Is It Legal To Draw On Money

Within: Take you ever wondered "Is information technology legal to draw on money?" I know I have! Let's find out who does it, if it's legal, and if anybody really cares fifty-fifty if it isn't legal.

[VERY interesting article by my friend Richard Anthony of Money Graffiti… IS doodling on dollars truly illegal?? And, does anyone really care? ;)]

Is It Legal to Draw on Money

Since childhood, social club has instilled two truisms in me:

1. It's illegal to photograph money.
2. Information technology's illegal to write/depict on coin (i.e. deface it).

The History of My Obsession

Back in the 1980'due south, behind a retail cash register, I was unprepared for the steady stream of "marked-upwardly" bills that flowed into the till. Some folks either had not heard the same legal caveats I had or didn't share the aforementioned respect for the law (or fear of  it) that I did–because they brazenly signed their handiwork and even wrote their street addresses and/or telephone numbers. They scribbled jokes, prayers, recipes, curses, caricatures and lots more than on their bills.

These curious hieroglyphs on banknotes both fascinated and amused me. Enough to set the more eye-communicable masterpieces aside to photograph. I had the vague notion that i mean solar day I might interest a publisher in a "cocktail table volume" of such "taboo" markings on greenbacks.

For 30+ years afterwards I left retail, I pursued this quirky hobby and so accumulated thousands of images of what bank tellers telephone call "mutes"–mutilated money. At present lacking a straight source of new bills (i.e. a greenbacks register), I badgered friends, relatives, restaurants, banks, store clerks, even doctors–anyone who handled cash–to "save any money you get with writing on information technology for me." Thankfully, some did–and notwithstanding practice.

The Start of Money Graffiti

Along came the internet, and past 2022 it was clear that the WWW was here to stay. A cocktail table book no longer seemed the way to showcase my curious collection but rather, a website made much more than sense. Thus world wide web.moneygraffiti.com was built-in, with a slogan, "What's your money telling you?"

Building a website for me was like learning to tie your shoelaces for the first time at age 3. Yous picket grownups practice it; information technology looks easy. It wasn't. Shortly I was investing not only days, weeks and months to prepare images for electronic publication but equally the site grew, I had to rent professional coders to efficiently process them en masse. This ran upwards costs into thousands of dollars and man-hours (yours truly being the main human to provide both). Please note the operative word here: investing.

Once online, I inched forward with trepidation because I thought if y'all're non immune to photograph money, I could exist in serious trouble. Non just for photographing coin but money that some nefarious and seditious scofflaws out at that place had the audacity to . . . mutilate.  A double whammy. If "the powers that be" wanted to make trouble, I could be in for plenty.

Did I need proof? Even the president of the U.S. weighed in on the upshot. In 2022 I came across this troubling (to me) headline: "President Obama, Asked to Sign a Dollar Bill, Declines, Noting that it would exist a Crime." Whoa!

Ben Cohen'due south Stamp Stampede

Before I could blink, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, galloped into the headlines with an announcement so over-the-acme ballsy my eyes popped. He had but formed an activist group to oppose Citizens United, the 2022 police that lets corporations donate unlimited funds to politicians.

Incredibly, every bit a tactic to publicize his crusade, Ben'south group, chosen Stamp Stampede, was urging Americans to cerise-ink postage their currency with bold slogans similar, "Become the Money Out of Politics" and "Not to exist Used for Bribing Politicians."

Ballsier still, they sold prophylactic stamps ("at toll") to aid people in their protestation and fifty-fifty rigged upwards a truck with a "Stamp-O-Matic" auto to go from city to metropolis nationwide (it nevertheless does) to stamp people'due south currency for them. With an impish grin, Ben proclaimed that this was all "perfectly legal;" while Postage Stampede's website posted a legal opinion from their lawyer to support Ben's claim and their tweets echoed, "it's 100% legal."

. . . Concord on, fellas. Didn't you hear the president? He said it's illegal. Who should know better? He's the President of the Us for God's sake–and he's a lawyer!

Trying to Get to The Bottom of Is It Legal to Draw on Coin…

Ben's radical scheme set up off alarm bells for me. A farfetched fear, possibly, just I saw a threat to my investment. If such blatant, nose-thumbing antics brought the wrath of the Feds down upon his movement, moneygraffiti.com might be tarred with the same brush. It could stir upwardly a legal hornet's nest with painful consequences for everybody.

As a sort of pre-emptive strike, the moneygraffiti web log published an open up letter to Ben et al to express "misgivings" almost their tactics and ask if they had consulted with the appropriate federal agencies responsible for overseeing currency, i.eastward. the U.Southward. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the U.S. Section of Justice, and interestingly, the U.S. Hush-hush Service (more on them later).

Meanwhile, readers posted on our blog:

"It may be the kind of law that's on the books but virtually never enforced. . . . Has anyone been arrested for breaking it?"

