User:Gstrproject

Is it a crime to destroy United States Currency and how do you prove its authenticity?
'''“Love of money is the root of all evil.” Anonymous'''

Origin
United States currency is produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP). In addition to U.S. currency, the BEP produces U.S. passports, materials for Homeland Security, and military identification cards. In order to maintain a security standard, the BEP uses advanced technology to create the notes.

Definition
Merriam – Webster Dictionary : 1 : something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment: as a : officially coined or stamped metal currency b : MONEY OF ACCOUNT c : PAPER MONEY Paper Money : 1 : money consisting of government notes and banknotes The History of Money Britannica Encyclopedia: Commodity accepted by general consent as a medium of economic exchange. It is the medium in which prices and values are expressed; it circulates from person to person and country to country, thus facilitating trade. Throughout history various commodities have been used as money, including seashells, beads, and cattle, but since the 17th century the most common forms have been metal coins, paper notes, and bookkeeping entries. In standard economic theory, money is held to have four functions: to serve as a medium of exchange universally accepted in return for goods and services; to act as a measure of value, making possible the operation of the price system and the calculation of cost, profit, and loss; to serve as a standard of deferred payments, the unit in which loans are made and future transactions are fixed; and to provide a means of storing wealth not immediately required for use. Metals, especially gold and silver, have been used for money for at least 4,000 years; standardized coins have been minted for perhaps 2,600 years. In the late 18th and early 19th century, banks began to issue notes redeemable in gold or silver, which became the principal money of industrial economies. Temporarily during World War I and permanently from the 1930s, most nations abandoned the gold standard. To most individuals today, money consists of coins, notes, and bank deposits. In terms of the economy, however, the total money supply is several times as large as the sum total of individual money holdings so defined, since most of the deposits placed in banks are loaned out, thus multiplying the money supply several times over. See also soft money.

Money in the computer Age: Functions – The economist looks on the functions of money as being primarily those of : 1. A medium of exchange 2. A unit of account 3. A store of value 4. A means of discharging credit. 5. A method of distinguishing the worth of articles and services by giving them a price. 6. A means of hoarding wealth 7. A way of accumulating value 8. A reserve of purchasing power 9. A status symbol 10. A unit of account in which costs are expressed and services are rendered. 11. A means of inducement. 12. A measure of productivity 13. A form of compensation for loss or injury.

Why is it Illegal?
•	The counterfeit detection Act of 1992, Publication 103-550 •	Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18 sec.333. Whoever mutilates the money gets imprisonment for no more than 6 months, fined more than $100.00 or both. Site:

Statute for Defacing Paper Money
-HEAD- Sec. 333. Mutilation of national bank obligations

-STATUTE- Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or   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, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

-SOURCE- (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 700; Pub. L. 103-322, title   XXXIII, Sec. 330016(1)(B), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2146.)

-MISC1- HISTORICAL AND REVISION NOTES Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Sec. 291 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch.   321, Sec. 176, 35 Stat. 1122). Words "or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System" were inserted because the paper of such banks has almost supplanted national bank currency. Reference to persons causing or procuring was omitted as   unnecessary in view of definition of "principal" in section 2 of    this title. Minor changes in phraseology were made.

AMENDMENTS 1994 - Pub. L. 103-322 substituted "fined under this title" for "fined not more than $100".

Site: http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/18C17.txt

The following link is a site where you can see the various watermarks and lines in the new bills, so you will know if you have a counterfeit bill. Interactive money site: http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney/

Types of Mutilation
-	Burning -	Burying -	Water damaged -	Shredding

Not Mutilated
-	Defaced -	Badly soiled -	Disintegrated -	Ashes -	As log as you have clearly more than half of the dollar bill you can take it to your local bank to get the full dollar back.

To see a case in which this statute takes effect follow this link: Case Site:

Fun Facts
Site: Paper currency •	Every 7-10 years Money is redesigned. -holographs and counterfeit pens •	Life span of a dollar is 21 months •	To tell if a dollar is real look for a great seal, serial #, Treasury Seal, plate serial #,   note percission #, Federal Reserve Seal, George Washington.

How to report the crime
U.S. secret service keeps up with the technology concerning the making and tracking of money. The secret service comes up with new ways of changing the security functions in money to make sure that no one can copy it unlawfully. The following link leads you to a site where you can turn in someone who is copying or defacing money illegally. Deface turn- in site: