I received a $10 bill today. On the back where it says “IN GOD WE TRUST”, under it, someone has written “NOT OBAMA”. What a brilliant idea.
Would writing “END THE FED” on our Federal Reserve notes send a message?
Is this considered illegal?
Can they prove that you are the one who has defaced the note? And if you hold the note but are not the one who has defaced it are you still liable? And do you really care?
It’s not illegal if you don’t get caught. I LOVE that attitude.
wow i just did that today. i got my paycheck and just got the idea to write “abolish the federal reserve” on the bottom of every bill.
sure to spread the message.
If you are at all afraid of the possible consequences, then it may be safer to spread the bills that have “END THE FED” or “abolish the federal reserve” on them via vending machines.
However, if you write those messages on bills in moderation, then I do not believe that you have any thing to worry about. Conversely, if you write “END THE FED” in huge letters on 20 bills and then spend them all at the same place, then that may appear somewhat suspect and the excuse that “they were like that when I got them” would be implausible.
I believe that that idea has a lot of potential. I believe that if we initiate it, then it has the potential to “go viral” and become a very common occurence to find bills that say “END THE FED”.
I practise defacement, have been for a few years now.
Some vendors refuse to take defaced notes.
I encourage it too. I write things like.. Monetary imperialism is a bust. Backed by nothing. On ten dollar bills I rip Hamilton. On fives I rip Lincoln. Etc.
I even hope I do have to go to court for it.
Paper money is filthy stuff. If the monopolists printed it on plastic, it would somewhat discourage my vandalism.
That’s awesome.
Using your google answers as my resource (and assuming its accuracy), “… with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued …” seems to indicate that “intent” is the criteria for judging whether it is illegal or not.
If your intent is NOT to render it unfit to be reissued, then I would say it is legal. Very gray, you will be found guilty if they want to find you guilty.
I would suggest that you use a rubber stamp rather than writing by hand. Also that the “defacing” be only large enough to get your message across, not a total defacement of the bill. You may want to try to figure out a way to “age” the defacing so that it doesn’t look like it was done yesterday. 
I am guessing you would have some trouble passing them at times. I have had trouble with discolored money from time to time.
Greg
In Australia we use money made out of plastic, so it’s hard to write on 
But this is a good idea. I will use a permanent marker to write “www.mises.org” on my notes.
Hmm, there may be money worth investing in creating the appropiate rubber stamp for this.
LOL one google search!
sometimes I hate how efficent the market can be.
Just as a matter of interest. How long do monetary bills circulate and through how many hands go they on average?
Instead of handwriting one also can print on them. The question is how visible should these “changes” on the notes be.
If you are the only one that has defaced note, having twenty of them can be a problem. But just imagine that this becomes a general trend[;)].
I think the idea is awesome. Poison their water. The more notes they print the more they have to either re-print or suffer the consequences of “deflation” (where their money is destroyed by the market) or else our message continues to circulate in the economy. That or Gresham’s law takes over and eventually only defaced “End the Fed” notes circulate due to fear of unacceptance of them and preference to hold new un-defaced notes (considered more value). The Legal tender laws of price fixing defaced notes to un-defaced notes would take the clean notes out of circulation. The Progressive Liberals or ignorant would have to eventually stop to realize what’s going on in this country.
I’m sure if the idea were to spread we would have zero worries of news of this ever hitting the mainstream media. Could you imagine world news reporting that Americans are beginning to reject their own central bank? This would never happen. This would totally undermine Timmy Geithner and his world trips to con the world into thinking the USD is a sound money.
I guess if no one accepts the bills you can still use them in change machines or vending machines.
I want a stamp the exact size of an entire dollar bill that says,
“NOT GOLD”
If one uses a massprinting device the print-on should be worked harmoniously into the note. The print-on will not be noticed when doing business, just if someone takes a closer look. This will also increase cognitive dissonance.