Ever marked up a piece of currency? Maybe you had to quickly jot down a phone number or a grocery list.
Or maybe you accidentally tore your bill, and couldn't get it back together neatly.
Are you now scared you might get arrested??
If the answer is yes, don’t panic. I’m John, director of The Two Dollar Bill Documentary, back again
with another video where I answer your questions about the $2 bill,
although this video applies to the $2 bill as well other denominations.
Remember, if you submit a question to my Community page, and I make a new video answering it, I’ll send you a crisp new $2 bill – with no writing on it.
For this video, YouTuber ConnorToby gets a $2 bill for asking, “What repercussions may one face if they were to destroy and/or vandalize a $2 bill?”
Well, destroy and vandalize are two very harsh words, so let’s start with simply marking up a bill.
I first met with Bill Gillers, a Treasury employee who worked with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for nearly twenty years
When I was at the Bureau, we were instructed to tell people that it is illegal
to deface U.S. currency.
But that’s not really the law. I got the real scoop from Ben Cohen, the Ben from Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
He’s the founder of the Stamp Stampede, a movement aimed to eliminate money from politics,
by encouraging people to stamp his messages onto paper currency, either manually,
or by inserting it into the Amend-O-Matic stamp machine.
This is my concept, then there was a guy in California who got it to actually work.
You got a good bill to put through? You got a nice $2 bill to put through here?
We're gonna use a $2 bill because people always look at $2 bills, and it will be more effective.
This is the Tower of Corrupted Power.
That's Money Mouth. He's trying to talk with money.
No, it's not illegal. If you read the actual regulations, they state that you can't cut the money,
you can't punch holes in it, you can't make it so that it's no longer obviously money or change the denomination.
and you can't advertise your business on it but what we're putting on money is free speech.
This is not defacing. This is decorating. This is beautifying.
I doubt that the FBI would sweep you up into a sting and you wouldn't be prosecuted, but
we certainly didn't encourage people to alter the appearance of U.S. currency,
and if you write on it, you are altering the appearance, obviously.
But that’s not enough to get you in any real trouble,
otherwise fans and alumni of Clemson University would get busted every year, when they stamp
orange tiger paws on $2 bills to announce their presence at road football games.
Or those who use WheresGeorge.com to track $1 AND $2 bills, who could be getting arrested nearly every day.
No, you can mark up a bill, but Ben Cohen was right.
According to Department of the Treasury’s Official Regulations,
Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill… etcetera etcetera,
with intent to render such items unfit to be reisued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
That's a pretty hefty penalty, but again the key is whether or not your intent was to
render the bill as unfit to be reissued.
Either way though, I wouldn't worry about getting caught.
What I would imagine is, with all the crime that is out there,
this is penny ante stuff. And the United States has bigger fish to fry than to come after you
for covering up George's face with the face of your dog or something like that.
Translation? Go ahead and mark up your currency if you see fit. But “destroy or vandalize” your $2 bills - or other denominations for that matter - at your own risk.
But look, I don't know why anybody would intentionally vandalize their currency anyway.
If you're having those thoughts, just send your money to me - I will take good care of it for you.
Thanks again for watching. Be sure to subscribe to my channel and/or check out
some other great $2 bill content which is being shown right next to me.