# Stamping US Currency **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 13, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stamping-us-currency/734585 "2015-10-13T23:26:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![qualityleashdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/9f8e36/32.png) [@qualityleashdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qualityleashdog)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stamping-us-currency/734585/21 "2015-10-18T04:55:28Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Thanks for hunting that down. For some reason I couldn’t come up with a set of search words that would find it. (“strip” and “club” didn’t occur to me. :smack:) > > I’m fairly sure that the bills were still valid even with the marking. After all, the WheresGeorge bills, which are marked at least as much, are never rejected. I think it was the combination of the rare denomination and the marking that freaked people out. If he’d done it to ones, people probably wouldn’t have had a problem. > > Note the article refers to the [“Stamp Stampede”](http://www.stampstampede.org/) campaign launched that year. Doesn’t look like the SS has managed to suppress that, since the web page still offers to sell the stamps. No doubt they’ve been frowning hard at it though. Search terms didn’t help me either. I had to look at your profile and pick out anything you posted that had anything to do with money/currency. Then I found it relatively easily. The Stamp Stampede is interesting because you have quite a few prominent people and elected officials endorsing the campaign. On another note, who could really be offended by their message to separate money and politics? They do have a guide on that site about how to effectively stamp money, since the goal is to not have stamped bills removed from circulation. They promote stamping on the edges, not covering serial numbers, etc. and say that bill readers tend to focus on the middle third of the bill, so if the reader picks up a lot of soiling there, it might reject the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stamping-us-currency/734585/22 "2015-10-18T17:59:43Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > DO NOT ASK FOR CITE! > > Thank you. > > An early Civil Rights trick in a Southern town not noted for progressive politics consisted of marking every bill or currency that went through a black person’s hands. > > Being a smallish town with limited banking systems, the currency tended to stay in the same town for several months. > > Soon, about every bill in circulation in that town bore the ‘paid by a black person’ mark. > > Marking a bill for ‘a cause’ goes way back - note the vigorous prosecutions you learned of in school. > > What? You didn’t hear of any? > > Damn, I’d swear there were several… > > Progress - only one spelling error to edit! Huh, that’s interesting. Do you have a link to where I could read more about this? ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stamping-us-currency/734585/23 "2015-10-19T21:39:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I suspect it was more that he thought patrons wouldn’t want to spend the marked bills elsewhere, lest they be recognized for perverts or whatever. Sounds like simple economics to me. You want to tip a girl? All you have is a $20? Well, we can give you ten two-dollar bills, so you can give ten tips. If you want to have a really good time, next time you come, bring _two_ twenties! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stamping-us-currency/734585.md?page=1)