Quote: and they went after NORFED because NORFED specifically designed their "coins" to resemble
US coins closely enough that people might be fooled (and in NORFED's own publicity, were indeed fooled)
While this is what was being spread at the time, it is not a legitimate accusation as proven by the eventual outcome. The trial tried to nail the owner with counterfeiting, the government knew that this was not true and, as such, the NORFED owner had the record for the longest conviction with no sentencing in the State of North Carolina!
Eventually the FBI had to admit they took an illegal action and, which is almost unprecedented, the FBI was forced to return the original coins, materials, and metals instead of just paying (US taxpayer) dollars to the owner as a court settlement.
One of the main "proofs" given by the court was they took a
Mercury dime picture, blew it up to the size of a NORFED one ounce coins (the same planchets used to make ASEs), and put them up for the jury to see side by side. If anything, this was a counterfeit piece of manipulation making a
Mercury dime the size of a 1 ounce silver coin! The court docs were online and at one point I downloaded and read them (may still be).
If you look at the REV of any NORFED you will find a design not remotely like an US coin. And the owner specifically labeled them with the value in words such as "TEN DOLLARS" which has never been on any US silver coin.
The court papers also said that part of the counterfeiting move was putting "TRUST IN GOD" instead of "IN GOD WE TRUST." Yet this is exactly one of the things the NORFED owner had deliberately changed to avoid his creations being too close to
US coinage.
To say no one would notice the difference bewteen the difference of wording (3 vs. 4) may be true, but during this entire farce the NORFED owner sold the rights of the design to another outfit who continued on making the design on silver rounds. This place did remove TRUST IN GOD and put something like "PROTECT LIFE" in its place.
Another thing is that just like
State Quarters, the NORFED designs were many and different including US State symbols, chiropractic, etc.
And to top it all off, the silver rounds you can get at
APMEX have a walking lIberty front and Walker REV design as well. Anyone unfamiliar with coins would think these a legit US issue. Yet nothing was ever done about those (or buffalo, Morgan et.c rounds).
The main issue was at the time the FBI did the illegal raid, they mentioned the 7 million mintage of NORFED. The Fed could in now way allow this kind of popularity of solid and backed barter to continue without making an example. Other barter currencies also existed at the time but were nowhere near as popular. Hence NORFED had to be made an example of.
The FBI even put out warnings (totally lying) that people saying they owned NORFED medals could have them confiscated. That also prevailed through the media of the day. The FBI also told
ebay that they were no longer allowed to permit NORFED auctions b/c the coins were illegal. Again, a total lie. But the scare tactic worked! While
ebay never shut down the NORFED listing entirely, it did say putting them up was against the rules. The total listings went from pages and pages to a few scant listings that would trickle in every once in awhile. I had
ebay alert me to new listings daily before all this happened and continued after the event.
The public, without doing their homework believed the lie. Even if NORFED medals had been an attempt at counterfeiting (and not a good one at that..reference the silver rounds I mentioned!), it is not illegal to own counterfeit
US coins. The FBI was outright lying about confiscation and the mainstream media went with it. It kept people who don't do homework afraid and so people stopped spending them as well.
The action was about a legitimate threat growing to the Fed's control of fiat money. Te FBI was weaponized knowing it was illegal, the lied, and in the end they had to return everything.
Quote:
NORFED expanded quickly because they were cleverly marketed as a non-government-issued currency to the "we hate the government" crowd. But if you gave normal people a choice between electronic money and "large physical chunks of silver" to carry around with them and use as money, they'd choose the electronic, every time, simply because of the convenience. That's why coins are dying out in the first place.
I don't think many people here would say that the fiat money system as controlled by the government has, is, or was a good idea for American prosperity. THis was the NORFED message. And the sheer number of medals minted/wanted every year proves this was not some little conspiracy hate group like the government was trying to make it look like. I am not saying you were suggesting that, BTW. I am saying the reality of it was that while people do not like carrying around large coins, the idea of a precious metal in hand overcomes that concept. IN Chambersburg, PA where I lived, the NORFED silver medals had gained so much popularity that people were using them like normal fiat money.
Surrounding towns, such as Hagerstown, MD where I worked, knew all about the silver money that Chambersburg was using. I talked with people who had used them at the local
Walmart b/c the cashiers were allowed to change them out if they were paid with them. The appeal of precious metal outweighed the idea of heavy coinage. And not all NORFED pieces were 1 ounce. Some were smaller. But, yes, the vast majority were 1 ounce. Had the system gone on longer, no doubt these smaller once would have been more commonly used/minted. However, NORFED also had currency they backed with physical metal as well. And people were using that also. So if people did not want coins, they used the currency. Both were readily available to be ordered/used. This is something the media never mentioned likely b/c the currency had absolutely no resemblance to anything US made...ever.
As is typical, the facts are a lot more interesting and the opposite of what the media pushed about the case.
My interest was, living in Chambersburg and NORFED was a local regular; being familiar with coinage; knowing no one in Chambersburg, coin collector or not, automatically knew the coins were not US issue from their obvious appearance; and seeing just how this barter currency, which was growing in acceptance to issuing million of coins, was going to impact inflation-inherent fiat currency. The overall atmosphere in the US was similar to how it is today. The Second Great Depression was in full swing and the average person was finding it hard to make ends meet while terrorism was on our shores. The real crime was the planned action by the FBI as proven by the outcome. They were illegally abusing their power to protect the Fed.
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Posted 06/16/2024 01:40 am
