0’s (electronic trading) to cyber-hacking.

It’s also a more practical solution than holding gold and other precious metals in a vault.

As part of the currency’s charter, an independent auditing firm would periodically affirm its legitimacy.

Counterfeiting may be an issue, but American Express is able to manage risk exposure with its Traveler’s Checks…