The Liberty Dollar & other forms of currency

[jontheturboguy]

Not sure what rock I was hiding under in 2007, but I missed this for sure.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_sSipUrBG0"]YouTube - FBI Raids Liberty Dollar Evansville Indiana 2of3 (Ron Paul)[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-icLKgJJrE[/ame]



Liberty Dollar

As long as the currency wasn't "United States" currency, or backed by "The United States", Im not really sure how this was illegal currency?

I see it no different than token tickets you get at Chuck E Cheese's.

Those tickets are a form of currency, are they not? Ever tried to use United States Dollars to buy prizes from the prize counter? WON'T HAPPEN.

So this got me thinking. What would happen if you had a group of citizens, either in a club, neighborhood, or some other collective, that had their own currency traded amongst them selves.

Precious metal hand struck coins for instance....

"I'll more your lawn for $5 in freedom coins. Your United States paper money is worthless to me..."

What say you INGO?

 

[Randall Flagg]

Been done

Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing - USATODAY.com

 

[Vasili]

von Nothaus got buttraped by the Feds.

If you're not outraged, you ain't paying attention.

 

[jontheturboguy]

Been done

Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing - USATODAY.com

Great and all, but I think that's setting them selves up for failure due to the fact you have NOTHING to back the currency with.

No gold, silver, copper, or a warehouse full of beer.

"This dollar redeemable for one beer at the local beer reserve."

 

[sur+rifle]

As long as the currency wasn't "United States" currency, or backed by "The United States", Im not really sure how this was illegal currency?

This has been heavily covered by our local newspapers and fox news. There are three main charges and each is a major stretch.

The first is a fraud charge. It states that the distribution of the rounds were fraudulent because the MSRP "face" value on them and the actual distribution price was higher than the spot price of silver. Of course, this is just nonsense because the spot price represents a promise for delivery of large bars of silver, not individual pieces. Minting, distribution, marketing, and operations drive the difference. This is expected to be easily dismissed by a Jury as numerous precious metals experts can be called upon to testify on this. Not to mention that the US Treasury was (and continues) to distribute bullion items with premiums far in excess of what the LD was doing. And the LD actually took the step of putting their telephone number on the medallions in case someone accepted them by mistake at which point the LD crew would offer to exchange them for Federal Reserve Notes. Hard to prove a fraud case when the entities are being completely transparent.

The second charge is a "similitude" argument. It argues that the currency looks too similar to US Coinage and therefore violates one of the laws meant to discourage counterfeiting. To make this case to the judge for a warrant the agents involved actually took the image of a 1 oz LD medallion and reduced it to the size of a dime in an attempt to demonstrate the two would be confused. The judge was fooled by this because he didn't see the full size object. But no jury would consider the two remotely similar when they lay the LDs next to the FRNs and US coinage. Not too mention that the entire marketing plan of the LD was based on differentiating it from US coinage and FRNs. And there is also a supreme court precedent on this exact topic in which goes against the agents interpretation.

The third charge is a throw away "conspiracy" charge.

Net, the government's charges are completely without merit. That is why they have been doing everything in their power to get the LD participants to plea to a minor charge. To encourage them to do so, they have resorted to a lot of dirty tricks. First they froze all of their accounts and seized all their inventory so that they couldn't pay for independent lawyers. Then they relocated the case out of Indiana to a state which doesn't have laws governing bail. This way they could keep them locked up unless they accepted terms like agreeing to close down their current operations. One of the participants was a Canadian citizen so they revoked his status, declared him an illegal, and put him in isolation. Word is they are leaning on him hard to try to get him to testify on the conspiracy charge against the others in exchange for being released. Then they dragged out the case trying to cause economic duress. First, they wouldn't allow them to see the evidence against them until the judge finally got tired of their delays. Then they produced over a million non-relevant documents to bury the defense. And most recently the prosecutor managed to get personal friends assigned as their public defense attorneys (remember their assets were seized so they couldn't get private ones). But a few weeks back the one defense attorney finally got replaced for not properly representing the defendants.

Net, this is going to be a long, drawn out affair. But it doesn't really matter. With precious metals going through the roof, it is apparent that the LD people were right and that the US Dollar was unstable. So as long as they don't plea, they will win in court. And numerous entities have already come to market to replace the service LD was performing such as:

1. Dellvalley Silver
2. AOCS
3. Second Amendment Dollar from Bud's Guns:

Not to mention that shops all over the place are already starting to go back to using junk silver and bullion. And every pawn shop in the country is now ready to convert silver into FRNs and vice-versa.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5mZBSrfnuM"]YouTube - Junk Silver Coins are being used in Grocery Stores: George4title[/ame]