Isn’t illegal to mark up bills? I go to a fast food restaurant regularly whenever I break out a $20 they mark it with a black marker and put it in the till. I am sure they are tracking for employee theft/their own reasons but is that practice strictly speaking legal?
(I get that this it is like the mattress tag removal scofflaw and a bit dorky of me to notice) but technically is it OK to put a 3 inch black magic marker line on the currency in my wallet?
I always thought the marker they use on bills was one of those so-called counterfeit detector pens. As I understand it, these pens make a mark on high-acid paper, but not on the 100% rag paper used for U.S. currency. Of course, all a counterfeiter has to do to thwart the pen is to use 100% rag paper, so the pens are actually useless.
As far as the legality of marking on bills, I don’t know the answer, but, like you said, I don’t think anybody really cares.
It’s illegal to deface money with the intention of making it unfit for circulation. As long as it still looks like a $20 and would be accepted as a twenty it’s okak. Now if the person were to sit there and color in the whole bill until it was totally blacked out, that would be a different story.
From The U.S. Department of the Treasury
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, 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, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service. Their address is: United States Secret Service, 1800 G Street, N. W., Washington, DC 20223
Anyways… So in general, writing on the bill is okay, but if you write on it to the point that it can’t be used anymore, then it becomes an issue. (Technically anyways… But I wouldn’t worry about any secret service people banging on your door because you were painting all your money black).