US seeks to seize $7m in privately made ‘Liberty Dollars’

April 05, 2011|Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal prosecutors tried yesterday to take a hoard of silver “Liberty Dollars’’ worth about $7 million that authorities say was created by an Indiana man to compete with US currency.

Bernard von NotHaus, 67, was convicted last month in federal court in Statesville on conspiracy and counterfeiting charges for making and selling the coins, which he promoted as inflation-proof competition for the US dollar.

His lawyer, Aaron Michel of Charlotte, is appealing that verdict. He wrote in a motion filed Thursday that von NotHaus did nothing wrong because he did not try to pass the silver pieces off as US dollars.

The trial was scheduled to resume yesterday in Statesville. The case involves more than five tons of Liberty Dollars and precious metals seized from a warehouse, which the government wants to take by forfeiture, according to federal prosecutors and Michel.

Von NotHaus began issuing Liberty Dollars in 1998, as head of the Evansville, Ind.-based National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code. In 2007, the group’s headquarters were raided along with the Sunshine Mint in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where the coins were made.

Federal prosecutors successfully argued that von NotHaus was, in fact, trying to pass off the silver coins as US currency. Coming in denominations of 5, 10, 20, and 50, the Liberty Dollars also featured a dollar sign, the word “dollar,’’ and the motto “Trust in God.’’ “In God We Trust’’ appears on US coins.

Von NotHaus has argued it is not illegal to create currency to privately trade goods and services. He also has said his organization took pains to say the Liberty Dollars should not be called “coins’’ and should not be presented as government-minted cash.