In 2005 a New Jersey car dealer named Chris Duane started questioning the system that let his customers borrow ridiculous amounts of money to buy the frivolous things he was selling. He studied a little monetary history and concluded that fiat currency was a doomed concept and that sound money, especially silver, would soar in value when the fiat experiment inevitably crashed and burned. He sold his house, left the family business and committed to helping others prepare for the crisis that he saw coming. Among other things he founded the Sons of Liberty Academy, the website Don't Tread on Me, and a series of Silver Bullet Silver Shield videos. And -- the point of this post -- he began designing and minting a series in-your-face silver bullion coins with names like "Debt and Death" and "Freedom Girl" that were destined to become collectors' items.

Here's a 2012 interview Chris did with Greg Hunter's USA Watchdog that tells a more complete version of his story:

DollarCollapse.com was one of Chris' early affiliates, and the relationship started with a bang: Visitors loved the coins and ordered lots of them, launching what looked to be a very profitable partnership.

Then disaster struck. In 2013 Chris and the mint that made the coins had a very public falling out and production ceased.

In the two years since, the staff at DollarCollapse has been bugging Chris to bring back the old designs, introduce some new ones, and get the affiliate program back on-line. Finally, this week, he did. Through the Golden State Mint, he's now offering a mix of old and new designs:

Silver bullion is emphatically out of favor right now so it's unlikely that these coins will make the same splash as their earlier incarnations. But they're still very cool and when the pendulum swings back towards precious metals they'll once again be, um, hot commodities. In the meantime they're available at prices that will seem dirt cheap to our future selves.