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[Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

Isn't their argument completely baseless? Doesn't the government decide 
what's recognized as legal tender, whether it has any 'real' value or 
not? I never understood what real value gold has. You can't eat it or 
plant it and grow something, and it has limited uses as a metal or 
mineral...many people around the world have decided it has value, so it 
does. I find it strange that people think one useless thing has value 
but other useless things don't.

Lynn Wigglesworth

bob ford wrote:
>  October 30, 2008
>   
> 3 men with gold confuse sheriff's sale
> 
> They say bidders' paper cash is 'illegitimate.'
> 
> By Matt Assad | Of The Morning Call 
> October 29, 2008 
> 
> With the economy in decline, the list of foreclosed properties up for 
> Northampton County sheriff's sale this month was long, but Deputy Sheriff 
> Dave Ruberry figured his last stint supervising the sale would be 
> uneventful.
> 
> Then Michael Proetto of Whitehall Township, clutching a bulging sandwich 
> bag, walked up.
> 
> ''I'd like to register my bid of $30 [over costs] in gold and silver U.S. 
> currency,'' said Proetto, bidding on a two-bedroom condominium in Williams 
> Township.
> 
> ''Excuse me?'' Ruberry said.
> 
> 
> 
> ''I have lawful gold and silver U.S. currency,'' Proetto said, plunking the 
> bag of gold and silver on the table.
> 
> At the Oct. 10 sale, Proetto and colleagues Michael Reis of Bethlehem and 
> Victor Balletta of Allentown would make unsuccessful bids ranging from 
> $12,000 to more than $75,000 on nine properties. At the time, they declined 
> to reveal their motives, and their bids left county officials scratching 
> their heads.
> 
> Ruberry thinks the three men are anarchists, while a county lawyer thinks 
> they could be after a quick buck.
> 
> Whatever their motives, the three returned last week to file 27 notices 
> challenging the foreclosure sales, in which they lost bids to people using 
> ''illegitimate paper'' money.
> 
> ''[The other bidders] made an unlawful money bid in credit in opposition to 
> my lawful money bid,'' Proetto wrote in nine challenges he made. ''I was 
> the only lawful bidder and therefore the only bidder.''
> 
> In other words, Proetto said earlier this week, his gold was the only valid 
> money at the sale and the rest of the bids used ''worthless paper backed by 
> nothing more than black ink.''
> 
> Ruberry, who has run the sale for five years and is handing the duty over 
> to another deputy, said, ''Obviously the United States of America takes a 
> different view and so do we....This isn't the barter system, where you can 
> bring your jewelry here to be melted down to buy a house.''
> 
> Ruberry speculated the three men might be part of an anarchist movement 
> engaging in a ''paper terrorism'' campaign to clog the courts.
> 
> Assistant county solicitor Christopher Spadoni, who handles the sheriff's 
> sales, said they may simply be opportunists.
> 
> Most of the properties the men made unsuccessful bids on were bought by the 
> banks holding the mortgages. By challenging the sales, the men could hold 
> up the bank's ability to sell the property for up to two years, Spadoni 
> said.
> 
> ''A bank lawyer might just want to pay them to go away. Maybe they are 
> smarter than we think,'' Spadoni said. ''But if their argument is that 
> their money is real, and everyone else's is fake, well, I find their 
> argument baseless.''
> 
> Courts in Lehigh and Carbon counties report no similar appeals.
> 
> Ruberry believes the men may be fellow travelers of anti-government groups 
> such as the Sovereign Citizen, Posse Comitatus and Liberty Dollar movements 
> that believe paper money is not legal tender.
> 
> In some states, members of those groups have clogged court systems, 
> flooding government offices with liens, civil suits and legal challenges to 
> purchases made with what they say is illegal money. In Texas, a group 
> calling themselves Republic of Texas conducted such a successful effort 
> that the Texas Legislature passed a law in 1997 to prevent it, and similar 
> efforts were reported in Wisconsin and Ohio in the 1990s, according to 
> newspaper reports.
> 
> Proetto said while he and his colleagues may hold similar philosophies to 
> those organized groups, they are not associated with any of them and are 
> not on an anti-government campaign.
> 
> ''Don't read too much into this,'' said Proetto, who would reveal little 
> about himself other than that he is retired and once served in the Navy. 
> ''We're just three guys trying to buy $4 million worth of property with 
> gold and silver -- the only real money that was bid.''
> 
> Spadoni said if the men filed their appeals properly -- he questions 
> whether that will happen -- the matter would have to be heard by a county 
> judge.
> 
> In the end, Proetto, Reis and Balletta walked out of the sheriff's sale 
> still carrying the gold and silver they came with.
> 
> And Ruberry walked out thankful that if they return at the next sale Nov. 
> 7, they'll be someone else's problem.
> 
> ''It's not every day you get someone trying to buy property with 30 pieces 
> of gold,'' Ruberry said. ''Interesting, but I won't miss it.''
> 
> 
> http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_3gold.6647031oct29,0,1837218.story
> 
> 
> 
>       
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