Are U.S. birth certificates multi-billion dollar bonds that people can legally use for personal transactions, as proven by the fact that they bear the inscription "American Bank Note Company?" No, that's not true: The claim is part of a conspiracy theory promulgated by members of the "sovereign citizen" movement, a loosely organized group that believes the U.S. federal government has no legal jurisdiction over individuals. Meanwhile, the American Bank Note Company does not create U.S. monetary instruments; it is a now-defunct printing and engraving firm whose products included secure paper for some vital statistics records.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on February 3, 2024, under the caption "UPDATED: They made your birth certificate into a bond... it's worth billions!" (Translation from Hungarian to English by Lead Stories staff). It shows a Hungarian translation of a post (archived here) that appeared on a website titled Brian Kelly's blog on August 2, 2013. The English-language original reads:
Who knew, it says 'American Bank Note Company' right there on our birth certificates!? I'm connecting so many dots today I think my head might start spinning around and puking green vomit, like the little girl in the Exorcist. Ok I'm sorry, that's gross. But that's how disturbing this stuff is...
When the UNITED STATES declared bankruptcy, pledged all Americans as collateral against the national debt, and confiscated all gold, eliminating the means by which you could pay, it also assumed legal responsibility for providing a new way for you to pay, and it did that by providing what is known as the Exemption, an exemption from having to pay for anything. In practical terms, though, this meant giving each American something to pay with, and that \'something\' is your credit.
Your value to society was then and still is calculated using actuarial tables and at birth, bonds equal to this \'average value\' are created. I understand that this is currently between one and two million dollars. These bonds are collateralized by your birth certificate which becomes a negotiable instrument. The bonds are hypothecated, traded until their value is unlimited for all intents and purposes, and all that credit created is technically and rightfully yours. In point of fact, you should be able to go into any store in America and buy anything and everything in sight, telling the clerk to charge it to your Exemption account, which is identified by a nine-digit number that you will recognize as your Social Security number without the dashes. It is your EIN, which stands for Exemption Identification Number.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Feb 7 15:29:56 2024 UTC)
The sovereign-citizen claim that the U.S. government is "bankrupt" refers to its decision to abandon the gold standard for domestic transactions in 1933, as outlined in an analysis (archived here) by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a civil rights organization. This "bogus history lesson" forms a cornerstone of sovereign-citizen ideology, the SPLC says:
Claiming that since 1933 when the U.S. dollar was no longer backed by gold but by the 'full faith and credit' of the federal government, the government has pledged its citizenry as collateral by selling their future earning capabilities to foreign investors, effectively enslaving all Americans. This sale, sovereign citizens claim, takes place at birth with the issuance of a birth certificate and the hospital advice to apply for a Social Security number for the baby. Sovereigns say that the government then uses that birth certificate to set up a corporate trust in the baby's name - a secret U.S. Treasury account - that it funds with amounts ranging from $600,000 to $20 million, depending on the particular variant of the sovereign belief system.
A warning on the U.S. Department of the Treasury's website (archived here) affirms that the claim is baseless:
Several internet blogs and videos make false claims that a United States birth certificate is a negotiable instrument (a document that promises payment)... The truth is, birth certificates cannot be used for purchases, nor can they be used to request savings bonds purportedly held by the government.
Meanwhile, as also explained on the U.S. Department of the Treasury's website, the claim that the government keeps "Exemption accounts" for every U.S. individual is a canard that con artists exploited to defraud people of their money:
The 'Exemption Account' is a false term; these accounts are fictitious and do not exist in the Treasury system... These blogs and videos promise that your birth certificate bond will be able to wipe out all your debt or help you collect monies/securities. Some internet sites even offer to sell videos, webinars, and coaching on how to do this. No one has profited from the Treasury Department by using these tactics. But, the scammers intend to profit from this story by selling their bogus wares.
Finally, according to a filing at the New York City Tax Appeals Tribunal (archived here), the American Bank Note Company, whose name is inscribed on the birth certificate shown in the TikTok video, was a printing and engraving firm that merged into the American Banknote Corporation in 1995.
It is true that one of the company's predecessors printed dollar bills for the fledgling U.S. government starting in 1795, according to a statement on its website (archived here). However, no private entity has been able to print U.S. currency since 1877, when the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing became the sole producer of the country's cash supply (archived here).
The company has produced paper for vital statistics records, Dan Reed, operations manager at the American Banknote Corporation, said in an email to Lead Stories on February 8, 2024. He wrote:
We are a secure printer and have produced various items including certificates of origins and birth certificates. But, we are not familiar with birth certificates being ascribed value as a form of state currency.
Lead Stories debunked a similar sovereign-citizen claim that court case numbers could be used for cash here.
