Feds Arrest the Liberty Dollar Competition

The FBI has arrested Bernard von Nothaus and three associates for minting and selling one-ounce silver medallions called the Liberty Dollar, and describing them as money. This operation was first disrupted during the Ron Paul presidential campaign, and that was no coincidence, since they were minting Ron Paul copper, silver, and gold medallions, and that was the subject of much MSM publicity. But here is the DOJ press release about the current arrests, and the 13-page indictment.

As the press release puts it, all four defendants are charged with “conspiracy and other charges in connection with an alleged unlawful operation to publish, possess and sell for profit, coins in resemblance and similitude to U.S. coins. All four defendants are also charged in the alleged conspiracy with uttering and passing, and attempting to utter and pass, a coin of silver in resemblance of genuine coins of the United States in the denominations of five dollars and greater, and intended for use as current money.”

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!

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8:57 am on June 5, 2009