We Surround Them Overview
We Surround Them was a political-currency campaign operated through the website surroundmoney.com, tied to the “9-12 Project,” a set of nine founding principles and twelve values popularized by radio and television host Glenn Beck in 2009. The campaign framed private silver ownership as a form of civic participation: acquiring AOCS Approved silver and spending it within the American Open Currency Standard barter network was presented as a way to opt out of Federal Reserve–issued currency and rebuild local, merchant-based trade.
The surroundmoney.com site laid out an extended argument tracing dissatisfaction with the Federal Reserve back to its 1913 founding, through the 1933 and 1971 gold-standard actions, framing paper currency as an eroding promise rather than a store of value — and positioning AOCS-issued silver as a practical alternative circulating at a fixed trade value within participating merchant networks. The nine principles and twelve values referenced throughout that argument are the same ones struck directly into the obverse legend of the campaign’s flagship round, the 2009 Unite or Die AOCS Silver Round (pending publication).
As an issuer, We Surround Them operated within the AOCS structure documented on the AOCS Mint (Frisco, TX) page — conceptualizing and requisitioning its own currency design while relying on AOCS’s coordinated network of contract manufacturers for actual production. This mirrors the relationship AOCS maintained with its many other affiliated issuers of the era (John Galt, Go Local Buy Local, Republic of Texas, and others), each operating as a distinct campaign or brand under the shared AOCS Approved standard.
We Surround Them Notes
- Distinct from AOCS Mint itself: We Surround Them functioned as the currency issuer/campaign, not the manufacturer. See the AOCS Mint page for the underlying production-partner history.
- Surroundmoney.com’s content and messaging were closely aligned with Glenn Beck’s 9-12 Project, though no direct corporate or licensing relationship between the two has been confirmed.
- Only one design — the 2009 Unite or Die round — has been documented under this issuer to date; further AOCS directory research may surface additional We Surround Them–branded issues.
- No named individual or corporate officer has yet been identified as operating surroundmoney.com; this remains an open research item.
We Surround Them References
- surroundmoney.com (Wayback Machine capture, 2009)
- opencurrency.com, AOCS Approved Currencies directory (Wayback Machine capture, 2011)
- AOCS Mint (Frisco, TX) — Texas Stacker mint page
- American Open Currency Standard (AOCS) — Texas Stacker collection page
- Texas Stacker Archives
Coins from We Surround Them (surroundmoney.com) (1)
