Posted on 03/19/2011 12:34:11 PM PDT by BenLurkin
STATESVILLE, NC -- A man from North Carolina was convicted of minting his own currency.
The U.S. Attorney's Office announced Friday afternoon that 67-year old Bernard von NotHaus was convicted of making, possessing and selling his own coins. During the eight day trial, the U.S. Attorney's Office said the investigation into NotHaus' activities began in 2005 and involved minting of coins worth an estimated $7 million.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said the coins were made to resemble United States coins and that the Liberty Dollar coins were intended to be used as counterfeit money. NotHaus was the founder of a group called NORFED, also known as the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code.
It took jurors less than two hours to deliberate NotHaus' guilt and he faces a 15 years in prison when sentenced.
I don’t think anyone is going to confuse gold and silver coins with his phone number on them as government coins.
BTW, if the coins are real gold and silver how could they possibly be considered counterfeit?
The joke is on Bernard von NotHaus,
in the last few weeks the spread between government silver coinage and private label silver coinage has all but disappeared for the first time since the French tried to return to the gold standard in the years leading up to WWI.
Bernard von NotHaus was ahead of the curve and could have been printing decorative, commerative, or even blank rounds and come out as a leader in the world’s PM backed currency movement. Instead he’s looking at a lifetime of appeals, jail, and destitution.
Supposedly, Liberty Dollars are denominated by weight and backed by a commodity.
That doesn’t sound like any circulating U.S. currency so it’s hard to see that this is counterfeiting.
“Von NotHaus designed the Liberty Dollar currency in 1998 and the Liberty coins were marked with the ‘$,’ the words ‘dollar,’ ‘USA,’ ‘Liberty,’ ‘Trust in God’ (instead of ‘In God We Trust’) and other features associated with legitimate U.S. coinage.
IMHO, he screwed up using the dollar sign ‘$’ and using the word ‘dollar’, the rest of the charges were easily contestable.
More detailed article:
http://gata.org/node/9715
I think they said “$20” right on them. That’s crossing the line.
I guess the FED doesn’t like competition.
It's not the fact that he was selling gold or silver coins that's problematic. What's problematic is that the coins do bear some similarity to actual US coins. If he would have stamped Snoopy or Bugs Bunny on the coins, he wouldn't have been convicted.
The government alleged and argued (amongst other things) that the coins looked too similar to actual currency. The jurors agreed.
Amazingly, the Feds have used this case to extend the definition of “domestic terrorist” to include a guy that mints 0.999 fine silver “rounds” and encourages others to use them in trade. The guy’s fraud was not related to the weight and purity of his minted rounds, but to the allegation that the rounds could be confused US coinage.
It is perhaps justified for a national government to protect its monopoly on seignorage by imprisoning and confiscating the wealth of private citizens that threaten its seignorage privilege. However, for the Feds to call this guy’s actions “domestic terrorism” is a real stretch, and strongly suggestive of just how scared the government is that its massive and multiple Ponzi schemes are about to collapse.
Jurors will agree to all kinds of stupid things.
That seems accurate, especially considering he was only found guilty on the counterfeiting charges, and not guilty on the other charges.
Amazingly, the Feds have used this case to extend the definition of “domestic terrorist” to include a guy that mints 0.999 fine silver “rounds” and encourages others to use them in trade. The guy’s fraud was not related to the weight and purity of his minted rounds, but to the allegation that the rounds could be confused with US coinage.
It is perhaps justified for a national government to protect its monopoly on seignorage by imprisoning and confiscating the wealth of private citizens that threaten its seignorage privilege. However, for the Feds to call this guy’s actions “domestic terrorism” is a real stretch, and strongly suggestive of just how scared the government is that its massive and multiple Ponzi schemes are about to collapse.
NotHaus was the founder of a group called NORFED...
Nice low profile.../s
bttt
I’d buy and take silver (.999 fine) blanks over any US coin.
What’s that company that sells all sorts of silver and gold coins that really look like US coins? How do they get away with it?
You know, I really am not familiar with the company your referring to. You might be referring to the "Franklin Mint". While I'm no numismatic authority, I believe that private company does enjoy license rights from the US government (and other governments) to issue commemorative US coins. In other words, they have legal permission.
I thought we were free to trade gold and silver amongst outrselves. Isn’t gold and silver “legal tender” by default?
Okay, yeah, it’s the Franklin Mint I was thinking of. Thanks.
I thought the definition of “dollar” was something like 132.7 grains of gold or whatever?
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