...and of course, the BSers want to portray that as "weird"...
I think a great viral campaign could be started with a "III" stamp. Maybe I'll shoot Vanderboegh an email...
[Via HZ]
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Money Talks...
...and of course, the BSers want to portray that as "weird"...
I think a great viral campaign could be started with a "III" stamp. Maybe I'll shoot Vanderboegh an email...
[Via HZ]
Just might result in 'defacing currency' charge for whoever passes it, but what the heck, prove I've purchased, possessed or used that stamper. Hmmm, widespread distribution could incentivize feds to hasten the cashless system...screw it let's do it.
ReplyDeleteThat would actually make it a more effective lesson--an act of civil disobedience done with impunity. One could also argue First Amendment political protections, or maybe it's art, or a sociological experiment or...nah, it's civil disobedience against tyranny, using Federal Reserve fiat scrip as the medium.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right, the sales pitch for the stamps would probably have to have several caveats...
I've seen this done with a cartoon bubble from Washington's mouth saying "I grew hemp."
ReplyDeleteMost office-supply stores should carry a rubber stamp kit with replaceable characters, so you can create your own.
ReplyDeleteI love it!
ReplyDeleteIdeas:
Per Mike's gambit piece, "EAT ME!, III"
"CASH FOR A CLUNKER"
"THIS CASH IS A CLUNKER"
"CAN BE EXCHANGED FOR GM STOCK"
Eric,
III
Anon,
ReplyDelete"Defacing" paper money with writing or a stamp is only a crime if done in a manner implying fraud, such as, say, altering a five spot to say fifty.
If somebody wants to have some "WE WILL NOT DISARM" stamps made, I will buy one. If not I will have one made. "NO MORE FREE WACOS" would be another good one. Or how about, "WHO IS DAVID CODREA?"
Hmmm... word verification is "credo". Me likey.
In the 1980's I did quite a bit of research on the history of "money" in the U.S. One of the cases I read involved a guy charged with a federal crime for stamping Federal Reserve notes with information about the Federal Reserve. Paraphrased from memory, the judge said: "The statute requires an intent to make the note unfit to circulate. The defendant obviously intended for these notes to circulate. Not Guilty."
ReplyDeleteUS Code sections:
Title 18 § 333. Mutilation of national bank obligations
Whoever fraudulently 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 fraudulently 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.
Title 18 § 331. Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins
Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
My reading of these is that a person is legally in the clear to use such a stamp. The first requires fraud as an element and the second requires intent to make "unfit to be reissued"; neither applies in this application. That doesn't mean that there will not be attempts to intimidate the stamp wielder.