this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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Just so everyone's aware, it's super duper illegal to deface currency.
So like, it would be against the law to use a sharpie to add a Hitler mustache to Trump's face on said dollar bill; or add an arm extended in a Nazi salute; or add swastikas over 'god' where it says "In god we trust"; to then bring it to a bank and report that you received defaced currency and would like to exchange it for new bills, only to do it all again.
So... y'know, probably don't do those things.
This is super duper protected political speech. So, no, it's not illegal.
It's also illegal for a living person to be featured in our currency.
"ThE rUlEs SaY a DoG cAnT pLaY bAsKeTbAlL!1!!"
18th consecutive golden retriever dunk
It's more a legally gray area in the US that as far as I can find from a quick search has never been settled in court. It likely isn't worth the time for police to go after either even if it was more explicitly illegal.
That might change if there's a sudden surge in people drawing on $100 bills, but who uses $100s that often anyway? Most ATMs I used only dispense $20s. It often isn't worth the trip to the bank, and the US is unfortunately mostly cashless now.
But to be clear: fuck this fascist bullshit and resist in whatever ways you can
https://www.stampstampede.org/faq/yes-its-legal/
There's an argument we shouldn't even be issuing $100 bills in the first place. Counterfeiters have to spend money to copy money. A $1 or $5 bill isn't worth the cost. A $50 is getting there, but if you put extra anti-counterfeiting measures around it, then it's pushed out of reach again.
Once you reach a $100 bill, though, it's hard to have enough anti-counterfeiting measures while also being cheap enough to produce by the actual US Mint. Drop it entirely, and the problem goes away.
Sorry, I'm gonna be that person... The US Mint makes coins, not the paper money. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is responsible for printing, among other things, the paper money.
There was a very good reason for it back when physical money was more necessary. Now, there's essentially no purpose except crime. Almost all purchases are payed cashless. If you really want to use cash, almost no transactions are prohibitive just using $20s or $50s. Maybe buying a car or house would be tough, and I'm sure someone does that with cash, but that'd just be the cost of choosing to use cash.
Look if you hate hip-hop music videos… 😉
Ngl I'd withdraw all my money in hundreds. Draw on them. Then return them to the bank.
It's not illegal as long as you're not trying to get it out of circulation, advertise, or pass off one denomination as another. So deface away.
(note: I am not a lawyer, do not believe some random person on the internet)
At this rate he might do it himself.
Sidenote: I spent a couple of years working in Nigeria. Almost all bank notes there had some scribble on it, as it frequently doubled as note paper. When you don't have Post-its, cash will do, I guess.
I used to get offended by defaced & graffitied currency, but then an older family friend pointed out that these people print it off like crazy. At our expense. And tax-rape the ever-loving fuck out of us, for everything. And proceed to waste OUR money they stole on random bullshit and ruin our lives. So maybe I shouldn't take currency so seriously.
I still don't do it, but I thought he made some really good points.
Um, no. It's not.
18 U.S. Code § 333 - Mutilation of national bank obligations
I guess there's some wiggle room with regards to intent and whether it could be argued that adding Nazi iconography (moreso than trump's face as-is) to bills renders them unfit to be kept in circulation.
If my personal freedom was on the line here, I'm sticking with "idk it was like that when I got it - can I get a new one please?" vs "ooh come on, it's fiiine, you can still spend this!" but interpreting the law isn't my specialty, so grain of salt.
We're a long way from "super duper illegal" now aren't we? Intent is everything. If you're not attempting fraud nobody will care.
Then do the thing? Is super duper illegal different from regular illegal? Why are we bashing heads over the use of 'super duper' in NotTheOnion in the first place?
You ever see one of those souvenir penny stamp machines? It's simply not illegal depending on your intent. People often think "intent" is just some weird "technicality" but it's part of the law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elongated_coin
Why are you wrapping random words with quotation marks? It reads like it's being spoken aloud by Dr. Evil. Anyway, gonna go with the wording of the law itself over a wiki article about it:
18 U.S. Code § 331 - Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins
This one's specific to coins. Anecdotally I was always told they were legal because pennies are explicitly an exception to that law. So, it's either that or it's in j-walking territory where it may be illegal, but no one gives a shit enough to enforce it.
...also coins aren't really relevant here anyway - the conversation is about defacing paper bills if they decide to soil them with Trump's traitorous image.
Which is not at all illegal by any standard you've provided yet.
Except by the wording of the specific law in question. o_O
I'm not seeing the disconnect here. Nor the need for the disconnect in the first place: the first post I made here was to encourage people to deface prints of Trump. If you disagree that there's a legal barrier to doing so, then cool - all the more reason to deface our traitor in chief.
Are you intending to render the bill unfit to be reissued?
YES. My suggestion was to mark Trump as the Nazi he is - currency with Nazi iconography on it is not fit to be reissued. It's a petty protest, but the point is to make the proposed new bills inconvenient and convey a clear message until they're inevitably pulled.