Rules of Gold in New Hampshire

New Hampshire has not enacted a statute recognizing gold or silver coin or specie as legal tender for public or private debts. HB 721 (2025), sponsored by Rep. Juliet Harvey-Bolia and four cosponsors, would recognize "gold or silver in coin or bar form legal tender for all transactions public and private" and require state and local agencies to accept payment in such form; it was introduced January 22, 2025, retained in committee March 19, 2025, and carried over to the 2026 session with a full committee work session scheduled September 10, 2025. As of April 2026, HB 721 remains pending before the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee. New Hampshire is therefore absent from the legal-tender state list (UT/WY/OK/AR/ID/LA/TN/TX/FL-pending) as of capture date — but is the most active pending candidate alongside Florida.

New Hampshire has not enacted enabling legislation for a state-administered bullion depository. HB 1674 (2024) would have established the New Hampshire Legal Tender Act including a state-run bullion depository managed by the State Treasurer plus an electronic precious-metals-backed currency; it did not pass. The 2025-enacted HB 302 (see Reserves field below) authorizes the State Treasurer to invest in physical precious metals but specifies that any digital assets be held by the Treasurer through "a secure custody solution, on behalf of the state by a qualified custodian, or in the form of an exchange traded product issued by a registered investment company" — i.e., it relies on commercial custody, not on creating a state-operated depository facility.

New Hampshire was the first US state to statutorily authorize the State Treasurer to invest public funds in BOTH physical precious metals AND digital assets (Bitcoin) as reserve assets via HB 302 (2025), signed by Gov. Kelly Ayotte on May 6, 2025 as Chapter 4, Laws of 2025, with a 60-day-after-passage effective date (approximately July 5, 2025). Important historical context (sharpened Tier-3 verification 2026-04-26): Tennessee's HB 1479 (signed by Gov. Bill Lee 2023-03-24, House 98-0 / Senate 33-0) preceded NH HB 302 by ~2 years on PM-only state-treasury authorization, making TN — not NH — the first US state in the modern era to authorize state-treasury PM reserves. NH HB 302's distinctive first is the combined PM + Bitcoin (digital assets) authorization — no prior state had bundled the two asset classes. Utah's HB 348 (2024) authorized PM only; Wyoming's SF0096 (2025) MANDATES PM holdings; only NH HB 302 reaches digital assets. The statute provides that the State Treasurer "may invest a portion of public funds in precious metals and any digital assets with a market capitalization of over $500 billion averaged over the previous calendar year" from the general fund, the revenue stabilization fund, and any other funds as authorized by the legislature, capped at "not more than 5 percent of the total amount of public funds in any of the authorized investments." HB 302 limits "precious metals" to silver, gold, and platinum (palladium is excluded). The $500 billion market-cap criterion currently matches only Bitcoin among digital assets. As of capture date, the Treasurer has not yet exercised this authority — the law provides discretion, not a mandate. NH joins TN in the authorize-but-not-yet-acquired category, distinct from UT (~$109.7M / 38,300 oz acquired) and WY (~2,312 oz / $11.6M acquired).

The New Hampshire Retirement System (NHRS) does not hold physical gold, silver, or commodities. NHRS's December 2023 asset-allocation revision (recommended by the Independent Investment Committee and unanimously adopted by the Board) reduced global equities from 50% to 40% and added 5% to private credit and 5% to private infrastructure (a new asset class for NHRS) — none of these new sleeves involve physical precious metals. The FY24 ACFR (fund earned 8.8% net return for FY24, total assets ~$11.6 billion) does not enumerate a commodities or precious-metals line item. NHRS is governed by statute as a component unit of the state and is overseen by the Board of Trustees, which is independent of the State Treasurer's office and therefore independent of HB 302's investment authorization.