Left: “Cognitare Extra Buxum” / “Think Outside of the Box”

Right: “Veritas Vos Liberabit” / “The Truth Will Set You Free”

Joseph Vaughn Perling, the issuer of the New Liberty Dollar (not to be confused with Bernard von NotHaus’s NORFED Liberty Dollar) and regular Bitcoin Forum contributor announced during his speech on “Free Money” at OHM2013: Observe. Hack. Make conference on July 31st in the Netherlands that he will be issuing a new private minting of “anonymous” QR enabled silver medallions.

Vaughn Perling had the courage to issue The New Liberty Dollar with a strikingly similar appearance to that of the NORFED Liberty Dollar while von NotHaus was awaiting sentencing on counterfeiting and fraud charges. However, Vaughn Perling added a disclaimer to his website that the purchaser acknowledges that The New Liberty Dollar is a “silver piece medallion, and not any government issued coin.” Some might, for simplicity’s sake, refer to Vaughn Perling’s medallion as a “coin,” as I have done in the title of this article; I have previously discussed the delineation of a coin and a medallion in the eCommerceBytes article “Not Just Semantics: Amazon Coin Is Not a Coin.”

The new QR engraved medallions enable a user of the coin to obtain real-time “manufacturer’s suggested trade value” which is based on the silver spot market price plus “standard premium.” The price will be in Bitcoin as well as other crypto and national currencies.

Vaughn Perling is keenly aware that a number of Bitcoiners have found themselves interested in the cryptocurrency because silver and Bitcoin enthusiasts often travel in the same circles. Said another way, silver stacking is often the “gateway drug” for Bitcoin adoption. Perhaps Max Keiser is the most publicly spoken silver advocate for Bitcoin (for what it’s worth, here is Max Keiser’s first website entry on Bitcoin from December 2010). Because of Vaughn Perling’s Silver/Bitcoin awareness and “a promise he made to Satoshi Nakamoto eight years ago,” live BTC conversion rates are one of many currency options linked to the QR code.

I spoke with Vaughn Perling who explained how this medallion is different than that of the single use, disposable cold storage technologies out there today:

“…These wallets are by nature one-time use. This is so possession is required for redemption, and to verify that they have not been redeemed and still hold their value. There is also a required trust in the issuer and so there are some security issues around that.”

Vaughn Perling is an admirer of the the Casascius crypto-coin, the new Lealana Physical Silver Litecoins, as well as the upcoming physical Litecoins by the Litecoin Foundation (Goat, Chaang-Noi’s team).

Vaughn Perling explains, “as a medium of exchange, {current cold storage concepts} do not live up to the promise of good money as measured through the expanse of time and into the future.”

“Metals, glue, and holographic film used in cold storage until now have physical properties which respond differently to environments. They may be hot or cold or wet or dry, and for a pocket piece suitable for carrying daily, this is not suitable.”

This new minting is a return to durable and persistent money that can be used as a store of value.

I asked Vaughn Perling about the evolution of this concept and where it might be headed. Would it be possible in the future to embed an LCD in the medallion with a lithium battery compartment?

“In order to maintain the integrity of the piece, it ought to be a uniform substance. We struggled with a lot of different ideas, and the QR was the result. We had this answer a few years back, but the market wasn’t ready. Now with the Bitcoin constituency (who are all very familiar with QR codes) the market is ready. The percentage of people using QR codes for anything is still very small, but the percentage of Bitcoin people using it approaches 100.”

The Royal Dutch Mint was the first to embed a QR Code into a coin back in 2011 but the new Quarter Bitcoin will be the first to track the value of the coin itself.

The new minting will be as anonymous as U.S. Coins issued by the U.S. mint which unlike Federal Reserve Notes, do not have serial numbers engraved on them.

Vaughn Perling further explains:

“The embedded cryptography of cold storage cryptocurrencies until now has made each piece unique and therefore traceable, just as the serial numbers on most fiat currencies [are] traceable….I sought to make something more flexible. It should be capable of anonymity…just as the change in your pocket is more anonymous than the paper money in your wallet, this is a characteristic of coinage that I sought to maintain in the pieces I would create…I also sought to design a piece that would support not just Bitcoin, but any crypto-currency successor to Bitcoin.”

Each coin will be engraved “one ounce silver ‘Quarter Bitcoin’” in case of an existential EMP threat (my words not Vaughn Perling’s) or perhaps something less sinister…to facilitate trade in internet dead zones in remote areas.

While Vaughn Perling did not want to refer to the nominal engraved value as a fiat value (latin phrase for “let it be done” / “it shall be”) he is certainly “cognitare extra buxum” pegging .25 BTC “nominal value” to the medallion. I’m not completely comfortable making a comparison between cold storage and the QR coin but Vaughn Perling has brought awareness that cold storage is still in its infancy and I’m looking forward to cold storage 2.0.

Look for the coin for sale soon. I’m looking forward to acquiring a piece myself.