Earlier this week, federal officials arrested Bernard von Nothaus and two other Evansville residents, alleging that they have distributed Liberty Dollars coins meant to resemble U.S. currency.

Von NotHaus, 65, and the other defendants were indicted in the District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on a number of charges involving conspiracy and fraud. Von NotHaus was arrested Thursday morning in Florida, after he turned himself over to the U.S. Marshalls. The other defendants from Evansville, Sarah Jane Bledsoe, 42, and Rachelle L. Moseley, 34, were both arrested Wednesday. All three have bonded out of jail.
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The Liberty Dollar is a private currency embodied in minted metal pieces (referred to as rounds) and gold and silver certificates (ALD), and electronic currency (eLD). ALD certificates are warehouse receipts for real gold and silver formerly owned by ALD certificate holders which was warehoused at the Sunshine Mint in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho prior to a November, 2007 raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Secret Service. [1] The Liberty Dollar is distributed by Liberty Services (formerly known as NORFED), based in Evansville, Indiana. It was created by Bernard von NotHaus, the co-founder of the Royal Hawaiian Mint Company.[2] Von NotHaus retired from Liberty Dollar in October 2008, to found the Free Marijuana Church in Hawaii.[3] [4]

The Liberty Dollar warehouses were raided and the contents confiscated by the FBI and Secret Service on November 15, 2007. The FBI states that this confiscation is intended to prevent people mistaking Liberty Dollars for legal tender; the Liberty Dollar organization is accused of illegally presenting the currency as a legal alternative to the United States dollar. To date, no one has been accused of any crime. The gold, silver, and copper seized have been accused of being proceeds of crime but no criminal charge is pending. [5]
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Oh sure, we are likely to mistake an ounce of silver for the tin junk uttered and passed by the US Mint. The actual charge the feds care about is at the end, that the Liberty Dollar is "intended for use as current money," in direct competition with the state. Should someone be allowed to mint whatever he wants, charge whatever he wants, and try to pass it as money? Of course, so long as no fraud is involved (fraud being a government monopoly). So it is an outrage that these four people have been arrested for non-crimes, and will be tried in a federal kangaroo court, where they will not be allowed to mention the Constitution or many other things, and perhaps be put in cages for years when they are pronounced "guilty."

Free the Liberty Dollar Four and all political prisoners!

Von NotHaus, 65, and the other defendants were indicted in the District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on a number of charges involving conspiracy and fraud.
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If you are stopped and the money tested, they can seize it!

That is pretty scary stuff. Why should we be afraid to carry cash?! Why should we be afraid of being "accused" of a crime?!

How is it fraud and conspiracy when they are marketing it as an alternative? If they aren't claiming you can spend it at Wal-Mart, then I don't see the fraud.

This looks like a trumped up charge to me to basically steal these peoples supplies of gold and silver.

Welcome to the Liberty Dollar: Remember when gas was only 25-cents a gallon? You could take a dollar down to the gas station and buy four gallons for a buck! At that time our dollar was backed by silver - real money. Guess what? That same amount of silver still buys four gallons of gas today! That just proves that real money like gold and silver holds its value and it is the US dollar that buys less and less. As a matter of fact, when you think about it, you realize that gas, food, and almost everything else has NOT gotten more expensive. It only seems that way because the value of the US dollar is worth less and less so it takes more and more of them to buy the same goods and services. Most people think prices have gone up, but actually: it is the value of the US dollar that has gone down. Luckily, there is a simple and profitable solution to higher inflation - good old-fashioned, gold and silver Liberty Dollars, just as our Founding Fathers intended. Look at these charts by the US government
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ASHEVILLE — Federal authorities arrested an Asheville man in what they said was a scheme to undermine the U.S. currency system and defraud consumers with so-called Liberty Dollars.



William Kevin Innes marketed the “barter” currency in Western North Carolina and recruited merchants willing to accept it and give it as change for products bought with real money, according to an indictment unsealed this week.

Despite warnings from the federal government to the contrary, Innes told the Citizen-Times in 2006 that Liberty Dollars were legal.

“One of the first things I did when I started this in Asheville was go to the police and tell them what I was doing,” he said then.

Innes held the title of North Carolina regional currency officer and was one of three members of the group's executive committee, the indictment states.

A 2007 affidavit said more than 70 businesses in the Asheville area agreed to accept the Liberty Dollar.

You can read the whole article here. There were businesses here that did take the Liberty dollar as currency. I myself have never seen one, I don't think.

www.citizen-times.com...