CHARLOTTE, NC / ACCESS Newswire / April 30, 2026 / For the eleventh consecutive year, the nation's premier national precious metals dealer and depository has teamed up with influential sound money groups to offer gold-backed scholarships to support student excellence in higher education in 2026.
Money Metals Exchange, Sound Money Defense League, and Sound Money Foundation help students defray the ever-increasing costs of continuing one's education through the first gold-backed scholarship of the modern era.
In 2015, these organizations originally set aside 100 ounces of physical gold to fund scholarships, at the time valued around $120,000. As a result of excessive money printing and deficit spending, that same 100 ounces of gold is worth more than $460,000 today. Using this fund, the groups seek to reward outstanding students who display a thorough understanding of economics, monetary policy, and sound money.
The Sound Money Scholarship is open to high school seniors, undergraduate, and graduate students with an interest in economics, specifically the free-market tradition. Applicants do not have to be economics majors to be eligible to receive this scholarship.
The sound money proponents also announced this year's distinguished panel of judges for the 2026 Sound Money Scholarship:
William L. Anderson is Senior Editor at the Mises Institute and retired professor of economics at Frostburg State University. He earned his MA in economics from Clemson University and his PhD in economics from Auburn University, where he was a Mises Research Fellow. He has published numerous articles and papers on economics and political economy, including articles in The Independent Review, Reason Magazine, The Free Market, The Freeman, Public Choice, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, The Journal of Markets and Morality, Regulation, Freedom Daily and others.
Art Carden is Margaret Gage Bush Distinguished Professor of Economics at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a co-editor of the Southern Economic Journal and a Fellow with numerous research, education, and outreach institutions. He is also the author of Leave Me Alone and I'll Make You Rich: How the Bourgeois Deal Enriched the World (with Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, University of Chicago Press, 2020), Strangers With Candy: Observations From the Ordinary Business of Life (Libertarian Christian Institute, 2023), and Mere Economics: Lessons For and From the Ordinary Business of Life (with Caleb S. Fuller, B&H Academic, 2025).
Peter C. Earle, Ph.D., is the Director of Economics and Economic Freedom and a Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, where he has served since 2018. A former trader and analyst with more than 20 years in New York securities firms and hedge funds, his work focuses on financial markets, monetary policy, forecasting, and economic measurement; he has written or edited eight books and is frequently cited by outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, and CNBC.
Brien Lundin serves as publisher and editor of Gold Newsletter, the publication that has been the cornerstone of precious metals advisories since 1971, and as the host of the annual New Orleans Investment Conference, the oldest and most respected investment event of its kind. Mr. Lundin's career spans four decades in the investment markets.
The Sound Money Scholarship has received overwhelming interest since its inception from students across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and multiple countries on multiple continents. 2025's contest awarded eight outstanding students a total of $11,000 in scholarships.
The deadline for the 2026 Sound Money Scholarship is Oct 31, 2026.
Money Metals, Sound Money Defense League, and Sound Money Defense League are proud to offer the Sound Money Scholarship, Sound Money Fellowship, Sound Money Index, and Sound Money Review as resources for legislators and concerned activists to get involved in the fight for sound money.
For more information and to apply for the 2026 Sound Money Scholarship, please visit moneymetals.com/scholarship or email scholarship [at] moneymetals.com
Also, follow @MoneyMetals and @SoundMoneyDef on X (Twitter) for updates or announcements.
jp.cortez@soundmoneydefense.org
SOURCE: Sound Money Defense League
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/money-metals-and-sound-money-defense-league-announce-internation-1162906
