{"id":636,"date":"2018-09-02T19:57:13","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T02:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/?page_id=636"},"modified":"2025-07-20T16:17:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T23:17:38","slug":"liberty-dollar-2008","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/liberty-dollar-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty Dollar (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I occasionally wrote journalistic articles for Liberty. This was one of my favorites \u2014 because it was on the zany side, and maybe because as a kid I had been a coin collector. It ran in the March 2008 issue.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On November 14, 2007, the FBI raided a storefront in Evansville, Indiana, labeled \u201cLIBERTY DOLLAR,\u201d located between a gun shop and a vacant storefront. The FBI also raided the Sunshine Mint, a company in Coeur d\u2019Alene, Idaho, that minted Liberty Dollars under contract. There government agents commandeered almost 200,000 ounces of silver and 150 ounces of gold; in Indiana, they carted away two tons of Liberty Dollars, including 50,000 copper $1 rounds emblazoned with the image of presidential candidate Ron Paul.\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The seizure made page one of the\u00a0Washington Post<\/i>, probably because it was an offbeat story and also because of the monetary-crank aura placed around Rep. Paul. When asked by the press about it, Paul said, \u201cI like competing currencies. The market should decide what is money.\u201d But he hastened to add that he had was not involved with the Liberty Dollar, and said, \u201cI do not know the people.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The person behind the Liberty Dollar \u2014 he calls himself its \u201cmonetary architect\u201d \u2014 is Bernard von NotHaus, 63. Like Paul, he has been a hard-money man a long time, and blended the doctrine into his career. But he has done it a completely different way. Instead of advocating gold and silver currency, he had undertaken to create one.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In doing this story, I talked to von NotHaus. It was a difficult conversation. He was vehement, argumentative \u2014 and much of the time he was grilling me. He was not kindly disposed to\u00a0Liberty<\/i>magazine. It annoyed him that its founder, the late R.W. Bradford, had not supported the Liberty Dollar, and when they had talked, had undertaken to tell\u00a0him<\/i>what the Liberty Dollar was and why it wouldn\u2019t work. The Cato Institute people had not been any better, he said, nor the people at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. All were useless. They talked about \u201chard money.\u201d He had\u00a0done<\/i>something about it \u2014 and, he said, \u201cI\u2019m facing federal prison right now.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The real issue of the Liberty Dollar, he said, is whether \u201cwe have a right to protect ourselves in a hyperinflationary era, or do we not? Are we relegated to using government money and being screwed by the invisible tax of inflation?<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWelcome to the fascist states of America,\u201d he said, bitterly.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Von NotHaus would not talk about himself, though he has at other times. He told another interviewer that in 1974 he had read Harry Browne\u2019s\u00a0How to Profit from the Coming Devaluation,<\/i>which had a great effect on him. He said one of his mentors was Murray Rothbard, and mentioned Rothbard\u2019s tract,\u00a0What Has Government Done to Our Money?<\/i>He mentioned writing his first paper on monetary theory in September 1974. (In 2004, he would publish a 504-page book called\u00a0The Liberty Dollar Solution to the Federal Reserve<\/i>that is available on the Internet.)<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the 1980s, von NotHaus co-founded a private mint he called the Royal Hawaiian Mint. He made a business in gold and silver medallions for sale to collectors, and also nurtured a \u201csecret project.\u201d He later wrote about it:<\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I wanted to create a totally new inflation-proof currency that met the demands of the free market in precious metals and would represent real gold and silver stored in an independent warehouse.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1998 von NotHaus came to the mainland and began producing Liberty Dollars in silver and gold and as paper \u201cwarehouse receipts\u201d backed by the metallic Liberty Dollars. Later he offered electronic credits backed by metal.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The federal government let him alone for a long time. But in 2005 they began investigating him, and on Sept. 14, 2006, the U.S. Mint issued a press release warning that Liberty Dollars were not legal tender and that their use in trade was a crime. In November 2007 came the raid. Von NotHaus now faces the possibility of federal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. 486, which reads:<\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title\u00a0or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.