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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 20039, member: 57463&quot;]It is indeed a Federal crime to counterfeit any money medium: US Code Title 18 Chapter 25 secs 472, 473, 475, and 491.&nbsp; You can be charged separately with additional crimes involving the tools and other media of counterfeiting under 18 USC 25: 474, 476, 477. Note also that 18 USC 25: 473 makes it illegal to &quot;deal&quot; in counterfeits, which includes transfering them with the intent of their being used as genuine.&nbsp; So, basically, there are three Federal crimes: counterfeiting, spending counterfeit money, and possessing the tools to do the work.&nbsp; (These are also the range of laws violated by sellers of fake Seated Dollars in electronic auctions, another topic entirely.)</p><p><br /></p><p>The Federal government recognizes community currency as taxable money.&nbsp; Income in community currency must be reported as such.</p><p><br /></p><p>Technically, like any designer of currency, I worked with the artists to incorporate active and passive security features.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>One of the inherent protections is the fact that these money media (Toronto Dollars, Ithaca Time Dollars, Madison Money, etc.), tend to circulate in only a few dozen shops at most.&nbsp; As an ADJUNCT medium -- and one not good outside of town -- community currency tends to be intertwined with the people who use it.</p><p><br /></p><p>All of that being as it may, the designers started by looking at foreign banknotes I gave them, especially the cool ones from small countries.&nbsp; I lent them <i>The Art of Money</i> and other references. It took them about three months and five or six meetings to hammer out the details.&nbsp; Just stippling the Petoskey Stone border took one artist about 100 hours.</p><p>Then there were the ideological arguments among the currency board members (not the artists) over whether cherries are an evil monoculture.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was an experience, I assure you![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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