{"schema":"hoh-person-v1","site":"https://humansofhistory.com","slug":"bernard-von-nothaus","fullName":"Bernard von NotHaus","honorific":null,"altNames":[],"shortDescription":"American counterfeiter","birthYear":1901,"birthDateLabel":"c. 1901","birthPlace":null,"deathYear":null,"deathDateLabel":null,"deathPlace":null,"nationality":"United States","occupations":["entrepreneur"],"era":"Modern","wikidataQid":"Q2898867","infobox":[{"label":"Born","value":"c. 1901"},{"label":"Nationality","value":"United States"},{"label":"Known as","value":"entrepreneur"},{"label":"Archive ref","value":"Q2898867"}],"article":{"version":1,"summary":"Bernard von NotHaus is an American entrepreneur and private minter best known as the creator of the Liberty Dollar, a privately issued silver and gold currency that circulated in the United States from 1998 until federal agents shut the operation down. A 2011 jury conviction on counterfeiting related charges made him a national symbol in debates over money, and prosecutors at one point described his enterprise as a form of domestic economic subversion. His case, United States v. von NotHaus, remains a landmark in modern American law on private currency. Anyone asking who was Bernard von NotHaus is really asking how far a citizen may go in coining an alternative to the dollar.","sections":[{"heading":"Early Life and Background","markdown":"Bernard von NotHaus was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1944, and spent much of his adult life far from the American mainland [2]. Little in his early biography suggested a future courtroom celebrity. He gravitated toward the counterculture currents of the 1960s and 1970s, and by his own account developed an early fascination with precious metals and the question of what gives money its value [2].\n\nThat fascination hardened into conviction after the United States ended the last formal link between the dollar and gold in 1971. Von NotHaus came to believe that a currency backed by nothing but government promise would steadily lose purchasing power, and that ordinary people needed a voluntary alternative rooted in silver and gold [1][2]. The idea would shape the next four decades of his life, and any honest Bernard von NotHaus biography has to begin with that single fixed belief."},{"heading":"The Royal Hawaiian Mint","markdown":"In 1974 von NotHaus settled in Hawaii, where he co-founded a private minting operation in Honolulu that became known as the **Royal Hawaiian Mint** [2]. For roughly a quarter century he served as its mintmaster, designing and striking commemorative medallions and bullion pieces for collectors. The work gave him technical mastery of coin production: die design, metal sourcing, striking, and distribution [2].\n\nThe Hawaii years also revealed his taste for provocation and self-invention. He wrote a lengthy paper in the 1970s arguing that inflation was a hidden tax and that value based currency was the remedy, a text he later treated as the founding document of his monetary project [2]. He also founded an unconventional congregation in Honolulu built around cannabis use as a sacrament, an enterprise that drew local attention and signaled his comfort operating at the edge of convention [2]. By the late 1990s he was ready to turn theory into practice on the mainland."},{"heading":"The Liberty Dollar","markdown":"In 1998 von NotHaus launched the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code, known by the acronym **NORFED**, headquartered in Evansville, Indiana [1][3]. Its product was the **Liberty Dollar**: silver and gold medallions, paper warehouse receipts redeemable in metal, and later digital units, all denominated in dollar figures and promoted as an inflation proof alternative to Federal Reserve notes [1][3]. Supporters could become regional currency officers, buying the pieces at a discount and passing them into circulation at face value.\n\nThe operation grew well beyond a collector novelty. Prosecutors later estimated that the enterprise put roughly 60 million dollars worth of Liberty Dollars into circulation across the country, with thousands of merchants and individuals accepting or holding the pieces [1][3]. Among Bernard von NotHaus achievements, this stands out in scale: he built what was widely described as the most successful private voluntary currency in modern American history, an accomplishment even his prosecutors implicitly acknowledged by the size of the case they brought [3].\n\nTrouble arrived as the venture expanded. In 2006 the United States Mint issued a public warning stating that Liberty Dollars were not legal tender and that using them as circulating money could be a federal crime [4]. Von NotHaus responded defiantly, insisting the pieces were a private voluntary barter currency, not counterfeit coin, and he sued the government over the warning [1][4]."},{"heading":"Raid, Indictment, and Trial","markdown":"In November 2007 federal agents raided the Liberty Dollar offices in Evansville and the Sunshine Mint in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, which struck the pieces, seizing records, dies, and tons of silver, gold, platinum, and copper [1][5]. An indictment followed in 2009 in the Western District of North Carolina, charging von NotHaus with making coins resembling United States coinage, uttering and passing them, fraud, and conspiracy [1][6].\n\nThe trial took place in Statesville, North Carolina, in March 2011. The government argued that the medallions, which bore dollar denominations, the word Liberty, and imagery echoing official coinage, were designed to be confused with and to compete against United States money [1][6]. The defense countered that the pieces were plainly marked private issue and that no one had been deceived. After roughly ninety minutes of deliberation the jury convicted him on the core counts [1][3].\n\nThe verdict produced one of the most quoted prosecutorial statements of the era. The United States Attorney for the district, Anne Tompkins, called attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of the United States a unique form of domestic terrorism, language that turned a currency case into a national controversy [1][3]. Among Bernard von NotHaus facts, his conviction date, March 18, 2011, is the one most often cited."