<\/span><\/i><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Von NotHaus\u2019s defense rests on his denial that Liberty Dollars are\u00a0coins<\/i>. He writes:<\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Every effort has been made to promote and market the Liberty Dollar with educational tools by clearly and repeatedly pointing out that the Liberty Dollar is not United States Mint fiat money, is not legal tender, is not a coin\u2026<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He argues that\u00a0\u00a0\u201ccoin\u201d has a legal meaning: a disk of metal stamped by the government.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0And, of course, Liberty Dollars were not stamped by, or authorized by, the government. Therefore they are not coins.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But if that is true, then what does 18 U.S.C. 486 forbid? It seems to forbid unauthorized coins, but if anything unauthorized would not be a coin, the law would therefore forbid nothing.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Set that aside. The metallic Liberty Dollar is in the form of a coin. The design on the obverse side looks\u00a0like<\/i>U.S. coins of a century ago. Most Liberty Dollars have a profile of Miss Liberty and the word \u201cLIBERTY\u201d above her head. Stamped below her neck is the date. On the reverse side are a torch, the name \u201cLiberty Dollars\u201d in script, the denomination in dollars, and the weight and fineness of the metal. There are variations. Some have the names of states. One has King Kamehameha and is called the \u201cHawaii Dala.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Obviously this is not the government\u2019s money. The government does not circulate $5, $10, $20 or $1,000 coins. The U.S. Mint has never made circulating currency of pure copper, silver or gold. Its money says \u201cUnited States of America,\u201d \u201cE Pluribus Unum\u201d and \u201cIn God We Trust,\u201d and Liberty Dollars don\u2019t say those things. Some say \u201cUSA\u201d and most of them say \u201cTrust in God\u201d except one version with no mention of the Almighty. That one is marketed on eBay as the \u201cgodless\u201d Liberty Dollar.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In its press release, the U.S. Mint took care to call metallic Liberty Dollars\u00a0medallions<\/i>. Lots of companies have minted medallions, and Von NotHaus doesn\u2019t use that name for Liberty Dollars. In court papers he has described the Liberty Dollar as a \u201cprivate voluntary barter currency\u201d and not \u201c\u2018legal tender\u2019, a \u2018coin\u2019 or \u2018current money.\u2019 \u201d On Nov. 21, 2007, when Larry Kudlow of CNBC\u2019s Kudlow & Co. asked him if Liberty Dollars weren\u2019t really investments, he said no, they were \u201ccirculating currency.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In its press release the Mint had said von NotHaus\u2019s company was marketing Liberty Dollars \u201cto compete with the circulating coinage of the United States.\u201d He had said as much many times; to me he compared Liberty Dollar to Federal Express\u2019s competition with the Post Office. He had named his company the National Organization for Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and Internal Revenue Code (NORFED) though after the Mint\u2019s press release he changed the name to Liberty Services. He also took the \u201cUSA\u201d off, partly to put the date under the bust of Miss Liberty and partly, he said, \u201cto be responsive.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Mint had also said that under the U.S. Constitution, \u201cCongress has the exclusive power to coin money of the United States and to regulate its value.\u201d Von NotHaus replied on Sept. 20, 2006, that the Constitution\u2019s grant of power \u2014 \u201cto coin Money, [and] regulate the Value thereof\u201d \u2014 is not exclusive. In the Constitution, he said,\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

thestates<\/i>are restricted from coining money. The\u00a0people<\/i>are not, and in fact numismatists are aware that the United States has a rich and well-documented history of private mints producing private circulating currency which, while not “legal tender”, was “lawful money.” Americans create new forms of private money all the time, from casino tokens to debit cards to\u00a0<\/span>PayPal<\/span><\/a>to GoldMoney.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Probably he is right about the Constitution. Regarding the statute, he has said 18 USC 486 was originally meant as \u201can anti-counterfeiting law, not to ban private currency.\u201d Still, it says what it says.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The law does not apply to private paper currencies, of which there are several in the United States. One is Burlington Bread, based in Burlington, Vermont. Another, backed by the E. F. Schumacher Society and circulating in southern Massachusetts, is BerkShares. Both of these are projects of left-liberals who want to fight distant corporations and reduce their carbon footprint by encouraging localism. A BerkShare dollar is redeemable by the merchant at 90 U.S. cents. Essentially it is a 10-percent discount coupon.