this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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In case anyone doesn't know, defacing currency is a crime. Not one you're likely to get locked up for if you take simple precautions, but don't be an idiot about it. Trump's jackbooted Gestapo would love an excuse to lock you up and meet their quota.
This is commonly repeated with regards to messages written/stamped on money, but to my knowledge nobody has ever been convicted of this unless the defacement was specifically to make it seem like a higher denomination, ex: changing a 1 into a 10.
Unless you carry the stamp around with you or admit to it they’re not going to have any proof you did it. If you want to go full zero evidence out of paranoia, you can make stamps out of potatoes.
Well yeah but we've been living under regimes that had at least one foot in reality and reason. I don't wanna stop anyone protesting, just remind them to be careful.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 333, U.S. law prohibits mutilating, cutting, defacing, disfiguring, or perforating banknotes (Federal Reserve notes, etc.) with intent to render them unfit to be reissued.
Separately, 18 U.S.C. § 331 addresses defacement or alteration of coins (rather than paper notes). That law criminalizes fraudulent alteration, mutilation, or falsification of coins.
It sounds like a legal grey area. Still good advice to be careful and make sure you’re not breaking the law.