The government sent in the Secret Service and the FBI to raid the headquaters of the people who made Liberty Dollars. They also made coins with Ron Paul’s image on them, though Ron Paul had nothing to do with them and they never asked Ron Paul for permission. The media is playing up the Ron Paul angel and keeps claiming that the coins and money was illegal, and leaves lots of details of the raid out of the picture to bias people against the group that made the coins.
They keep claiming that the coins are illegal, which is the government’s claim. They are not illegal. The rocks in my driveway are perfectly legal currency if the person selling me the goods wants to take them as payment for goods or service. They are not “legal tender” in the sense that you have to accept it as payment the way Federal Reserve Notes (paper money) are, but if I choose to accept the Liberty Dollar in any of its forms as payment for goods and services, then that is perfectly legal.
Regardless of what the government and the media may lie about, I can accept anything at my own business as payment for goods and services. Basically, in its current form, the Liberty Dollar was a barter at an agreed value. What’s next raiding McDonalds for paying homeless people with a meal in exchange for doing some cleaning?
Now, spending the money at an unsuspecting business would be an illegal act itself, since if they are not willing to accept it in exchange for goods or service then they are limiting customers only to Federal Reserve Notes, government issued coins, credit cards, checks and the like. However, this doesn’t make the coin itself illegal. A Canadian quarter by the same measure is illegal, and we don’t see the government raiding Canada. However, we get Canadian quarters here all the time, and it is passed on as payment all the time. The banks in the area, long before the Canadian Dollar was worth more then the US Dollar, would pass an occasional Canadian coin or two in rolls. People from the area never really get upset since it spends the same in all but vending machines, though I recall somebody from the South once who complained when she got a Canadian quarter and was on the verge of raising all kinds of Hell. The point is, retailers in this area will accept a Canadian coin or two, so long as the bulk of it is American. In the same way, if a retailer wants to accept the Liberty Dollar, then it is legal.
What is left out is the media reports is the scope of the raid. They took everything, not only the coins and paper money, but all their computers and backups. The group no longer has a way of knowing who ordered what, so tons of people are now out of their “regular” money, and are probably upped in the Federal Database… and you are already on the Federal database. It was revealed recently that the government has been watching all web traffic, not just traffic that may be linked to terrorism. That is, it reads every email that you have ever sent, it reads every instant message, it watches every web site you ever visit, regardless of who you are or whom you are communicating with. The government also took all the gold and other precious metals that were in the company’s vault.
Anyhow, this was an illegal raid on a perfectly legal business. We should be ashamed of our government… well, more ashamed then we already are.
In short, the Liberty Dollar, including the Ron Paul Dollar (again, Ron Paul had nothing to do with it, and never authorized them to make it), was a receipt for purchasing a quantity of precious metal that was stored in the company’s vault. Business then could chose to trade goods or services in exchange for that receipt, which due to its nature, was worth the amount of precious metal it was previously agreed to (unlike our current currency, which is backed by debt).