Feds lower boom on alternative money

[zengrifter]

NORFED claims that profits from selling the coins and certificates will be used to help bring down the Federal Reserve and "restore an honest monetary system." zg

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Feds lower boom on alternative money



Updated 9/15/2006
By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The government Thursday warned consumers and businesses that it is illegal to use alternative money known as "Liberty Dollar" coins, which organizers promote as a competitor to the almighty dollar.

"We don't want consumers to be fooled," U.S. Mint spokeswoman Becky Bailey says, noting U.S. Attorneys offices across the USA have noticed a marked increase in inquiries about the coins.

The coins' producers vowed to fight the government's decision.

Evansville, Ind.-based National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and the Internal Revenue Code, otherwise known as NORFED, has been making the Liberty Dollar coins for eight years and claims $20 million is in circulation. The group says the money, unlike official U.S. cash, has a hedge against inflation because it is made almost entirely of silver and is backed by stocks of silver and gold in a vault in Idaho.

The coins are then spent by the group's 2,500 Liberty Associates in stores run by fellow supporters or are accepted unknowingly by clerks who are unaware they are not receiving real money.

...continued here - http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-0...rty-usat_x.htm

[Brutus]

I am going to buy some.

[zengrifter]

Here here! zg

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TIME FOR A LITTLE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE!

Monday, September 18, 2006
Free Market News

Wallace, Idaho – Perversely just in time for Silver Summit 2006, the United States Mint Thursday threw a wrench at Bernard von NotHaus’ Liberty Dollar program with secretion of a Sept. 14 press release, declaring: “Prosecutors with the Department of Justice have determined that the use of these gold and silver NORFED "Liberty Dollar" medallions as circulating money is a Federal crime.”

Which is not quite the same as a legislature, a judge or a jury deciding a thing is a crime. (Prosecutors and cops declaring a thing to be a crime don’t necessarily make it so, and we have plenty of instances both nationally and locally where law enforcers invent nonexistent laws just to have an excuse to bust somebody’s chops.) And just who in Hell is the U.S. Mint, anyway? The crud passing for U.S. nickels, dimes, quarters, halves and fiat dollars is the product of counterfeiters, not of the fine craft of minting.

...continued here - http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analys...id=39&nid=5993

[zengrifter]

Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Liberty Dollar Says NO to the US Mint Allegations

Int'l Libertarian

The United States Mint inadvertently may have done THE LIBERTY DOLLAR, an acclaimed private, non-government currency and favorite numismatic item distributed by NORFED, Inc., a favor by posting a “Warning” on its website on September 14 entitled, “Liberty Dollars Not Legal Tender, United States Mint Warns Consumers.” NORFED states that the last thing they want is for someone to be confused that the gold and silver based Liberty Dollar has some connection with the Federal Government’s fiat money, which is based upon nothing more than popular acceptance for lack of an alternative.

Since the introduction in 1998 of the Liberty Dollar every 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, is not currency in the sense of governmental coinage, and is not money in the sense of governmental coinage. (Currency and money have varied dictionary definitions. In its own interest the Liberty Dollar has every incentive to clarify that the Liberty Dollar has no connection with the Feds - and that’s what has been done, and continues to be done, over and over.)

...continued here - http://intlib.blogspot.com/

[zengrifter]

September 19, 2006

The US Mint News Story in Perspective

The recent United States Mint warning regarding NORFED and the Liberty Dollar offers a rare opportunity. Let's face it, it had to happen... with the growth and prevalence of the Liberty Dollar over the last eight years, the Government had to respond.

They went public and cleared the air in many ways. First, they stated that the gold and silver Liberty Dollar 'medallions' are not US Mint bullion coins, nor are they legal tender... just as NORFED always advertised. Secondly, they stated that the Liberty Dollars are privately produced, and not backed, nor affiliated with, the United States Government... of course not, they're backed by gold and silver, again, just as NORFED has always advertised. Here it is in plain sight... the Liberty Dollar is not a coin, not legal tender, and backed with inflation proof gold and silver!

So what has happened? Goliath just introduced David to millions of Americans as a nationally recognized underdog. Just as Pepsi went up against Coke with their "take the Pepsi Challenge" campaign, the Liberty Dollar will take it to the people to decide which currency they should use. Welcome to "Just try the Liberty Dollar" campaign. So keep doing "the drop" and spreading the word. We are within our rights to offer Liberty Dollars for goods and services to whoever will voluntarily accept them.

...continued here - http://www.libertydollar.org/ld/pres...llegations.htm

[zengrifter]

NORFED Dissolved By The Board, “Liberty Services”
dba “Liberty Dollar” Emerges

Mark Herpel
December 28, 2006

Like other digital currencies located in the United States which are now under a microscope pending new US laws and regulations…and facing trouble from the US Mint, in early December, NORFED Inc. was dissolved by the Board of Directors. Immediately after, the old company shed its skin and emerged with a new name and ‘tone’.

They have corrected some of the issues which may have originally brought on the allegations from the US Mint. Bernard von NotHaus, the Monetary Architect for the Liberty Dollar explained that, “We simply realized that the Liberty Dollar would succeed easier and faster without any political baggage.”

Von NotHaus vows that this new transition is simply a sign of maturity and the Liberty Dollar will survive and continue to be used across the country and even around the world.

NORFED was originally started in 1998 as a grass roots organization to enlighten people about US Federal Reserve policy and the company called for a repeal of the Federal Reserve’s control over US money. ...

,,,more - http://www.americanchronicle.com/art...rticleID=18406

[zengrifter]

Evansville minter claims feds disparaging his barter currency

By Rick Callahan / Associated Press
3/22/07

INDIANAPOLIS – A man who calls himself the “monetary architect” of a private currency is suing the federal government, alleging that officials damaged his company by warning consumers that its paper notes and coins are an illegal currency.

Bernard von NotHaus’ lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction barring the government from describing his company’s Liberty Dollars in those terms. It also seeks a court order instructing the U.S. Mint to remove or retract a warning about the currency posted on its Web site in September.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Evansville, alleges the Mint’s Web site message has caused a “chilling effect” on Evansville-based Liberty Services Inc. That message states that Liberty Dollars carry words such as “liberty,” “dollars” and “Trust in God,” as well as torches, liberty heads and other symbols that could cause them to be confused with federal currency. It warns that it is a federal crime to use the “medallions as circulating money.”

...more - http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortway...l/16951796.htm

[Automatic Monkey]

The Constitution prohibits anyone but the Federal government from coining money. However there is absolutely nothing wrong with trading silver for goods.

I think the certificates may cross the line, but the coins do not, unless you present them to a clerk as a dollar. Claiming that it represents a US dollar or is associated with the dollar in some way is the problem. But if it were illegal to use alternative money in the US, all the stores than accept CAD, pesos, euros, etc. would be in violation.

This is why it is illegal to use cheques issued by a casino outside of the casino as money.

[zengrifter]

Government Is Sued Over Seizure of Liberty Dollars

June 20, 2008

The federal government's attempt to stop a group of gold-standard activists from minting an alternative to the greenback is about to face its first legal test.

MORE- http://www.nysun.com/national/govern...dollars/80368/

[QFIT]

The dollar coins appear obviously illegal since they look too much like real money. And passing counterfeit money if used to pay someone that doesn't know what they are. As for the paper money, I don't know of any federal law that outlaws scrip. Although I believe there are some state laws. Of course if someone accepts scrip and doesn't count it as income, that's fraud.