My understanding was the gold fringe stood for admiralty law. (Law of the sea) If it is removed we are free from the bondage, which would mean our birth certificates would no longer be traded as collateral of debt. Among a host of other very significant things.
I am not certain any more. Some courts have them and some don't. I don't know if people have so adapted to the current paradigm that it is irrelevant, or if the courts have forgotten what it means, or if to them, it even concerns them because we have allowed ourselves to just concede.
Hopefully a tsunami of information created by white hats!