Some banks may also say that stamped notes are “illegally altered,” but this is a confusion between the general definition of changed and the legal definition, which refers to currencies whose value has been fraudulently altered, such as changing a $10 bill to a $100 bill. According to the Federal Reserve, the difference is passed on to the intelligence agency if it “discovers counterfeit or illegally altered currency in an institution`s filing” (source). Stamped notes do not meet the definition of altered currency, so your bank will not be penalized for depositing and should accept them without complaint. The question of legality has been compared to the much more politically explosive issue of desecration of the flag. It can be argued that the desecration of the flag is comparable to the desecration of a legal tender photograph (provided that it has been modified so as not to violate counterfeiting laws). In 1989, William Barr testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Flag Protection Act that any regulation that protected something simply because of its symbolic value would be struck down as unconstitutional. The Senate report recommending passage of the bill argued that Barr`s 18 U.S.C. theory would also render Section 333 unconstitutional. [44] In a disagreement in Smith v. Goguen, Rehnquist J. 18 U.S.C. included Section 333 in a group of statutes in which the government protects its interest in private property that is “not a traditional property interest.” [45] On the other hand, the government`s interest in protecting currency in circulation may not be purely symbolic; it costs the Bureau of Engraving and Printing about 5 cents to replace a ticket.
[40] You can read a legal opinion by Alan Levine, Esq., a well-known constitutional lawyer and professor. You can also read a legal notice from Stephen Justino, Esq. below. So why does the government care if you destroy money when it`s technically your property anyway? The Currency Act states that “no person shall melt, break or use a coin that is legal tender in Canada other than as currency.” Similarly, section 456 of the Canadian Penal Code states that “every person who (a) disfigures a coin or (b) utters a defaced coin is guilty of a crime punishable by summary conviction. Burning money in public can be an act of protest or a kind of artistic statement. Often, it is a question of emphasizing the intrinsic uselessness of money. [2] In India, a directive called the Clean Note Policy has been issued to help the RBI track banknotes in circulation. This policy encouraged the public to stop writing on bank notes.
He also ordered banks to exchange soiled and mutilated notes without restriction, according to India Today. Shreya Biswas of India Today also believes that while writing about money is strongly discouraged, it is not illegal. He submits that there is no such law that qualifies the act as a criminal offence. Although the term “degradation” is open to interpretation, the Supreme Court has recognized that this stature has not been much questioned and therefore does not have adequate guidance on what its terms entail. At first glance, the words mutilate, cut, disfigure, disfigure, perforate, and unite or cement are simple, but the phrase “does something else with the intention of making [money] unfit for a new edition” is much less clear. When it comes to writing and stamping U.S. currency, there is a fine line between what is legal and what is not. The European Union defines “counterfeiting or fraudulent counterfeiting of currency in any way” as a criminal offence. [31] According to Regulation (EU) No 1210/2010, “all funds unfit for circulation must be surrendered to the competent national authority”. EU countries must withdraw the currency and compensate the holder”[32], regardless of the issuing country. [33] So, is it illegal to withdraw money? According to this definition, if you shoot or write about money, distort it, or do something like that, you can be fined up to six months. Because the Federal Reserve has to replace any money taken out of circulation, and it costs about 5.5 cents to make a $1 bill, to about 14 cents for a $100 bill.
It may not be a lot per bill, but it adds up when everyone starts burning their money. If you have money to burn, congratulations – but you`d better not really light up a bunch of money. Burning money is illegal in the United States and carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, not to mention fines. Can you write about money? Is it illegal to write about money? This debate has been going on for a long time. You may think the topic is a no-brainer. But there are a surprising number of people who believe it`s okay — and that they have the right — to do whatever they want with the money once the money belongs to them. In many demographic groups, dollar bill owners tend to think, “Oh, that`s my money anyway, I should be allowed to write on it.” Some people even go so far as to think that it is within their rights to tear it up or reject it as a protest whenever they see fit. One of the main reasons why the government has a dark view of the destruction or degradation of currencies is that it must replace them; It costs money to make money – about one nickel per ticket.
And the demand for dollars is huge. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces 37 million tickets per day with a face value of approximately $696 million. A tycoon lights a cigar with a $50 bill; an expert who sets fire to a dollar to illustrate a disastrous fiscal policy; A wizard tearing the corner of a ticket for a magic trick: We see examples of currency destruction all the time, but is it legal? Or is the child at Mass squeezing a penny into a memory made of copper and zinc and breaking the law? Maybe not, maybe yes, but on the other hand, one could argue that writing on paper money “distorts” money, but the emergency letter, for example, when there is no other option, always passes the key test so as not to be seen as a degradation – intent.