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0None of these projects produces gold and silver currency that looks like old U.S. money, and none seems to have attracted the FBI.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In March 2007, in anticipation of some kind of crackdown, von NotHaus filed a lawsuit against the Treasury in U.S. District Court in southern Indiana. He petitioned the court for an injunction to stop the government from moving against the Liberty Dollar. At press time, the court had not issued any injunction.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To obtain a warrant for the November 2007 raids, FBI Special Agent Andrew Romagnuolo of Charlotte, N.C., swore out a 34-page affidavit. According to this affidavit, the FBI sent three undercover agents to sign up as Liberty Dollar distributors, to receive von NotHaus\u2019s book and attend his Liberty Dollar \u201cuniversity.\u201d Referring to one of these agents, Von NotHaus said, \u201cWe knew about Karen from day one. We knew who she was. It was obvious.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The FBI tested a silver Liberty Dollar in the FBI Laboratory to verify that it was really 999 fine \u2014 and it was. Nonetheless, Romagnuolo\u2019s affidavit calls the Liberty Dollar fraudulent because the Liberty Dollar claimed to be \u201c100 percent backed\u201d by silver, and the amount of silver \u2014 one ounce per $20 in Liberty Dollars \u2014 was less than the face value. As of Nov. 8, 2007, Romagnuolo noted, one ounce of silver was worth only $15.34.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is true that the Liberty Dollar\u2019s metallic backing is not set at 100 percent of denominated value. It cannot be, because of the way the Liberty Dollar is defined. A simple silver-standard currency would be a unit defined as an amount of silver. The Liberty Dollar defines itself as a dollar, asserts a trade value equal to the U.S. dollar, and is backed by an amount of silver worth\u00a0less\u00a0<\/i>than a U.S. dollar.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This brings up the issue of gain. Liberty Services sold its private currency for U.S. dollars at a mark-up over the silver value but at less than face value, to its Regional Currency Officers and Liberty Dollar Associates. These were expected to sell Liberty Dollars at a lesser discount to member merchants, who were offered the right to reverse these transactions.\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Liberty Dollar was, therefore, part of a business. Says the affidavit:<\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0NORFED uses Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs) to conduct business. FRNs are used to buy Liberty Dollar currency. This reliance upon FRNs by a group opposed to FRNs demonstrates that the American Liberty Dollar monetary system is simply a drain on the United States Government\u2019s monetary system for financial profit…<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0There was profit in it, though Von NotHaus says he didn\u2019t take a penny in the first five years. The affidavit lists various checks and wire transfers to von NotHaus, office manager Sarah Bledsoe and others. From December 2006 to August 2007, the affidavit reports checks from the company\u2019s bank account to von NotHaus for $65,250 and to Bledsoe for $27,300. There is a small check to NotHaus\u2019s son, Random von NotHaus. The affidavit does not say which of these sums were for living expenses and which for expenses of the business, but even if they were all living expenses they are not huge amounts. It also says von NotHaus and wife Mary owned \u201ca luxury vehicle\u201d \u2014 a silver Cadillac de Ville. It was, however, a 1999 model, and von NotHaus says it is worth only $2,000 to $3,000.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Liberty Dollar\u2019s business model pencils out only if the price of the underlying metal stays within certain ranges. Originally the one-ounce silver Liberty Dollar was stamped $10. In November 2005, when silver rose above $7.50, the Liberty Dollar was \u201crebased\u201d at $20 \u2014 and suddenly became more profitable to sell. The affidavit said the next rebasing, to $50, would occur when the 45-day moving average price of silver crossed $16.50.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Agent Romagnuolo\u2019s affidavit makes the rebasing sound like part of a \u201cprofit scheme,\u201d and you could call it that in a courtroom. It also is a description of a kind of money that, based on its eBay value, has risen in value against the U.S. dollar \u2014 a fact von NotHaus does not let pass. \u201cWould you rather have your savings in a currency that\u00a0depreciates<\/i>, or one that\u00a0appreciates?\u201d<\/i>he says.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The affidavit also makes claims about von NotHaus\u2019s political motivation, quoting from company materials. Says Romagnuolo:<\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0These statements highlight the intent of NORFED \u2014 the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Codes \u2014 to replace and\/or compete with the financial systems of the United States of America to undermine the existing economic system.