(LifeSiteNews) – A number of coin shop owners in the United States have reported recently that their bank accounts have been shut down without explanation in what some are calling examples of what the future could be like if central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are widely adopted.
On Monday, Gateway Pundit highlighted the cases of three separate coin shop owners in Ohio, Illinois, and Nebraska, respectively, who took to social media to share that their banks had canceled them without warning or details.
“They’re just closing all my accounts,” said the Ohio proprietor via his Gold & Silver Stackers YouTube channel. “They don’t want to do business with me. They won’t tell me why. I went to my local branch, who I have a good relationship with. Talked to the manager. She tried to find out. They wouldn’t tell her. So here I was left thinking, wow, what is going on? What do they think I could have done?”
The message he received, he said, claimed that a “recent review” led to the decision. He did not identify the bank except to clarify it was not a national chain, but says he will in a future video. He added that his was not the first such case he knew of in Ohio.
“I don’t think the banks like this type of business. I don’t know what they think we’re doing here because everything’s 100% legitimate, but for some reason they don’t like it,” he said. “And we all probably know why. And it’s just a shame that they have that much power and that much ability and they could just close your stuff down just like that. Very unnerving.”
Sherrie, owner of Collector’s Gallery LLC in Oak Forest, Illinois, saw that video and revealed that she had the same experience months earlier with Old National Bank.
“My husband gets a phone call on Friday night from his work saying, hey, your paycheck, because he gets direct deposit was just returned, bank account closed,” she said. “The next morning, we woke up, and there was a letter in the mailbox, ‘certified letter.’ We are taking the option and we are closing your account.”
“It was addressed to me personally. My husband’s name wasn’t anywhere on it,” she continued. “Now, this is a joint checking account. All these other accounts, none of those are in my name. They’re in my husband’s name. They have nothing to do with me. But they closed all my accounts. Anything that was affiliated with my name, which four accounts are not affiliated with my name. Anyway, the moral of the story is they just kicked us out. No explanation, nothing.”
Due to the terms of agreements signed with banks, there is generally no recourse for the customer other than finding a new bank. But “I am hearing more and more of this from coin dealers, gold and silver bullion dealers, jewelry stores, jewelry dealers, anybody in that type of business,” Sherrie said. “All of a sudden, these banks are just opting their right to kick you out. And when you sign up with them, you sign that paperwork that says they can do it at any time. You have no control. So even if your paperwork is all in order, it doesn’t matter. They just do not want your business.”
In February, Dave with the Omaha-based Coinhuskers shared that he experienced the same thing from First National Bank of Omaha. He shared both a letter from the bank and a phone conversation with one of their representatives, neither of which offered an explanation. “What we have in the United States is a legalized plunder of the American people by the banks,” said Dave, who advised listeners to maintain accounts at multiple banks, and potentially even overseas, for their own protection.
While it is unclear why these banks canceled these particular accounts, the fact that Americans can so easily find themselves cut off from financial services without warning or recourse highlights the dangers of a future without alternatives – a future currently being explored by the Biden administration, which early this year ordered a study on the feasibility of switching to a digital dollar, even as the concept is being abandoned by other countries who have considered it, including Japan, Denmark, and Nigeria.
In the field of Republicans currently competing for the nomination to challenge Biden for the presidency in 2024, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has taken the strongest stand against CBDCs. In May, he signed legislation to ban “the use of a federally adopted central bank digital currency (CBDC) by excluding it from the definition of money within Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code” and “foreign-issued CBDC to protect consumers against globalist efforts to adopt a worldwide digital currency.”
In July, he declared that “if I am the president, on day one we will nix central bank digital currency. Done. Dead. Not happening in this country […] the minute you give them the power to do this they are going to impose a social credit system on this country. CBDC is a massive threat to American liberty.”
Businessman and fellow GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has also panned CBDCs, calling them a “good path to get us to be more like China,” and “not a good way for the U.S. to go in terms of being a surveillance state.” The frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, has yet to express a position.