Civil War Commemorative Coin (Liberian Dollars?)

General Questions
#1

I’ve seen a commercial a few times lately that advertises a civil war commemorative silver coin for $5. No shipping and handling. It said it was legal tender. Later in the commercial, in fine print, it says “Liberian Dollars”. So, I say “AH HA!” to myself, and head online to look for the exchange rate.

From http://www.OANDA.COM :

How can this be? Anyone got the Dope on this? I searched all over for the coin, but could only find one, broken link. Now, I know these guys aren’t selling these things for an over 200% loss. What’s going on here?

#2

Was it a 5 (Liberian) dollar coin, or were they selling it for 5 dollars? That would make a difference…

#3

Went to the same converter. Something seems wrong- AFAIK, the Liberian dollar is so much toilet paper. It can’t be worth more than the USD. Perhaps they missed a decimal place. According to Yahoo! currency exchanger, there are 42 Liberian dollars to one USD. So, it appears your site got ot wrong. Thus a $5 coin is worth about a dime.

#4

Thanks, DITWD, I just knew something was fishy with that.

#5

Well this site gives a 1:1 rate.

The plot thickens.

#6

The CIA World Factbook on Liberia gives the official rate as being tied 1:1 with the US Dollar, but the market exchange rate (i.e. what you’d get if you went to a bank) as 40:1 as of 12/98. In other words, just because the Liberian government says the coin is worth $X, doesn’t mean that anyone has to give you that amount for it.