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The intention was there, certainly; but it was never very likely that the Liberty Dollar was going to accomplish all that. Von NotHaus has been promoting Liberty Dollars for nine years. The affidavit says he claimed $21 million was in \u201ccirculation,\u201d and he says it\u2019s more than that. But how much is circulating\u00a0in trade?<\/i><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who takes the Liberty Dollar in trade? In the affidavit, Agent Romagnuolo says he was told the three communities where the Liberty Dollar had made the greatest inroads were Austin, Tex. (pop. 709,893), Asheville, N.C. (pop. 68,889), and Berryville, Ark. (pop. 4,500).<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Agent Romagnulo\u2019s affidavit tells of his investigation of Kevin Innes, a music teacher in Asheville who, it says, drives a 1992 white Volvo sedan. Like the three undercover agents, Innes paid $250 to become a Liberty Dollar Associate. And what did undercover FBI agents find out about this threat to the Republic? For a while Innes rented a storefront in Asheville for his Liberty Dollar business, then gave it up and worked out of his house. The undercover FBI agent bought Liberty Dollars from Innes at his house and in a parking lot of a Target store. The agent reported that Innes had sold Liberty Dollars at a gun show, at several meetings of the Patriot Network and the 2005 Atlanta Freedom Conference. The affidavit quotes from a news story about Innes in the\u00a0Asheville<\/i>Citizen-Times<\/i>, Nov. 13, 2006. In it, Innes says expresses some frustration at the difficulty of convincing people to take Liberty Dollars, and says he leaves them in restaurants as tips.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The New York Sun quoted Ron Goodger, a Liberty Dollar distributor in Michigan, saying, \u201cIt never did do what the organization really wanted it to do \u2014 become widely accepted as a medium of exchange.\u201d Goodger said, \u201cIt\u2019s a tremendous amount of work to get the public to accept something it wasn\u2019t familiar with.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In an interview in 2001 with Jacob\u2019s Libertarian Press, von NotHaus said:<\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I tell people this over and over again. You don\u2019t talk people into an alternative currency. The currency is a clever device to get the choir to identify themselves\u2026 We use the currency as a way of coaxing people out of the closet to identify themselves as being part of the choir, because when you show the currency to people, people invariably say something, they respond. \u201cOh what a bunch of bullshit.\u201d Ah, you\u2019re not part of the choir. Some people say, \u201cThat\u2019s pretty neat, we ought to have currency like that.\u201d Then they probably are part of the choir. So it\u2019s under those sort of auspices that the currency functions. The currency functions as, you\u2019ve probably read, a proactive educational tool. Well, it actually acts as a device to get people to identify themselves, to pull together a consensus of people that are dedicated to return the ownership of the money to the people as a means of returning control of the government to the people. That\u2019s it in a nutshell.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>In his affidavit, Agent Romagnuolo sounds like a man stamping out counterfeit money. He warns that businesses might give Liberty Dollars in change \u201cand the recipient\u2026 may assume that it is United States coinage.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That seems unlikely, with the possible exception of the one-dollar copper piece. On February 15, 2007, the U.S. Mint began circulating the new presidential dollar coins. They were of a brassy color, different from other U.S. coins and unfamiliar to the public. Some of them had the bust of John Adams. Like the Ron Paul dollar, they were stamped with \u201c$1.\u201d Still the copper Liberty Dollars were about 50 percent bigger in diameter, were a different color, and had the head of Ron Paul \u2014 who is not, despite his political philosophy, one of the Founding Fathers.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019d have to be a fool to take Liberty Dollars as legal tender. But that statement works against von NotHaus as well as for him.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His silver and gold Liberty Dollars are all of 99.9 percent pure metal, which is what medallions, not coins, are made of. I put it to him that that shows he did not design them as a circulating currency. The old U.S. coins, designed to be used in trade, were 90 percent silver or gold, in an alloy hard enough to bang around in people\u2019s pockets. And besides, eBay always has lots of Liberty Dollars offered for sale, some of them seven years old, and every one I\u2019ve seen has been offered in brilliant, proof-like condition.\u00a0All are uncirculated<\/i>.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Therefore, Liberty Dollars are not currency.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Maybe this is what R.W. Bradford said to him years ago \u2014 I don\u2019t know. But it sure set him off.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe are\u00a0not\u00a0<\/i>a collector organization,\u201d von NotHaus insisted. \u201cWe are not a numismatic organization. At least we were not until we were raided. We are a currency.