I know that The E-Sylum has occasionally published updates about the ongoing saga of the FBI raid on the Liberty Dollar operation back in 2007. As one of the claimants seeking to recover seized assets I can report that the process has finally come to a conclusion.

Back in March of 2015 I submitted a petition to recover assets that I had ordered and paid for, but never received due to their seizure in the FBI raid of the offices of Liberty Services on November 14, 2007. By 2015 the trial of Bernard von Nothaus was over, and the equally messy issue of what to do with the seized assets was being addressed. Reports in the numismatic community made me aware of the opportunity to file a claim, and so I did. It was an interesting experience to be involved in this historic case.

The Court was quite generous in considering claims that had incomplete or missing proof of purchase or ownership. My unfulfilled order from late 2007 had been processed online, and I had no receipts or emails to offer as back up to my claim; my notarized petition was all I was able to provide. My claim, like most that were submitted for assets that were not determined in the prior court case to be “contraband”, was approved (certain Liberty Dollar designs were determined to be “counterfeit” and were ordered to be forfeited).

Over the ensuing two and a half years I occasionally received paperwork from the Court announcing that various stages of the process had reached a conclusion, and then a month or so ago I finally received a notice advising that the assets due to successful claimants were ready to be returned.

As instructed, I emailed the U.S. Marshall’s Service to confirm my address, and on October 6th I received a Priority Mail package from the Texas auction house which frequently handles seized assets for the government. Most of the claimants in this case seemed to be due silver “Liberty Dollars”, some in quantities of hundreds or even thousands of ounces. Since I had only purchased some of the medallions as numismatic novelties, my recovered assets were a bit more modest. Upon opening my package I found my 20 copper Ron Paul “Liberty Dollars”, carefully wrapped and bearing a mellow toning from their decade in government storage.

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web