by Kevin Alfred Strom
I’VE MENTIONED ALTERNATIVE currencies — usually private efforts to help the local or national economy without resorting to debt, usurious interest, the banks, or the Fed — in a supportive way on this site before.
Recently I learned that the creators of some of the most interesting and successful alternative currencies — the Hawaiian Dala, the California Bear, the Chambersburg Dollar, the Evansville Dollar, the Liberty Dollar, the Peace Dollar, and the Ron Paul Dollar, among others — have been arrested by the FBI (for totally bogus charges under statutes intended to stop counterfeiting). They are Kevin Innes, Bernard von NotHaus, Sarah Bledsoe, and Rachelle Moseley.
For the “crime” of trying to create honest money to give people an alternative to the colossal confidence rackets called the Federal Reserve and the commercial banking system, these good people now find themselves facing the very real possibility of living the rest of their lives in a hellhole federal prison.
They deserve support. One thing even those of us living on a very low income might do is buy a quantity of their Peace Dollars (available in a low-cost copper version for those who can’t afford the silver ones) and spread them around your community. As their makers tell us, as a private currency these coins are good for peace and bad for war, since they can’t be used to fund the Iraq war — or any war, for that matter.
The Liberty Dollar folks weren’t trying to do anything illegal, and in fact kept the relevant authorities informed of what they were doing, even asking them for legal opinions — Claudia Dickens, spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said “There’s nothing illegal about this.” After the Treasury Department’s legal team reviewed the currency, she reiterated “As long as it doesn’t say ‘legal tender’ there’s nothing wrong with it.”
“It’s not counterfeit money,” according to Ron Legan, Special Agent in Charge of the Seattle, Washington, Secret Service field office. Amazingly, the Liberty Dollar folks find themselves charged under statutes intended to prevent counterfeiting — though they never made any claim that Liberty Dollars are government currency, and they do not even slightly resemble U.S. coins or bills. Logan investigated and concluded that the Liberty Dollars are well within the boundaries of American monetary guidelines. “We determined there wasn’t a federal currency violation,” he said. Apparently a rogue and politically-motivated element in the Department of Justice disagrees.
If we had an honest government, the best way to issue money and credit would be to issue it directly to the people (instead of allowing the banks or the government to create it for themselves) through a National Dividend. Clifford Hugh Douglas wrote of the idea in his groundbreaking work Social Credit. But absent honest bankers or honest politicians, private labor-based or asset-based currencies are excellent alternatives.
There was nothing fraudulent or criminal about Liberty Dollars or Peace Dollars or Hawaiian Dalas, or their creators. How many other banks or governments — or currency issuers of any kind — offer to give you more dollars whenever necessary so that the value of your money, measured in silver, will always stay the same? That’s exactly what the Liberty Dollar folks do.
It is the ultimate expression of hypocrisy for the master-counterfeiters of the world, and the flagrant debasers of the dollar (now worth less than 4 cents in real terms) to place these good people under arrest and indictment.
Get your Peace Dollars from libertydollar.org today!