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Why, then, are most Liberty Dollars made of 999 fine silver?<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cDo you know how much an alloy piece costs? A lot,\u201d he said. \u201cIt comes down to the marketplace. Everything about the Liberty Dollar is about the marketplace. It would not function in the marketplace as an alloy. People want silver. They don\u2019t give a damn for an alloy.\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As for the Liberty Dollars on eBay, he said, \u201cIf you go to eBay, what do you think you\u2019re going to find but collector stuff? You\u2019re looking in the wrong place. Talk to the people who are using them. Wal Mart, Pizza Hut. Do you have any of those stores in Seattle? All those stores are using them. People are using them. It\u2019s exciting. Pull your head out! Bullshit!\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have never seen anyone offer a Liberty Dollar in trade, or receive one, or seen any business say Liberty Dollars were welcome, or unwelcome. Or seen one in the drawer of a cash register or in anyone\u2019s coin purse. I conclude they are a pretend money. They are medallions for sale to hard-money conservatives and libertarians who will pay a premium over the metallic content because von NotHaus has laid a special monetary and political meaning on them. He has made his medallions look and feel like money, partly because he has denominated them in dollars.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIf it didn\u2019t have a denomination, it wouldn\u2019t function,\u201d he says. He denies the Liberty Dollar is denominated in U.S. dollars. \u201cIt\u2019s denominated in Liberty Dollars. Do we mention U.S. dollars on there?\u201d<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Well, no. It says dollars. But in the United States, what is a dollar? If von NotHaus meant to denominate his currency in a unit other than the government\u2019s dollar, he might have called it a peso, a silvercredit, or a NotHaus. He called it a dollar and declared that it trade at par with the government\u2019s dollar.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That is what the market wanted. But the market for money\u00a0used in commerce<\/i>also wants a unit accepted by the banks as a dollar, and no bank will accept Liberty Dollars as anything. And as long as that is so, the market for Liberty Dollars is the collector market, and Liberty Dollars will have no ability to undermine the Federal Reserve or \u201cthe existing economic system\u201d of the United States.\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Libertarians may wish von NotHaus well, and those feeling this strongly may send him some dollars at 225 N. Stockwell Road, Evansville, Indiana, 47715. He is hoping to embarrass the government if it takes him to trial, and hoping also to stay out of federal prison. His case may make monetary history, not because Liberty Dollar was itself a threat to the government, which it was not, but because what von NotHaus has done in a small way might someday be done in a big way, by a bank, or a consortium of banks. You never know.<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Meanwhile eBay has for sale some beautiful coins. We can call them that, even if their creator cannot.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a9 2008 Bruce Ramsey<\/em><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Creating the Liberty Dollar was a political act, a statement by a libertarian that he would offer a precious metal currency now that the U.S. Treasury no longer did. It was not counterfeiting. It was not really dangerous to the Treasury or the U.S. government, because the people didn\u2019t want his currency. Was it an act of civil disobedience? Yes. A conspiracy? My dictionary defines conspiracy as \u201ca secret plan to commit a crime or do harm, often for political ends.\u201d There was nothing secret about the Liberty Dollar. Von NotHaus loved publicity.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bernard von NotHaus was indicted in 2009 for counterfeiting, tried in federal court in North Carolina and found guilty on March 18, 2011. The U.S. attorney there described von NotHaus\u2019s minting and circulation of Liberty Dollars as \u201ca unique form of domestic terrorism.\u201d Von NotHaus appealed, lost his appeal, and in 2014 was sentenced to six months\u2019 house arrest and three years of probation. His probation was ended in December 2015.<\/i><\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I occasionally wrote journalistic articles for Liberty. This was one of my favorites \u2014 because it was on the zany side, and maybe because as a kid I had been a coin collector. It ran in the March 2008 issue.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On November 14, 2007, the FBI raided a storefront in Evansville, Indiana, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-636","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1540,"href":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/636\/revisions\/1540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bruceramsey.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}