Pres. Obama pardons man convicted of "mutilation of coins"

Ronald Lee Foster is about to get his fifteen minutes of fame.

President Obama granted pardons to several people today,
including Ronald Lee Foster of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania,
who was sentenced in 1963 to one year of probation and
received a $20 fine for the mutilation of coins.

I looked but can not find out anything about what he did
to coins.

I wonder if he is the first person to produce the infamous
"Lincoln looks at Kennedy" pennies?

There was a guy back in the 1960's who used a machine to
shave pennies to the size of dimes and passed them in
vending machines.

Now what is "mutilation of coins" and what did this guy do?

 

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The CNN Article now has details of the crime:

For 42 years, Ronald Foster didn't know he had a felony
conviction for cutting up pennies.

In 1963, he was earning $82 a month as a Marine at
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, when he says he and 16
others hatched a scheme to cut pennies into dimes so they
could use them in vending machines.

But the Secret Service caught them. They were marched
into a courtroom on base, where his commanding officer
entered a plea on their behalf to mutilation of coins, he says.

Then, in 2005, he applied for a gun permit and found out
for the first time he had a felony conviction. He applied for
a presidential pardon, which was officially granted Friday,
in the first round of pardons during Obama's administration.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/03/obama.pardons/index.html?hpt=T2

 

Man, I wonder if all the Native American Jewelry makers are felons ? Or is the Rez considered punishment enough ?

Somehow the crime doesn't seem to fit "mutilization of money" as much as "fraud by deception" might ? I mean destroying a cent is bad, but stealing 9 cents by spending it is a lot worse.

At least the pardon was used for what it should be used for. To clear the name of people who deserve it instead of a thief who stole billions from retirement accounts. IMHO
gary

 

How old were these guys back then? How many stupid things did you do as a teen? Well, I for one never aroused the attention of the Secret Service. LOL

 

Interesting, because presidential pardons are very hard to come by. Five years to get it.. that's not too bad. I really believed they were next to impossible. I wonder how much in legal fees it cost him to pursue the pardon!

 

Must o' wanted that gun permit pretty bad....

 

Maybe his brother-in-law was a lawyer ?

 

I think it was the "fraudulent altering" that did it. The laws may have been different back then, but currently mutilating coins is not the illegal part. This is from the U.S. Treasury:

 

not that you know anyway ...

 

Past tense as a kid you mean...I know they've got their eye on you now.

 

Nah, too many years gone by.......LOL

They've got other more tempting fish to fry.

 

One would certainly hope so, but some stories should never be told.

 

I'm glad because I love seeing those hobo nickels.

 

I'll see if i can get some scans in, but I found a few pennies that were mixed in with dimes. Some were just in rough shape, but 2 were exactly the size of a dime.

1) is from the 1990's and cuts with a machine (likely) the edge is cut to be like a blade, or soemthing. and its very well worn

2) is from 1968 and has been filed or belt sanded down so the outer dimension is that of a dime. the back was also whacked with some kind of tool, but its unclear if that was accidental or intentional.

Not sure how long after 1963 this guy and the others like him had been doing it, or how long it took others to do the same thing. But these two went through a coin counting machine in a bank as a dime. Before you think too far into this - based on the ratio I've seen out of 1000 dimes, 2 will be pennies. on the flip side those machines also count dimes as pennies about 1 or 2 out of 5000.

 

In 1974, I watched a fellow high school student as he rubbed a dime on the sidewalk outside the gym, where there was a coke machine. His stated goal was to make it small enough to pass as a dime in the machine. I thought "What a way to make nine cents", but said nothing.

Years before, in England, I watched some friends of my cousins filing sharp edges on the large pennies that were current at the time. Their stated goal was to make them into weapons - to be whipped into the other side's fan bleachers during a pending soccer match. I thought "What a waste of money", but said nothing.

 

British India 1917 1 Anna filed to pass as 1/4 Rupee



I acquired this coin sometime in the 1960's from a California dealer's
foreign coin box.

I examined it later and saw that it was a 1917 British India 1 Anna coin filed
down to the size of a 1/4 Rupee coin.

The guy even inserted edge reeding.

As there were 16 annas to the rupee, this alteration quadrupled the value.
The anna was then worth around 3¢ so the guy made a 9¢ profit.

 

My nephew was too lazy to file a coin down, so he put Mexican Pesos in coin wrappers with a Quarter on each end and cashed them in at a bank. Back then, you put your name and address on each wrapper. Cops were waiting for him before he made it home. lol Not the smartest kid in the family.

 

I've heard of some banks running a magnet over the rolled coin to see if you filled it with canandian coins. Which is funny to think about - because pretty soon they might be worth more...

 

I hope this is not too political, but it's the first move from this President I can agree with. The status as Felon for life for this petty larceny is too great.

 

I thought that perhaps they were using them in the vending machines on the base. The vendor files a complaint the NCIS would take over then hand the case to Treasury department after they caught the guys ? Then with the case closed, they gave it back to the Base commander to mete out appropriate punishment. But the felony would have gone on record. I don't think this guy was Court Martialed, otherwise he would have been more aware of his status. It was probably glossed over with an article 15, the $20 fine and he thought it was a done deal ?

I saw some charges handled that way when I was in Nam. Some crimes don't seem like that big of a deal even though by letter of law they are. It was a felony to steal C rations and break open the meal kits for the cigarettes for example, but I believe it might have been done. IMHO