November 15th, 2007 By Justin Williams
FBI and Secret Service Raid Evansville’s Libery Dollar Headquarters
I subscribe to Twitter alerts for the phrase “Evansville” and saw two mentions of this coming through this morning. The Libery Dollar headquarters is located on North Stockwell. The company distributes a private currency, the Libery Dollar, that it claims is inflation proof. From what I understand, the premise is that you trade in your US dollar for Liberty Dollars, which are then backed by gold and silver at an Idaho-based mint.
According to RabidQuill, who posted a letter from Liberty Dollar owner Bernard von NotHaus, the FBI raided the offices at 8AM and spent over six hours taking all of the gold, silver and platinum that was in their inventory. A parallel sweep was also done on the Liberty Dollar’s Idaho based Sunshine Mint that confiscated all of the gold and silver that was used as backing to the paper Liberty Dollar certificates.
von NotHaus is planning a class action lawsuit against the US government to reclaim the Liberty Dollar currency and other properties.
Do any readers use the Liberty Dollar? This is the first I’ve heard of it.
Update: Courier & Press has a bit more on it.
photo courtesy of Wikimedia
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Laura J
November 15, 2007 @ 11:43AM
Had $400 silver certificates. Guess I’ll be calling my congressman to see how I can get my money back. Stupid feds, guess they didn’t like the competition to the worthless greenback.
Infinion0
November 15, 2007 @ 12:05PM
I don’t use it, and have also never heard of it. Private currencies aren’t really that uncommon. Cities have experimented with this idea for some time now. Obviously, we should all know that this is just a throw back to the pre-1930’s gold standard. There’s a reason that the US, and most other industrial nations don’t use gold standards any more. Besides, using this currency appears to be illegal for several reasons. It’s a gray area, but the recent legal issues seem to suggest that the government has cleaned that up. It appears to be just a marketing scheme for the most part. They obviously have to make money somehow. If you look at copper, silver, and gold prices, you’re losing a large percentage of US dollars by using this Liberty money. You’d have to hold it for several years for inflation to catch up with your loss. Alas, I doubt anyone will be buying anytime soon now that they’re in big trouble. Even if issuing the money, and using it as tender were legal in the US, you’d still have to pay taxes on wages, goods and services, which, I’m doubting everyone does. Interesting topic though, and close to home…apparently.
For the interested, there’s also an ‘online’ version of currency similar to this. It’s called something like ‘digital gold’.
rick
November 15, 2007 @ 12:18PM
Bernard von Nothaus is just following a lifelong ideal/ambition to return Americans to a value based money, not the paper crap founded on thin air and a hollow promise. They recently minted silver and gold Ron Paul dollars and that is likely why got the Feds all worked up. Ron Paul is becoming too popular and may pose a threat to all things Bush and Cheney!
Heather
November 15, 2007 @ 12:30PM
This is the first I’ve heard of it, as well.
Mark Herpel
November 15, 2007 @ 12:40PM
That is a blow to American Liberty. Over $20 million in circulation.
Mark
DigitalMoneyWorld.com
Justin Williams
November 15, 2007 @ 12:52PM
Does any local establishments actually accept the currency locally or is it just used in exchanges between two people who believe in the currency?
barky
November 15, 2007 @ 03:22PM
barky only trades in euros.
Chimpie
November 15, 2007 @ 06:07PM
Rick, I’ll take all of your ‘paper crap’ (US Dollars only please :-) ) if you don’t want it.
Dometrius
November 15, 2007 @ 07:32PM
Anyone who does not understand how powerful the private federal reserve is can look at this raid and realize it is a very scary and out of control organization.
The Liberty Dollar was a real threat to them. What is next? An assassination attempt on Ron Paul? Good, then we will know who killed Kennedy and why. He wanted to get rid of the evil jerks too.
The Bush Crime Family, Dick Cheney, the Clintons, Julie Annie (the cross dressing homo), Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson are all very dangerous to the people of this country.
mophead
November 15, 2007 @ 07:57PM
There was an incident here in NY a while back involving a private currency. I don’t recall if it was the Liberty Dollar or Deception Dollar, but a man presented one for payment at a sporting event’s concession stand. The vendor, believing the money was counterfeit, contacted authorities and the FBI was called in. The vendor was shocked to learn this ‘money’ could be accepted as payment. It was all over the news here.
Brian Wolf
November 15, 2007 @ 10:48PM
Wow that does not add up at all. People have that much extra cash to put into that? Scary I need their jobs.
Beer Belly Bubba
November 16, 2007 @ 04:50PM
Chimpie,
You give me your GOLD or SILVER and I’ll gladly exchange with my crappy greenbacks. Sadly, even those who understand the obvious still have to use these greenies in this world, but consider this.. If they’re so valuable, why are others around the globe, including airheaded supermodels, proving they have the logic to reject our bucks!
The agents are simply doing their jobs, and I can’t hold them to blame for the raids as long as they conducted themselves professionally. Its the useful idiots in the bureaucracies who are lying. Simply read through the entire warrants executed in Indiana and North Carolina and the allegations stated therein. Their contention that money laundering is or has occured is simply ridiculous in my opinion, and I believe that will be dropped or overturned! I’m convinced the Liberty Dollar will be vindicated, but at significant expense with the most important commodity being wasted.. TIME.
Vi
February 05, 2008 @ 09:37PM
I had heard of the liberty dollar, but never bought one. It doesn’t seem like a very safe place to put your money to me. ;)