FBI Raids NORFED

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Funny thing, but repeated searches here failed to find any mention of that.

Their website is here:

http://www.libertydollar.org/

(Many of the internal links to PDFs do not work.)

Story from REASON here:

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/123553.html

Of course, Wikipedia provides an entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Dollar

A friendly, yet objective overview appeared on the amazingly reliable FINDLAW website:

In Paul We Trust: Do The New Liberty Dollars, Bearing Candidate Ron Paul's Image, Constitute Illegal Currency?

By ANITA RAMASASTRY

Monday, Dec. 03, 2007

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/ramasastry/20071203.html

That article included a littlle to link that pointed to the text of this public document:

http://www.usmint.gov/consumer/index.cfm?f...ion=Law18USC486

TITLE 18--CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

PART I--CRIMES

CHAPTER 25--COUNTERFEITING AND FORGERY

§ 486. Uttering coins of gold, silver or other metal

Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or

attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal,

or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the

resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or

of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not

more than five years, or both.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 709; Pub. L. 103-322, title XXXIII,

Sec. 330016(1)(I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

Edited December 3, 2008 by Michael E. Marotta

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Consumers may find advertisements for these medallions confusing and should take note of several issues related to them.

First, the advertisements refer to the product as "real money" and "currency." These medallions might look like real money because they—

Bear the inscriptions, "Liberty," "Dollars," "Trust in God" (similar to "In God We Trust"), and "USA" (similar to "United States of America"), and an inscription purporting to denote the year of production; and

Depict images that are similar to United States coins, such as the torch on the reverses of the current dime coin, 1986 Statute of Liberty commemorative silver dollar and 1993 Bill of Rights commemorative half-dollar, and the Liberty Head designs on the obverses of United States gold coins from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s.

However, despite their misleading appearance, NORFED "Liberty Dollar" medallions are not genuine United States Mint coins and they are not legal tender.

http://www.usmint.gov/consumer/index.cfm?a...hotitems#NORFED

Of course, many silver rounds and art bars mimic US patriot themes, Miss Liberty, Eagle, Liberty Bell, presidents and heroes, Native American effigies, etc. (Many others avoid the problems.) We all know the "Prospector" theme of Engelhard, taken from the 1925 California commemorative half dollar (see here). They also mimic the phraseology of US Mint products, the word "Liberty" in particular. However, it is clear that in toto, the NORFED "Liberty Dollars" very closely imitated genuine government products, even to the point of being called "Dollars."

We tend to think of the coins in our pockets as being definitive -- and they might be, in the stamp collector's (philatelist's) sense of "definitive" as opposed to "commemorative." And it is the commemorative coins of the US Mint that display the full range of official iconography, for instance the 1988 Seoul Olympics Commemorative $5 Silver here. It would be hard to tell at first blush, whether this or the NORFED medal is an official US government issue -- except by the mottos and legends which NORFED copied so closely.