At 2/20/09 01:48 PM, Zerok wrote:
At 2/20/09 01:46 PM, Mr-Coffee wrote:
I'll have you know that's a federal offense.
Only if it's made unfit for circulation.
Quoted from BEP.Treas: "Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both."
Obviously to what extent a bill must be "defaced" in order to be deemed "unfit for circulation" is subject to different interpretation, but suffice to say that any markings on a bill which can inhibit one from processing its identification code can fall under that category. Thusly, defacement need not be limited to extensive damage.
FFT