this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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A quick internet search reveals:
18 U.S. Code § 333
So personally I wouldn’t bet on this not being illegal. On the other hand, freedom of opinion might save your butt. But what do I know about US law?
It would be almost impossible to pin it on anyone.
Well but see the intent isn't to render it unfit to be reissued, the whole point is that you want it to stay in circulation so as many people as possible see the additional message.
This is legalese. The
"with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued"
probably relates only to the
"or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt"
part, and not the whole
"Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together"
You may want to consider becoming a lawyer dawg
Good point!
No. If you can't spell out "rapist" on facebook without being canceled. you sure as hell can bet your butt on a dollar note with that remark not staying in circulation. and you're supposed to know that. so if you write that on a dollar bill, i don't think it's "plausible deniability" to say "i considered this dollar bill fine for further circulation".
You wouldn't need plausible deniability because the prosecution would have to prove that your intent was to make the bill unfit for circulation. Intent is already notoriously difficult to prove in a court of law, and it would be very difficult to prove someone wanted to take a bill out of circulation by writing a message on it that they hoped would be seen by people.
Even if the result is that the bill gets taken out of circulation, the court would have to prove that you knew that would happen and wanted it to.
What are they gonna do? Take every note out of circulation?
It’s a win-win!
The MAGoos have been stamping 'Donald Trump Lives Here' on US currency for years.
They are supposed to do it on bills that show the White House, but they've also put in on $5 bills that show the Lincoln Memorial
Quick, which one shows a graveyard?
It's not my fault the staff doesn't trust you with anything valuable.
I don't think you understand the Supreme Court and Justice department in the US. It's only illegal for Democrats.
As someone else already pointed out, the "with intent to render such [...] unfit to be reissued" part is key here.
The Stamp Stampede has a good resource on this.
Essentially, the argument just boils down to the fact that you're... not making the bill unusable. As long as the denomination is still visible and not altered to another number, and it's possible to see anti-fraud measures like the green seal well enough, you're not rendering it unfit for circulation.
There is the problem of ATMs sometimes rejecting stamped bills (or accepting them but having the bank send them back to the Fed to be replaced with new, clean ones) but afaik it's rare and not too likely as long as you don't cover the denomination.
Most businesses don't reject stamped bills as they have no reason to expect additional markings would mean a bill is actually NOT real, and most people won't decide to just never spend it again because it has a stamp.
As long as you don't promote/advertise a business, or change the actual denomination of the bill, you're fine.
To be fair, there's a whole lot of difference between defacing a banknote vs. rendering it unfit for issue.
In any case, cause of how often it changes hands, and how little supervision its under, it'd be very difficult to actually identify who defaced a specific note - especially if you've git a whole bunch of people doing it to a whole bunch of notes
They would first have to prove that you were the one who did it. Good luck with that.
This isn't trying to take it out of circulation tho, so that probably wouldn't apply. They'd have to make an argument that effectively goes against the first amendment to say you can't write on currency you plan to spend.
Arguably relevant precedent:
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/430/705/
“rendering unfit” is when you glue $20 corners to a $10 to pass it off as a 20.
It almost certainly would... if you have the money to win a lawsuit on First Amendment grounds, which is far from cheap.
there so much defaced money already out there
you'd have to really make a big scene where it makes a lot of noise to even stand out
Nah, totally legal. As long as you make sure you don't draw over anything renders it unfit for reissue