Making a Mint with the New Liberty Dollar

[webhick]

Well, well, well. It seems that the Liberty Dollar isn't quite as dead as it seems. Joseph VaughnPerling has created the New Liberty Dollar (http://www.newlibertydollar.com/). Per an article in CoinWorld, he studied Bernie's case and changed the problematic elements of the original design in an attempt to eliminate the legal problems. Whether this is a reboot of the original scam remains to be seen.

[fortinbras]

This "$50" silver 1-ounce Liberty drachma says it's "inflation proof". It is, in the sense that the inflation for the next five years or so is already built into it.

The current market price for one ounce pure silver bullion is $22.31. For a US Mint Silver Eagle (1 ounce pure silver) it is $25.88, for the Canadian Mint Silver Maple Leaf (ditto) it is $25.08.

http://www.monex.com/liveprices

Which means that, if you part with $50 in FRNs or US coins for the Liberty drachma you are immediately paying very nearly twice what it's worth. In the past year, the price of silver has come down by about $10/oz. My estimate is that it will take at least 5 years - probably much more - before one ounce of silver can command $50. Even then, you may have to severely discount your Liberty drachma because purchasers may not believe that it's really one ounce of pure silver. I bet you can think of much better investments for your money.

The legal boiler plate on this guy's website essentially says this drachma is not money, you cannot spend it like money, there is no assurance that it's worth anything close to what you are paying for it - because it's value is in its beauty not in its metallic ingredient, and several similar things that I could say if I were trying to sell Monopoly money. In other words, you pay real money for it but you may never be able to get real money back.

[Pottapaug1938]

In order to purchase New Liberty Dollar silver pieces, it is important that we be sure of a few things before you can become a qualified purchaser by answering a few quick questions. Please feel welcome to reply when contacting us..

1.Do you understand that the New Liberty Dollar is 1 troy ounce .999 fine silver private issue silver piece medallion, and not any government issued coin?

Yes.

2.Do you understand that the Legal Tender law, (which requires that Federal Reserve Notes be accepted as payment for all debts public and private) do not apply to these New Liberty Dollars and that the value of New Liberty Dollars does not depend on any such law enforcing their value, but rather on their intrinsic value as an item of beauty and utility?

What beauty? The "coin" is butt-ugly.

3.Do you understand that silver pieces such as these New Liberty Dollars may also have numismatic, artistic, sentimental, historic, or other value above and beyond the value of the bullion used to make the New Liberty Dollar.



4.Do you understand that any exchange of the New Liberty Dollars be agreed by all parties involved in the exchange as an exercise of citizens' constitutional right to contract?

Sure. Barter is a traditional method of exchange.

5.Do you understand that the MSRP emblazoned on the New Liberty Dollar is a Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price and that individual retailers may price or exchange them at a lower or much higher value and that this is in no way controlled or controllable by the manufacturer.
Manufacturer makes no warranty, express or implied, of suitability or fitness for any purpose. New Liberty dollars are not convertable into any legal tender. The product is what it is, what you do with it once you own it is entirely your concern.

Sooooo. You "suggest" $50 as the MSRP; but you then give us weasel words about how individual retailers may price or exchange NLDs at a lower or "much higher" value. You tout the NLDs as "inflation proof"; yet you fail to show us how.

Include me out.

[grixit]

Guitar Picks! Made from 100% virgin acrylics-- we guarantee it, all new material. Don't be fooled by imitators who use recycled holiday decorations. Picks like these may (or may not) have been used by such legends as B B King, Pete Townsend, and Stevie Nicks! Each one is stamped with our exclusive tradmark, a high resolution image of our founder's left elbow. It's truly a work of art! And to show that the art, sentimentality, and sheer unquestioning optimism are what gives a thing value, not what it is made of, we are charging $5 each for them, not the 15 cents they would normally go for if they weren't so special. And yes, you can trade them for other stuff, anywhere or anytime; you just have to find someone willing to trade. So buy now, this offer will not be repeated this week!

[notorial dissent]

Well, I will give the promoter points for being, marginally, smarter than von Nutbert, but not by much. He, I assume, is at least not pretending that they are anything but an investment, which they aren't, except in his expected retirement. So he is still essentially a conman, very much like his predecessor.

When I have money to throw around at something like that and want to buy silver, I will go buy Eagles and be done with it. Now if I happened to find something like this I liked the looks of I might buy it for the intrinsic vale, but not at a 100% premium, my Scottish ancestors would be spinning in their putative graves.

[Pottapaug1938]

If I want to buy something which has "numismatic, artistic, sentimental, historic, or other value above and beyond the value of the bullion used to make [the coin]," I can think of many US coins which would fit the bill much better than these overpriced slugs fit it.

[Unidyne]

The Federal regulations for any local or private currency can be summed up as follows:

1) They must be redeemable at face value with US currency.
2) When used for commercial transactions, they must be reported as taxable income.
3) They cannot be designed to be easily confused with US currency.
4) They cannot be issued in denominations less than $1.

Von Nuthouse's problems started when he put "USA" and "Trust In God" (as opposed to "In God We Trust") on his medallions, and promoted them as an "alternative currency".

Community currency projects, like the Ithaca Hours Project (http://www.ithacahours.org/), follow these regulations to the letter. The "New Liberty Dollar" is nothing but a fancy silver slug!

Why can't this joker just come out and say he's selling silver rounds? He could probably make some serious money selling 1/2, 1/4, and even 1/10 ounce rounds for these people to make change with.

And while I'm on the subject, I found out the "secret" behind that internet meme about the "five magic words" you can use in any bank that "could bring you real silver coins". The five magic words, that you're supposed to pay someone for, are...

"Do you have half dollars?"

The scheme is that you pay the promoter for this "system" and you tell the teller you want rolls of half dollars. You're supposed to take them home and pick out the silver coins. The last silver halves were minted in 1970, so good luck finding those.

http://stockgumshoe.com/reviews/retirem ... of-silver/

[Pottapaug1938]

Most banks no longer carry half dollars; so if I were going to try this again (I've tried it in the past, and it's worked somewhat), I would go to one of the bigger banks. The only trouble is that some of them will want you to buy a box of rolls, which if I recall correctly will run you $400.