New kind of money appears in Huntington Beach

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A new kind of currency has appeared here and could

give U.S. greenbacks a run for their money if it catches on.

American Liberty Currency, an alternative form of money offered by a

politically-oriented national organization, has popped up in three Surf

City businesses that serve as redemption centers.

“What we’re basically trying to do is abolish the Federal Reserve,”

said Nick Jesson, whose electronics business in the 7000 block of Talbert

Avenue is also a redemption center. “The currency in the reserve is

nothing, backed by nothing, and we want a currency with gold or silver

behind it.”

American Liberty money comes in coin or bill form -- denominations of

$1, $5 and $10 bear the Statue of Liberty on them -- produced by the

National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and

Internal Revenue Code, which has its sights set on the Federal Reserve

system in use today.

“This is a group of people that feel that our money should be backed

up with some value,” said Bernard van NotHaus, who spent 23 years

creating the currency which debuted in 1998. “The Federal Reserve is a

privately-owned system that can manipulate the economy.”

The American Liberty money is supported by silver and gold, with $10

worth one Troy ounce of .999 fine silver.

In 1913, the U.S. Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act authorizing

a Federal Reserve banking system to regulate the country’s money supply.

The system is essentially private, and went off the gold standard

domestically in 1933, abandoning it internationally in 1971.

Tom Wardman, a Los Angeles spokesman for the National Reserve Bank of

San Francisco, said he wasn’t aware of American Liberty Currency, let

alone its presence in Southern California.

Resident Norm Westwell presented American Liberty money to the public

at-large during recent City Council meetings, and said the feedback he’s

received has not been unanimous, but positive.

“I’ve met very little resistance when using American Liberty,” he

said. “And I’ve had more people accept the bills, than not.”

Alternative currency is nothing new to the economy.

In 1990, the HOUR began circulating in Ithaca, N.Y. setting a value of

$10 for an hour of labor. In Northern California’s Mendocino County nine

years later, cities began using Self-sufficient Ecological Economy

Development to encourage community spending.

There are about 60 different types of local currency, used in a small

area, in use throughout the United States.

“The difference between those types, and American Liberty Currency, is

that we’re on a national scale,” van NotHaus said. “But the country is

actually our community, as it relates to the countries of the world.”