Afternoon everyone …
Today I have a Norfed Liberty Dollar. These are highly collectible, because of the turmoil they caused.
A little knowledge on Norfed:
The Liberty Dollars were produced by a now-defunct organization with the unwieldy name "National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and the Internal Revenue Code," or NORFED for short. NORFED's goal, according its founder Bernard Von NotHaus, was to provide an alternative currency to that which is issued by the U.S. federal government: a currency that is backed by gold and silver, and therefore inflation-proof. NORFED has manufactured these coins in various denominations, including $1, $5, $10, and $20 in silver, and $500 in gold.
The U.S. Mint issued a consumer advisory warning people that the NORFED Liberty Dollars might be confusing to consumers, and stating that their use as circulating money was a federal crime (which NORFED disputes.) What makes these Liberty Dollars so dangerous in the eyes of the U.S. Mint is that the Liberty Dollars have been designed to look very much like the existing circulating U.S. coinage. These are the similarities and how to tell them apart:
LIBERTY inscription - Genuine legal tender coins also bear the LIBERTY inscription
TRUST IN GOD inscription - Genuine legal tender coins are inscribed IN GOD WE TRUST
Value is stated in Dollars - Genuine U.S. currency is also given in Dollars
Depiction of the Statue of Liberty - The Presidential Dollars also bear the Statue of Liberty
The inscription "USA" - USA is widely understood to mean United States of America
1.800.NEW.DOLLAR on the reverse - The United States does not put phone numbers on its coinage
LibertyDollar.Org on the reverse - The U.S. doesn't put Web addresses on its coins either
In addition to the coins being distributed by NORFED, there is printed currency in the form of various denominations of dollar bills. These paper Liberty Dollars are far less worrisome, since they don't look anything at all like real U.S. paper money.
Confusion About the NORFED Dollars - The reason these Liberty Dollar coins were deemed potentially confusing by the U.S. Mint is that the Mint introduced a new One Dollar coin type in February 2007, called the Presidential Dollar. Any time there is a major change to the coinage, there is bound to be some confusion, and unfortunately the Mint feels that these so-called "Liberty Dollars" are similar enough to genuine U.S. coinage that people might take them during monetary transactions without realizing that they're not U.S. legal tender.
Here it is, sorry about the dust on the capsule.