In the wake of the FBI raid of the Liberty Dollar headquarters, sells of the private currency have skyrocketed on eBay bringing in enormously high bids. The Ron Paul gold Liberty itself has reached $3,537.
Thats right,
$3,537 for a 1oz .9999 gold Ron Paul Liberty Dollar with a face value of $1,000.
Some people will have you believe that the Liberty Dollar is illegal and is some sort of counterfeit version of the Federal Reserve Note. This is not the case because the NORFED never claimed that the Liberty Dollar was a Federal Reserve note. Calling the Liberty Dollar illegal would be similar to calling a Canadian dollar counterfeit if used within the United States.
Besides, the Liberty Dollar can not be considered counterfeit because it looks nothing like a green back. A true counterfeit should have to look and feel like the currency it supposedly trying to imitate.
According to the
AP, "
Wendy Osborne, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Indianapolis office, declined to comment and referred all questions to the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of North Carolina. Suellen Pierce, a spokeswoman for that office, also declined to comment."
The FBI may be unwilling to talk, but the Treasury Department has commented on the currency. After the Department's legal team reviewed the currency, Claudia Dickens, spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing stated that the currency is legitimate. "There's nothing illegal about this,"
she said, "As long as it doesn't say 'legal tender' there's nothing wrong with it."
The Liberty Dollar is legal because it is voluntary exchange between individuals. Why should I not be allowed to trade in gold and silver pieces if I so choose?
So the question remains: Should the Liberty Dollar be considered illegal just because the FBI raided NORFED? Or is there more to the situation than meets the eye?
