driven my insatiable desire for (1) Shawn Green memorabilia (2) Money, I stumbled onto this
which seems illegal.
the seller says this: “This is a real mint one dollar bill with the picture of Shawn Green placed over George Washington’s face. “Shawn Green” is written on the name plate. This is legal and negotiable tender, this process has been permitted by the Treasury Department since 1967!”
It has?!?!
Isn’t tampering with currency illegal? How is this different than altering your one dollar bills to look like 100s and telling treasury officers, as they drag you away in leg-irons, “but 100 is my favorite number, I like to have it on all my money.”
Does anyone have any insight into this? Why does the UTD allow people to tamper with currency for profit?
This makes me think (although I can’t tell from the auction listing) that it’s just a sticker with a post-it note type adhesive that doesn’t actually damage the bill and in no way changes it. The sticker would be removed before the bill was spent and there would be no way to tell that it had ever been sold as a novelty bill. When I was 10-12 I received a Christmas card with a $5 that had Santa placed over Lincoln and “Merry Christmas” in the name spot: peel off the santa, and you’ve got a regular bill.
I am not, however, positive that this is how this particular item is set up. I also couldn’t find specific information on this type of thing on the Treasury department website in a basic search.