The guys over at Occupy George can breathe a sigh of relief.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, their bill-stamping operation is not an arrestable offense, said Darlene Anderson, spokeswoman for the bureau.
“What’s actually worth taking someone to court for?” Anderson asked the Daily Dot. “You have these big counterfeiting rings that I’m sure the Secret Service investigates.”
For the last two weeks, Ivan and Andy, two 20-somethings from San Francisco, have been using custom rubber stamps to mark dollar bills with clever illustrations about the share of income growth in America and the average worker pay versus the average CEO pay.
In an interview with the Daily Dot, Ivan expressed his concern over the legal implications of the operation but was confident that they were in the clear. Anderson set the record straight: As long as the bills are not defaced to the point that they are unusable, it is not illegal.
“Defacement is anything that makes a note unfit for circulation,” Anderson said. “You (often see) people do different things to currency. It’s not a practice that we endorse because we put a lot of pride and time into the design of the nation’s currency, but it’s something that we cannot stop.”
For more information on defacing U.S. tender, Anderson asked people to read U.S. code 18, Section 475 and 333.
Photo by Occupy George.
