A fine gentleman named Robert Kahre has caused a bit of a headache for the IRS. He paid his employees in silver and gold coins using their FACE value. Here's the article:
http://www.liberty-watch.com/volume03/issue08/coverstory.php Long and short of it, he, his employees, and customers got baked in the sun, then they (except customers) got fun in the legal system. The jury found them not guilty of 160 charges and hung on the remainder. The Feds are not sure they will retry the hung charges.
PS, as independent contractors earning less than the IRS minimum reporting salary, they paid no income tax.
IMarv