Mormonism and church finances/Kirtland Safety Society/Good as gold

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Did Joseph Smith claim that Kirtland Safety Society notes would be "as good as gold"?

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Question: Did Joseph Smith claim at one time that Kirtland Safety Society notes would be "as good as gold"?

Joseph was likely being optimistic regarding the bank's future

Obviously, this did not turn out to be the case during the time that the Kirtland Safety Society was in existence. However, whatever one thinks of Joseph's conduct in connection with the Kirtland Safety Society, this promise, ironically, eventually came true.

  • Brigham Young redeemed Kirtland Safety Society scrip for gold in Utah.
  • Marvin S. Hill notes that, "Brigham Young needn't have gone to such pains to ensure that this prophecy was fulfilled. Today [1977] these notes are worth far more than the exchange rate between currency and gold."[1]


To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here

Notes

  1. Marvin S. Hill, Keith C. Rooker and Larry T. Wimmer, "The Kirtland Economy Revisited: A Market Critique of Sectarian Economics," Brigham Young University Studies 17 no. 4 (Summer 1977), 445, and footnote 113. PDF link


Further reading and additional sources responding to these claims