YOUR next vacation could include a trip to a small micronation within the United States where cookie dough is an accepted form of currency.
His Excellency, The President of Molossia, Kevin Baugh, spoke with The U.S. Sun about establishing his micronation – including the quirky currency rules.
Baugh – whose full title is His Excellency President Grand Admiral Colonel Doctor Kevin Baugh, President and Raïs of Molossia, Protector of the Nation and Guardian of the People – changed the micronation’s name to Molossia in 1999.
The name change followed a shift in the micronation, which was initially established by Baugh and a friend as the Grand Republic of Goldstein in 1977.
As it stands today, Molossia spans 11.3 acres and has a population of 38, including 35 humans and three canines.
The micronation is situated fully within the state of Nevada.
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“We do consider ourselves to be a sovereign nation and so we have established borders here in Molossia,” Baugh explained.
In addition to Baugh as President, his wife serves as the First Lady and his youngest daughter is Chief Constable in charge of law enforcement within the nation.
COOKIE DOUGH CURRENCY
Baugh has established several rules concerning Molossia’s tourist economy and currency.
“Any money we make – and it’s not very much – is made off of our visitors and the stuff that we sell online,” Baugh explained.
“You can definitely shop in Molossia. We have a trading post, basically a little store with tourist items.”
Molossia has its own form of currency, the Valora, which means valuable in the country’s second language, Esperanto. But the Valora isn’t based on dollars or gold.
“We are based on chocolate chip cookie dough and the cookie dough standard in the Republic of Molossia,” Baugh said.
“Some of our visitors will come and they bring us cookie dough – Almost every single tour we have someone come by with a package of cookie dough and we’ll swap that for our currency.”
Baugh added that visitors can also swap American dollars.
“As the First Lady likes to say, ‘We’re rolling in the dough,’” Baugh laughed.
“We’re eating up our profits.”
‘EXPRESSION OF FREE SPEECH’
Beyond creating a cookie dough currency, Baugh said establishing a micronation wasn’t too difficult.
There’s no real governmental process, Baugh explained, as micronations “are not recognized really as anything except an expression of free speech [and] creativity.”
“You say you have your own country and then just kind of start building from that basic idea,” he said.
“We’ve taken that little seed and sort of grew it from there, seeing what we could do with the idea of having our own country.”
Baugh works to encourage other micronationalists – mostly kids but some adults – to start their own countries.
‘TANGIBLE SHIFT’
The basic idea for Molossia was that Baugh wanted to have his own nation.
But as he’s grown as a leader, Baugh said there has been a “tangible shift.”
“Most micronations do not have a physical presence. Most of them are in the virtual world, for lack of a better phrase,” Baugh said.
“Molossia is different in that respect because we can welcome visitors to our country – and that creates interesting logistical problems.”
Tours of Molossia are offered on a monthly basis between April and October.
Baugh pointed to the fact that he’s basically turned his backyard into a tourist attraction.
Along with that comes the responsibility of widening paths and strategically placing trash cans.
“We never have a tour that’s less than 30 people visiting. And that’s a lot,” he said.
“We make it so that when people come visit our little country they feel like they’re visiting a very tiny foreign nation, and that’s always our goal.
“It gets a little bit challenging but it’s still kind of fun.”
