The Federal government may be expanding the scope of private currency use, including what are perceived to be 'barter currencies' in a false interpretation of the court's recent conviction of Liberty Dollar's owner Bernard Von NotHaus.
In a case where the government used conspiracy and counterfeit charges against NotHaus to establish that he intended to mint and illegally replace US currency with a private one using silver coins, opinions made by NotHaus counsel during the proceedings insinuated that the US Attorney is now parlaying the conviction to say that this ruling sets a precedent against any private barter transactions which use any form of currency besides established Federal Reserve Notes.
"The prosecutors successfully painted Mr. von NotHaus in a false light and now the U.S. Attorney responsible for the prosecution is painting the case in a false light, saying that it establishes that private voluntary barter currency is illegal," Michel wrote. – Associated Press
The Federal government also is seeking on April 4th to take receipt of the $7 Million dollars in silver 'Liberty Dollars' that were minted and sold by Von NotHaus.
*Update April 8th
Upon discussions with Ron Whitney of the International Reciprocal Trade Association (IRTA), a distinction between lawful barter exchanges and associations and communities or operations that use a form of currency to perform transactions needs to be addressed. Barter by definition entails the trading of goods and services directly for other goods and services without the use of a middleman medium, such of dollars or other forms of currency. However, in many instances today. trading between individuals and businesses make use of local or private 'currencies' to transact trades for goods or services. Since the language on the street and in the discourse of conversation has brought new meanings to the word barter contrary to the legal definition of the word, separation of lawful bartering and the use of 'barter currency' needs to be identified. The basis for additional meanings added to the word barter in 'barter currency' is validated by the fact that either the counsel for Von NotHaus believed the definition of 'barter currency' it to be correct, or the US Attorney in courtroom statements made the same assertion.
The following is a statement by Ron Whitney in response to the opinions expressed by Michel, counsel for Von NotHaus .
Executive Director of IRTA, Ron Whitney says, "Mr. Michel's quote suggesting that the Liberty Dollar case is related to the legally recognized organized barter industry is misplaced. The IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=187904,00.html defines barter as "the trading of one product or service for another." The Liberty Dollar's case is not about trading one product or service for another, rather it is about violation of Section 18, 486 of the U.S. Code which prohibits the manufacture of coinage or metals intended as current money resembling coinage of the U.S. Mr. vonNotHaus was convicted of the charges of counterfeiting and making and selling currency, barter had nothing to do with the case. The modern trade and barter industry was recognized by the U.S, government as a legal alternative form of commerce by the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA), passed in 1982 whereby barter exchanges were deemed third party record keepers and required to comply with IRS 1099B reporting laws. Barter sales conducted through barter exchanges are taxable sales reported annually to the IRS. The Liberty Dollar's verdict is completely separate from the legally recognized modern trade and barter industry and in our view it does not represent an effort on the government's part to declare valid TEFRA compliant barter transactions as illegal activity."
The idea for using private currency for 'barter' transactions is not new, and in fact is currently being done in a few cities around the country. In Detroit for example, a group of businesses created their own barter currency known as 'Detroit Cheers', and several businesses agreed to the use of local currencies in leiu of federal reserve notes.
A Detroit trio of small-business owners are reviving the idea, following an emerging national trend. The businesses are creating a currency called Detroit Cheers, and more than a dozen city merchants have already agreed to accept it as real money. "The world is just now reeling from economic chaos; in Detroit, that's how we always roll," said Jerry Belanger, 49, a backer of the currency, as he watched the initial run of Cheers bills roll off the presses last week....
Detroit Cheers joins an estimated 75 local currency systems that have sprung up recently in the U.S., said Michael Shuman, author of "The Small-Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition." – Detroit News
If this is an attempt by the Federal government to use a single court case to potentially establish a new precident of defacto law in regards to private or asserted 'barter' currencies, then it gives warning to the states and the public that any course of action towards removing themselves from federal control over economic and monetary policies may be met with force and or prosecution.
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