},{"heading":"Sentencing and Later Years","markdown":"Sentencing did not come quickly. For more than three years after the verdict von NotHaus remained free while motions were argued, a limbo covered at length by the national press, including a 2012 New York Times profile that found him living quietly and awaiting his fate [2]. He faced a statutory maximum of more than twenty years in prison, and many observers expected a substantial term [2][3].\n\nIn December 2014 Judge Richard Voorhees instead sentenced the seventy year old von NotHaus to three years of probation, including six months of home detention, citing his age, health, and nonviolent conduct [3][6]. The court also resolved the fate of the seized metals, ordering forfeiture of a large portion while directing that some property be returned to holders who filed claims [6]. The outcome was widely read as a rebuke of the terrorism rhetoric, since the sentence treated him as an eccentric monetary crusader rather than a menace.\n\nIn the years after sentencing von NotHaus continued to give interviews, defend the Liberty Dollar concept, and follow the rise of cryptocurrencies, which he described as vindication of the demand for alternatives to government money [2][7]. He has lived largely out of the spotlight since completing his probation."},{"heading":"Legacy","markdown":"The von NotHaus case reshaped how Americans argue about private money. United States v. von NotHaus is now standard reading in discussions of the federal statutes on coinage and counterfeiting, and it drew a practical boundary: private bullion and barter instruments are lawful, but pieces denominated and styled to resemble circulating national coin invite prosecution [1][6]. Legal scholars and journalists returned to the case repeatedly as Bitcoin and other digital currencies raised parallel questions about competing with the dollar [7].\n\nHis reputation splits along predictable lines. Hard money advocates and libertarians regard him as a principled dissenter punished for building a working alternative currency, while critics note that a jury found the Liberty Dollar deceptive by design [1][3]. Both camps agree on the scale of what he built and on the strangeness of the figure at its center, a Honolulu mintmaster who styled himself a monetary architect.\n\nFor readers researching a Bernard von NotHaus biography today, the essential picture is of a man whose one idea, that citizens should be free to choose their money, carried him from a Hawaiian mint to a federal courtroom and into the history of American monetary dissent [2][6]."}],"faqs":[{"answer":"Bernard von NotHaus is an American entrepreneur and private minter who created the Liberty Dollar, a silver and gold based alternative currency issued from 1998 to 2007. He was convicted in 2011 on federal charges related to making and passing coins resembling United States money.","question":"Who was Bernard von NotHaus?"},{"answer":"He was born in 1944 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was seventy years old when he was sentenced in December 2014, more than three years after his conviction.","question":"When was Bernard von NotHaus born?"},{"answer":"He is best known for founding NORFED and issuing the Liberty Dollar, widely described as the most successful private voluntary currency in modern American history. His 2011 federal conviction, and a prosecutor's remark linking private currency to domestic terrorism, made the case nationally famous.","question":"What is Bernard von NotHaus famous for?"},{"answer":"No. Although he faced a possible sentence of more than twenty years, the judge in December 2014 imposed three years of probation with six months of home detention, citing his age and nonviolent conduct.","question":"Was Bernard von NotHaus sent to prison?"},{"answer":"Federal agents raided the Liberty Dollar offices and its mint in November 2007, seizing dies, records, and large quantities of precious metals. The currency ceased operation, and after the trial the court ordered forfeiture of much of the seized metal while allowing some holders to file claims.","question":"What happened to the Liberty Dollar?"},{"answer":"As of the most recent reliable reports he is living, having completed his probation after the 2014 sentencing. He has occasionally commented on cryptocurrencies, which he views as heirs to the Liberty Dollar idea.","question":"Is Bernard von NotHaus still alive?"}]},"references":[{"marker":1,"title":"Defendant Convicted of Minting His Own Currency","author":"Federal Bureau of Investigation, Charlotte Division","publisher":"FBI / U.S. Department of Justice","url":"https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/charlotte/press-releases/2011/defendant-convicted-of-minting-his-own-currency","publicationDate":"2011-03-18","type":"PRIMARY"},{"marker":2,"title":"Prison May Be the Next Stop on a Gold Currency Journey","author":"Alan Feuer","publisher":"The New York Times","url":null,"publicationDate":"2012-10-24","type":"NEWS"},{"marker":3,"title":"Liberty Dollar creator sentenced to probation in counterfeiting case","author":"Associated Press","publisher":"Associated Press","url":null,"publicationDate":"2014-12-02","type":"NEWS"},{"marker":4,"title":"Liberty Dollars Not Legal Tender, United States Mint Warns Consumers","author":"United States Mint","publisher":"U.S. Department of the Treasury","url":null,"publicationDate":"2006-09-14","type":"PRIMARY"},{"marker":5,"title":"Feds raid Liberty Dollar office in Evansville","author":"Evansville Courier & Press staff","publisher":"Evansville Courier & Press","url":null,"publicationDate":"2007-11-15","type":"NEWS"},{"marker":6,"title":"United States v. Bernard von NotHaus, No. 5:09-cr-00027, U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina","author":"U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina","publisher":"United States federal courts","url":null,"publicationDate":"2014","type":"PRIMARY"},{"marker":7,"title":"The Case Against Bernard von NotHaus and the Future of Alternative Currency","author":"Seth Lipsky","publisher":"The Wall Street Journal (opinion coverage of the von NotHaus case)","url":null,"publicationDate":"2011-03-31","type":"NEWS"}],"image":{"arweaveTxId":null,"originalUrl":null,"attribution":null},"archivedAt":"2026-09-10T01:07:37.612Z"}