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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;desertgem, post: 2484022, member: 15199&quot;]If you trust the mint website:</p><p><br /></p><p>18 U.S.C. §331:</p><p>Whoever <span style="color: #ff0000">fraudulently</span> alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States; or whoever <span style="color: #ff0000">fraudulently</span> possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled or lightened - shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. (Emphasis added.)</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="3"><b>&quot;Is it illegal to damage or deface coins?</b></font></p><p>Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who “fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.” <span style="color: #ff00ff">This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is.</span> As a matter of policy,<span style="color: #0000ff"> the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, </span>plating or altering U.S. coinage:<span style="color: #0000ff"> however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent. &quot;&nbsp; &nbsp; </span></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Coins/Pages/edu_faq_coins_portraits.aspx" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Coins/Pages/edu_faq_coins_portraits.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Coins/Pages/edu_faq_coins_portraits.aspx</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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