Defacing Money

I just saw the fantastic Celtic Warrior hobo nickel and had to show my wife. She brought up that she had been taught in school that it was illegal to deface money, and I recall that I've heard that many times my self. Is it, or was it illegal to "deface" money? Or is just an oft repeated urban myth? Thanks, JonySky

 

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Its true---but you have to try to pass it off as the real thing before it is illegal...at least that is how I read the law.

So I can take a $1 bill and cut it in pieces but as long as I make sure is gone and nobody will get it then I'm fine....I like to shoot dimes...as long as I don't pass them off as a real thing then I'm fine also.

Speedy

 

It is illegal if there is intent to defraud. There is a huge difference between using money for art and trying to pass altered coins or cash for monetary gain. The key is in your intent!

 

You're a better shot than I am !

 

i think most of what we,ve heard about defacing money comes from the period when people were taking 5 cent pieces and plating them with gold and passing them off as gold coins, since the design and size was close to the gold coin... i think it was in the late 1800,s, but i,m not sure on the date....if you get to thinking, people have been cutting silhouettes out on mercury dimes for over 50 years and selling them in jewelry stores..today people change dates, mint marks to add value to coins which is illegal if a person is doing it to raise it,s value...as the other forum members have said it could be illegal if a person had fraud in mind....

 

I have a buddy that is better than I am...he flips dimes in the air and shots them with a rifle...that I can not do
But still...if anyone wants to try and take my coins---ha....I think something will happen

Speedy

 

Next time your in a museum or even some malls, look for those penny stretching machines that stamp some image into them. Every one I've seen has the exact law posted on them that shows what they are doing is legal.

 

looked in search engine and found that the nickel they plated and passed off as a $5 gold coin was a 1883 nickel, which was then called a racketeer nickel after it was plated.. [ps] i brought a seated half last year on ebay to carve a subject on , i started carving it and it turned out to be silver plated half, the silver layer come off like a wrapper on a stick of gum...i think the inside was lead...since then i found out about the fake trade dollars, morgan dollars etc..

 

To mark or not to mark?

Sort of on this same subject...What do you think of people who mark coins with finger nail polish or markers so that they can determine if they had searched them already? I've often seen coins like this in my searches and wondered how many people on CT do this.

 

on this forum or the other coin forum i read, there is a collector who takes no date coins and stamps them with a date, the stamp doesn,t look anything like the real thing and they don,t do it with fraud in mind, it,s just a hobby they enjoy..

 

That explains a few coins lincoln's I've run across. My only guess is that folks doing this are only looking to make a quick buck and don't care much about numismatics.

Hmmmmm.......I wonder how many coins you can mark in a row with nail polish before you can't see or think straight anymore.

 

good info

Hey this is some really good info. And it makes 'cents', now did anyone else ever hear that if you put a penny on the RR tracks, it would derail the train?

 

We used to do that as kids, and it never derailed anything. It did make some nice flat discs. It is against the law, though, to put anything on the tracks.

 

Yes I have and I still believe it. Well at least I do if you use a couple of well placed rolls instead of one penny.

When I was a kid we tried pennies, dimes, nickles, and quarters. Usually the train would lift and trow the coins so we never found some of them. Of the ones we did find the dime was the coolest since it ended up as the flatest.

My mom banned me from doing this though. Apparently some kid in the south wasn't smart enough to take cover as the train passed and the coin came zipping of the wheel and got him in the eye.

 

Ahhhh....you never learned the secret. A tiny piece of chewing gum will hold a coin to a track most of the time. Too big a piece though and it all becomes one with the train wheel for awhile

 

I have always liked how people on this forum are willing to share their "secrets"!!!!

Speedy

 

Hey..don't forget plumbers putty... it is better than gum...take a bit of super glue a very very small droplet and put to different coins together on the tracks and you get a major error as well... hahahahah

RickieB

 

Lately I have continued to run across several dozen 1971 Kennedy halves where the reverses are marked with red paint/polish. What do I think of it? Hmmm..... It's hard to say. I've actually thought about marking some myself, but I've never done it. I guess I'd be a little ticked if the coins were in MS condition, but all of them have seen ample circulation.

I don't think I'm getting the same halves over and over because I continue to find just enough silver to keep my interest level elevated- thus my decision to refrain from marking them.

 

So, did you return the coin? I assume that this was an eBay transaction, not something you bought at an ANA convention?

I understand that carving has made something of a splash these last five years, or so. The Hobo Nickel collectors revived it and now it has spread. Is that right? Are you in the Hobo Nickel club?

 

One night when I was about 15, Mom told me about two kids that were struck by lightening the morning after a date.

My wife always warned our daughter about the killer swans that drag swimmers under or beat people to death with their wings.

When we read about some bizarre tragedy like a guy getting killed by a falling bus my wife always says that he should have listened to his mother.

If not for your mother, you might be blind today , at least in one eye.