Did You Buy Any Of Those "Liberty Dollars"?

You remember those things advertised on TV? Advertised as legal tender?

They're not and the government now wants them all surrendered for destruction. Including any you bought. You can't have them. No, you are not getting a refund. It's your fault you thought they were actual money or fell for the "alternative currency" garbage. If alternative currency were legal, the company you work for would likely be paying you in scrip. (Actually, this announcement was made back in August, but I just got wind of it now.)

It says so right here.

18 U.S.C. §486

§ 486. Uttering coins of gold, silver or other metal
Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title [1] or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

"Current money" basically means money you can get at one place and use at some other place. A poker chip can't be used outside of the casino, so it's not current money. (Though it was used as such way back in the day.) A quarter can, so it is. A liberty dollar was portrayed as such, and was not authorized as such, so it's got to go bye-bye. (Those local currencies you hear about every so often, where a bunch of shops in some town or other make up some 'community currency' to encourage local business, could probably be shut down too if the government really wanted to, but I'm guessing they opt to let it go because it's not really hurting anything.)

Long story short, if you bought any liberty dollars, you used real money to buy fake money. Nice work. Hand it over.