Bingo. I was going to write this but I kept reading to see if someone else understood the situation. There is your answer folks. I don't agree with it at all and I think it was completely blown out of proportion. I don't know what he got for warnings, if any, but they definitely decided to make an example of this guy. It's a shame. Here's an eye opener for you: "Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism," U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins said in a statement after von NotHaus was convicted. Domestic terrorism!?!?! What!? Then what's the Fed doing!?
Well, as far as I'm concerned I'll take Liberty Dollars at face value all day long. Let them pass them off at one dollar each, lmao.
Peter, it may not be long from when silver will be used once again for exchange for goods..hold on.. RickieB
Okay, if I take an ounce of silver and stamp "$100" on it, will you accept it at that face value? Because that's the equivalent of what the Liberty Dollar folks were doing. When silver was $6 or $7 an ounce, their one-ounce rounds were marked $10. Once silver got up to $9 or so, they started making one-ounce rounds marked $20. Von NotHaus testified that the Liberty Dollars were always explained to the recipient before they were spent, so the recipients were always agreeing to accept the Liberty Dollar at the stated face value based on its redeemability through Norfed or von NotHaus. In practice, not all spenders of the Liberty Dollars appear to have been so honest; some of them apparently just handed over the "$20" piece, leaving the recipient to find out afterwards that it was actually worth far less in melt value. I think that's why the government went after von NotHaus--whatever his actual intentions, he was in fact making coin-like-things that were in fact being passed in a deceptive manner. If he hadn't given his silver rounds a dollar denomination, there'd be no issue here. Of course, they'd've been much less acceptable in commerce that way, but that's the point. Anybody who wants to trade their goods for silver bullion is free to do so; it's just the assigning of a fictitious face value to the silver that's a problem.
That's the once thing that I don't understand NORFED stuff. One ounce silver coins are marked as 5, 10, 20 and 100 denominations.
Well in the end. I guess the gooberment will let you mint or print your own money. As long as the proper hands are greased and the proper political donations made.
I hear they are raiding Chuckie Cheese next! Right or wrong, the coins are silver rounds and worth only what people will trade them for. The prosecuting attorney had the gumption to say this was an act of "domestic terrorism"! WTH???
Correct me if I am wrong, but they are not all 1 oz. I have seen pics of fractional weights. There are also different denominations on different metal compositions.
About the face value... IIRC, the way it works is that the value is NOT based on the silver itself, but on the agreed value among users. When they were starting off, I remember you bought in for the amount of services you wanted, and if it was 100 bux, then you got that denomination... You paid in the 100, plus a service fee for the coin, then anyone who barters with the coins would honor that coin for the 100 bux of services. Make sense? It's been a very long time ago I looked at how they worked, but to the best of my recollection, the coins marked value is agreed upon and paid in, regardless of weight. Kinda like buying McDonalds gift certificates or (better yet) a store gift card/prepaid Visa, only printed on silver as opposed to paper or plastic. Edit: I could be mixing this up with another "end of the world" currency system... There were a couple being floated around 98-99, before the 2000 glitch was going to kill us all.
Hmmm.... I wonder if the higher denominations we are calling "SILVER" are not really "silver", but other metals? Read this excerpt: "The coins and silver, gold, platinum and copper that will be the focus of the forfeiture hearing are owned by von NotHaus and an estimated 250,000 purchasers throughout the United States who left their Liberty coins at Sunshine Minting for safekeeping, not realizing they would be seized as contraband, said Michel, of Charlotte, N.C."
I think they are great to collect! here are picures of most of the rounds made http://sites.google.com/site/libertydollarencyclopedia/ and here is some of my collection - check out cointalk Classifieds p
Ya know, given the title of this thread - Eyes Wide Open - perhaps it might be a good to do just that, keep your eyes wide open ! Don't know about the rest of you, but what that phrase means to me is to do just that - actually look at the WHOLE picture. To do that, you might want to ask yourself the following question. If the idea of using these silver rounds as an alternative currency is such a great idea - then why is it that the people who made these silver rounds are so very, very happy to take your worthless paper US currency and give you their oh so valuable silver ? Did any of you ever think of that ?
Why? Simple - You dont have to beleive the idea to sell it - they are making a buck, and obviously that is more important to them. This is true for many, many, such items/topics. I have purchased a couple just for grins. However, at the end of the day, it is nothing more than silver bullion. I do not subscribe to the idea, nor do I expect they would.
It's funny that you say that, I was thinking about this last night when I trying to figure out how they got the NORfed money into other people’s hands to start an economy to use them.