The American Liberty Dollar (ALD) was a private currency produced in the United States. The currency was issued in minted metal rounds (similar to coins), gold and silver certificates, and electronic currency (eLD). ALD certificates are "warehouse receipts" for real gold and silver owned by the bearer. According to court documents, there were about 250,000 holders of Liberty Dollar certificates. The metal was warehoused at Sunshine Minting in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho prior to a November 2007 raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Secret Service (USSS). Until July 2009, the Liberty Dollar was distributed by Liberty Services (formerly known as "National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and the Internal Revenue Code" or NORFED), based in Evansville, Indiana. It was created by Bernard von NotHaus, the founder of the Cannabis Spiritual Center in Malibu, California, and the co-founder of the Royal Hawaiian Mint Company. In May 2009, von NotHaus and others were charged with federal crimes in connection with the Liberty Dollar, and, on July 31, 2009, von NotHaus announced that he had closed the Liberty Dollar operation, pending resolution of the criminal charges. On March 18, 2011, von NotHaus was pronounced guilty of "making coins resembling and similar to United States coins". In late 2014, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that Liberty Dollars seized in the 2007 FBI/USSS operation should be returned to their owners. Practices Exchange service From 1998 to July 2009, Liberty Services exchanged Federal Reserve Notes (US dollars) for silver Liberty Dollars (and later gold and copper), as well as for Warehouse Receipts in both paper and digital forms. Currency reform Liberty Services' original name was "National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and the Internal Revenue Code" (NORFED). Since its founding, the organization asserted that the Federal Reserve was unconstitutional and harmful. The company engaged in a series of legal battles both defending their exchange service and challenging exclusivity assertions made by the US Mint (see Legal issues). Function Differences from other alternative currencies A number of alternative currencies exist in the United States, including Phoenix Dollars, Baltimore's BNote, Ithaca Hours, Bitcoin, and digital gold currency. Unlike some other alternative currencies, both Liberty Dollars and Phoenix Dollars were denominated by weight and backed by a commodity: Liberty Dollars used gold, silver, platinum, or copper. Other private currencies use different bases, such as tying their value to