Michigan SMI

    (State Monetary Initiative)

    Michigan was the first of the 25 state Liberty Dollars produced in 2006

    The #1 Michigan Liberty Dollar

    The Michigan Liberty Dollar is here, and they are beautiful!  They come in three varieties;
    Serial numbered (SN) with state outline hallmark
    Hallmarked (HM - no numbers)
    General Issue (GI - no numbers or hallmarks)
    There were only 250 Serial Numbered .  There will never be any more, so they will not be available for long.  Be sure to get one while you can still find it.
    There were even less Hallmarked only versions.  The GI is fairly common since it has been ordered multiple times in quantity by various Michigan RCOs.


    There is something interesting about the Michigan hallmark only pieces.  By scrutinizing the hallmarks, I was able to do some logical rationalization about the process Bernard von NotHaus (creator of the Liberty Dollar) went through to produce these pieces (he personally hand stamped all of the numbered and hallmarked pieces).  I found that all of the numbered pieces had sharp, cleanly stamped full hallmarks.  Of the hallmarked pieces I received, only 35 of them are fully struck.  32 of them have weakly struck hallmarks in which the initials MI or the upper peninsula outline are only partially struck or non-existant.  Nothing unusual there, but now comes the interesting part.  The weakly struck pieces show how difficult it must have been to hold the hallmark die perfectly straight while striking.  It appears that in an effort to get the hallmark fully struck, some pieces were hit twice or else the hammer bounced.  I have six pieces with fully struck, double die hallmarks.  I have another seven with double die hallmarks in which parts are not fully struck.  When buying these pieces, be sure to inquire about this feature.  Some of the varieties of hallmark are scarce.  The varieties are;

    Fully double struck hallmarks.
    Weakly double struck hallmarks.
    Full hallmarks.
    Weak hallmarks.
    This phenomenon exists on some of the other states hallmarks as well.

    Close up of the #1 Michigan SMI  

    Note the fully struck hallmark

    The #242 Michigan SMI

    Note the fully struck hallmark – as on all the numbered

    Hallmark type I

    Fully struck hallmark

    Hallmark type II

    Weakly struck hallmark

    Hallmark type III

    Fully double struck hallmark

    Hallmark type IV

    Weakly double struck hallmark

     Below is a photo of all 25 state SMI (only RCOs from 25 states participated, so the 50 state set does not exist).  Each of them is serial number 57 from its respective state.  There is also a close up of the state hallmark.  There only 47 of these matched number sets in existence.  Some states had only 100 pieces numbered and many of those have been sold to the public already.  Completing matched number sets other than the ones Bernard von Nothaus and I put together will be virtually impossible.  They are sure to become very valuable in the future once people recognize the significance of the grass roots effort of the Liberty Dollar to restore our nation to freedom via sound money.  21 of the existing matched number sets are in the hands of various RCOs who participated in the SMI effort.  13 sets have been sold to private collectors.  The rest belong to Bernard von NotHaus and myself.  

    This site is maintained by former Southwest Michigan RCO Ron Goodger.  If you see any errors on the site, please report them to Ron at;
    LRGoodger ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com

    All 25 SMI states use this obverse



    SMI SN (serial numbered) set #57

    SMI HM (hallmarked) set


    SMI GI (general issue) set

    SMI History

    Each State piece was sponsored by an RCO (Regional Currency Office) in the state, so if there was no RCO to sponsor it, it did not get made.  Exactly half of the 50 states had an RCO to step forward and sponsor his state.  That is why there are only 25 of the states in a complete set.

     The SMI were issued in three different varieties as follows; 

    1. The GI (general issue) is an un-marked piece just as it came out of the mint press.
    2. The HM (hallmarked) is hand stamped by Bernard von NotHaus with an outline of the state.
    3. The SN (serial numbered) pieces have a unique, hand stamped serial number as well as a state hallmark.

     Varying quantities of each type were produced for different states according to what the sponsoring RCO ordered.  A couple of states had 1000 pieces numbered. Many more had only 100 pieces numbered.  I believe there are fewer hallmarked only pieces than there are numbered.  There are quite a few GI pieces for each of these states, but some of them are quite scarce because there was a total of 500 pieces minted for the state that included all three types.  Since at least 100 were numbered and presumably a minimum of 50 hallmarked, that left only 350 GI for states like ME, OR, MS, AL, ID, MO, NM and VA.  Many other states had a total of 1000 pieces made and some states like MI, CA, NY, NC, FL and PA had several thousand done.

     As a result of the varying production, some state pieces are becoming quite hard to find.  There were only two RCOs who had the foresight to obtain small quantities of these pieces from each state and assemble complete sets for resale to collectors.  Both of them are Michigan RCOs.  Only one of those two RCOs assembled extra complete sets of hallmarked and numbered pieces.  Michigan RCO Ron Goodger spearheaded the cooperative effort between the 25 states to assemble sets of matched serial numbers.  Each RCO who participated got a set with all 25 pieces bearing the same serial number.  There are only 46 of these sets in existence and 11 of them belong to their creator, Bernard von Nothaus.  Another 23 sets are in the hands of the participating RCOs.  The remaining 13 sets were sold by Ron to recover the costs of buying pieces for the sets from RCOs who were not collectors and did not want a set of their own.