So, is it currency or is it not?

[rolanni]

The Norfed Liberty Dollar

Comments

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

He explains this very carefully. It is not currency and it is not legal tender.

It is a collectible, a barter token, a slightly uneconomic way to buy silver of a certain purity. You and a person who agrees with you could treat it as money for a transaction, but you can't pay your taxes with it.

[wdonohue.livejournal.com]

Well, they're saying "barter tokens", but I think they're just trying to boost the market for their collectible minted product. Barter tokens in actual use (Ithaca HOURS) (http://www.ithacahours.com/home.html) generally have little or no intrinsic value. They definitely can't be mistaken for legal tender.

-- Brian out --

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

What I found most strange was the "reminting", where one that says $10 was turned in for one that said $20 as the price of silver went up.

Who ever heard of turning in a $5 gold piece and making *it* say $20?

These people are Really Strange.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

By precise definition, it is currency if it "passes current" -- if someone takes it in exchange for goods or services. One of those circular logic things.

Private coinage isn't new -- lots of communities have circulated local money for promotion purposes, accepted by local merchants.

And I have a Civil War "token" -- penny size, coin metal, that I dug up out of our back yard. Hard money got rare in that unpleasant period. People were willing to accept non-government coinage as cash.

Currency or Legal Tender?

[baggette.livejournal.com]

I would say that it IS currency but NOT legal tender.
As stated above, the makers acknowledge that THEY cannot make Legal Tender; but a local merchant or private citizen can take anything offered as fair exchange for goods or services. What may be troubling is that the government is now enforcing their prerogative to collect taxes on bartered goods and services.
I would say, "I don't like the way YOU are running MY country, with MT MONEY and therefore, I choose to contribute as little as possible to the shenanigans!" But would I go to jail rather than pay the LAWFUL taxes on what I purchase? Prob'ly not. What right have they to tax private transactions? I dunno.

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

How many Libertys to the Bit?

[(Anonymous)]

According to the US Mint's website, "prosecutors with the Department of Justice have determined that the use of these gold and silver NORFED "Liberty Dollar" medallions as circulating money is a Federal crime" ( http://www.usmint.gov/consumer/index.cfm?action=hotitems ).

Poppycock and nonsense

[baggette.livejournal.com]

The guv'ment really should get over themselves.
The statutes listed on the US Mint's website (concerning the Liberty Dollars) only address the US Treasury's right and responsibility to produce LEGAL TENDER; that is to pay your taxes. They can't legislate what I can and will take in exchange for my goods or services. They can TRY to tax it, and good luck to them!
Just my opinion (not so humble at all)

[pakwa26.livejournal.com]

What really amused me about this page was the number of spelling mistakes - if you're serious about convincing people to buy your product, wouldn't it be nice to spell things correctly?

Hello everybody!

[(Anonymous)]

First off, sorry about the spelling mistakes. The site y'all are referring to is my store, where I sell liberty dollars. The "official" site, with fewer spelling mistakes is www.libertydollar.org.

The reason there's a re-minting is not because there's a problem with the liberty-- but because there's a problem with dollars.

In the USA, the dollar is the standard unit for pricing things, and thus the liberty, to cooperate with that system and make it easier on merchants, has a face value that is set to exchange 1 to 1 with the dollar...

As the value of the dollar goes down then you can no longer exchange libertys one to one with dollars. Thus the face value of the libertys has to change to reflect the new value of the dollar (eg: higher price of silver.)

You don't remint $5 gold pieces because nobody is silly enough to pay $5 for them-- their face value is effectively irrelevant when compared to their real value.