Hmm. Fantabulous question. Our readers definitely wanted to know. Me also.

With no discussion from Ben and cohorts, I decided to contact the aforenamed federal agencies myself. This turned into a circular-robin of emails and phone calls, with one bureau passing the cadet to the other. Nobody would give an official quote for publication. Requests for interviews were ignored.

Subsequently months of repeated contacts, the just response ever received was a one-liner, from the U.S. Section of Justice in Washington, D.C.:

"In the past x years, U.S. Attorneys' offices accept filed four cases involving five defendants in District Court and two defendants in Magistrate Courtroom where 18 USC 333 was charged."

It was a token reply that raised more questions than information technology gave answers. Who and where were the offenders? What were the violations? What if any penalties were imposed? My readers still are keen to know. As am I.

And to reduce my frustration to its simplest terms, I continued to wonder: could President Obama legally have signed that dollar bill? Does POTUS know his law?

I began to tweet about it, to discuss it with anyone who'd listen but feedback was tepid. General attitude? Big yawn.

So what if information technology'south breaking the police? Who cares? The government doesn't even care plenty to enforce the law!

A Loophole

Evidently Ben and his lawyers call up that they've found a legal loophole. The law says that y'all cannot deface a banknote if your intent is to render it unfit for circulation. Our intent, they say, is to have the bills circulate as much as possible so conspicuously we're legal.

Meanwhile, as they enter their 2nd year, Ben and company boast that in 2022 "The Stampede is tens of thousands of Americans legally stamping messages on our Nation'south currency to #GetMoneyOut of Politics." As the movement mushrooms and woos Americans to "Beautify Your Bucks," no doubt about it, Ben is bucking the system big fourth dimension. But we inquire, where do you lot draw the line?

Does Anyone Care?

Recently I bemoaned all this to J. Coin (aka J$), one of the nation'south top financial bloggers. [*Tips lid*]  He asked 3 questions that forced me to practice some serious soul-searching and ultimately inspired me to write this piece. Specifically, he wanted to know:

"What is the point in knowing whether graffiti on coin is legal or not?"

"What would it change in your earth if it was vs if it wasn't?"

"And maybe it'southward better not to know?"

What is the Bespeak to Knowing the Reply to "Is It Legal to Describe on Money?"

OK, for the record: The main point of knowing the answer to is it legal to draw on coin is to better empathize what nosotros are or are non permitted to do with our currency. Bottom line, I want to be a law-abiding denizen. If it is legal, I'd similar to do more of it myself, and if it is illegal, I desire to be able to say to people, hey, you lot're breaking the constabulary. With no ambiguity, no grey area, no arguments.

What would modify in my world if it were legal? Easy. Offset, it would open a whole new vista of promotional opportunities for moneygraffiti.com. If we and then chose, we could banner bills with catch-phrases, slogans and a URL merely every bit StampStampede.org now does. We could marking upward every final dollar we put into circulation, give out rubber stamps to our friends and encourage them to do likewise.

Further, if it were legal nosotros could advise clients seeking greater exposure for their ain brands to design messages for their dollars, as no doubt would every other promoter of annihilation and everything across this great land. Surely information technology would be a field mean solar day for Madison Avenue. Soon enough we couldn't choice upwardly a buck without somebody's "legal" imprint on it. And why non? Why should ane organization and but one have exclusive rights to this vast and untapped communications medium?

If establish not legal, I'd rag and nag Stamp Stampede to stop and desist and become back to the drawing lath to observe equally dramatic (simply legal) means to tout their cause.

To be honest, the extreme scenarios described higher up lead me to intuit that mutilating money on a massive scale could never be legal, but who am I to say?

I'll continue to entreat our nation'southward lawmakers to analyze the law they accept laid downwards . . . is it legal to draw on money or is it not legal to put graffiti on coin?

J. Money may have the near pragmatic view of all: Maybe it's amend not to know. One thing I know for sure: non knowing–or caring–is definitely a lot less piece of work.

Is it legal to draw on money? What do you recall?

Richard Anthony
Webmaster, moneygraffiti.com | Twitter, @moneygraffiti

———————
EDITOR'Due south NOTE: While I don't really intendance to know as much equally my dear friend above, I will admit I've been curious most this for many a years too. Not that information technology would probably change all the doodles or artwork or even business cards I similar to make out of them (encounter below), but it would be prissy to know the level of risk you're taking on ;) Then perchance this article will go us closer to getting some answers? Anyone know anyone loftier up that tin can resolve this once and for all for united states of america?

[Dollar bills up top courtesy of Richard Anthony. Aplaca yawning past Rob Faulkner]

Jay loves talking about money, collecting coins, blasting hip-hop, and hanging out with his three beautiful boys. You can check out all of his online projects at jmoney.biz. Thanks for reading the web log!

Source: https://www.budgetsaresexy.com/is-it-or-is-it-not-illegal-to-draw-on-dollars/

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