(Il)legal by Gadget
July 27th, 2006 11:25 PMMost of us know that defacement of US Currency is illegal. My challenge was to find a way to deface US currency through legal means.
My first thought was to write a letter to the Secret Service to get permission to deface currency, but then I thought it might be a bad idea to get my name and address on the Secret Service mailing list.
Instead, I decided to improve some bills with UV ink so that the bills look untouched to the naked eye, but are "enhanced" under black light.
At first, I was going to use $2 bills, since those are my favorite, but $2 bills don't get much circulation. I wanted something that was going to change hands and be out in circulation for a while. I referred to the average note lifespan chart on the treasury website and despite having to delay my mortgage payment to complete this task, I settled on $100 bills.
$ 1 .............. 22 months
$ 5 ................ 24 months
$ 10................ 18 months
$ 20 ............... 25 months
$ 50 ............... 55 months
$100 .............. 60 months
In addition, I remembered that sometimes merchants and banks actually use blacklights to verify that bills aren't counterfeit. Thus, a large denomination would probably get "scanned" the most. I can just imagine the look on the person's face when they discover my "changes" under blacklight.
Below are the results of my little endeavor as seen under "black" UV light. Enjoy!
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everyoneshouldsee8 comment(s)
While the art is cool I am not sure that this really fulfills the task requirements of doing something through a legal channel. I don't see where the legal channel comes into play with this one.
I've had quite a few arguments with myself about the "legal channel" portion of this task submission. Here's my reasoning.
If you accept the common belief that defacing US currency is illegal, then my defacement of US currency was, in fact, illegal. On the other hand, a legal channel for defacing US currency is to do it in such a way that the bills are not rendered unusable. Given that the defacement is not readily visible to the naked eye and that I was able to spend the bills, I think it's safe to say that they have not been rendered unusable. As a result, one could conclude that the act of defacement was illegal yet it was performed through a legal channel. The problem is, if I go with this argument, then I start to question whether this defacement is really illegal at all. That's a slippery slope as I start to question if anything can be both illegal and legal at the same time.
My impression is that this task is really about finding creative ways to ride, and sometimes cross, the fine line between what's legal and what isn't. I feel that I accomplished that completely. None-the-less, I value your criticism, waterdragon, so keep it coming if you still disagree.
well, lets give him points. he did spend a thousand dollars on it
If you accept the common belief that defacing US currency is illegal, then my defacement of US currency was, in fact, illegal.
Uh, actually, I don't think it's just a common belief people need to somehow "come to accept" I think something a tad more explicit is mentioned in Title 18 of the US Code. So, yeah, I think this is hardly some kind of "technicality," you've actually done something (il)legal. Nicely done.
hate to point this out, but its actually no longer illegal to deface us currency. it was many years ago, but people did it so often they eventually just changed the law. =P no offense to your task though, respect there, that was REALLY creative, and prettiful. =^^=
http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/18/I/17/333
Just don't ask me to burn them.