What makes it illegal to copy money? I ask this because I bought a pack of play money for my neices and nephews and it consisted on PHOTOCOPIED bills off all denominations up to 100. Granted the bills were in black and white and had been enlarged about 50%, but they were definatly photocopies with “this note is legal tender for all debts public and private” and everything.
Whats legal and whats illegal?
If it’s obviosly not real (i.e. 1.5x size) it’s legal.
I guess intent is a major component. If you try to pass a counterfeit bill as the real thing you’ll get into trouble.
something that is obviously not the real thing (as is your case) I do not think could be prosecuted.
It’s all about intent. If you tried to pass those, you’d either get laughed at and told to leave or the police would be called, at which point the cops would laugh at you. On the off-chance you were actually arrested and charged, yes, it would be counterfeiting.
Federal counterfeiting laws are very strict. You can’t even take a photograph of one side of a dollar bill unles the resulting photo is either 50% larger or 50% smaller than a real bill. I know this from watching a program about counterfeiters, and they often use photographic techniques (rather than the ultra expensive plate engraving of the US mint). In this program a printer expressly stated that if he didn’t enlarge a $50 dollar bill he was photographing by at least 50% then he could be arrested and charged with counterfeiting even though he was just doing it as an example for a TV program with no criminal intent whatsoever.
Odd timing; I just heard a story tonight on public radio about an artist named Boggs. (I think it was on “To the Best of Our Knowledge”) He makes what are known as “Boggs’ Bills”, basically artwork that looks like money. He puts in as much detail as possible, but they are obviously not currency. At least in one sense …
The Secret Service recently confiscated a lot of his artwork, pending a case of counterfeiting against him. The reason is that his art involves transactions, not just producing pictures. What he does is produce the bills (one-sided, usually), and, usually at a restaurant, offers the artwork as payment for his meal. At whatever face value is on it. He explains the whole thing (i.e. it’s his work as an artist) and does indeed offer to pay with more widely accepted means. He says 9 times out of 10 people take the other means.
What happens after that is just as interesting; his work is well-known enough that he saves the change and the receipt. After waiting a day or two, he offers these to the collectors, who will pay as much as a thousand dollars for this (he never ‘sells’ his work in any other way). When these collectors track down the buyer at the restaurant, they can try to buy the actual bill; complete sets (bill, change, receipt) are said to sell in the low five figures.
(Once he paid a 3-dollar tab with $1000 Boggs’ bill; in the same transaction he had offered to pay with a 100 Boggs' bill.)
The story he told of how he got started is that he was sketching on a napkin at a coffee shop when the waitress told him it was the most beautiful dollar bill she'd ever seen. He offered to give her the napkin for his .90 coffee. She insisted on giving him 10 cents change.
panama jack
“Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone”
Proverbs 23:5
Boggs isn’t counterfieting, he’s bartering. As long as both parties know the bills aren’t legal tender, it can’t be counterfieting.
So it sounds like the negative won’t be a problem, just the size of the print. Is the same true with digital data? Is it OK to post a JPEG file of a $100 bill on my web page? (Not that I want to, of course)