by 
The Curious Bag
-
In theory, the penalty for defacing U.S. currency is up to 6 months in jail and a fine of whatever the court decides it would like to levy. In practice, such penalties are only used in the most egregious cases; forgery, for example.
Defacing Coins or Banknotes
In theory, anyone who defaces in any way a coin or banknote that is in legal circulation in the U.S. is subject to a 6-month sentence and an unlimited fine. This includes cutting, glueing together, disfiguring and even mutilating the bill or coin to the extent that it cannot be reissued by a bank.
Enforcement
A literal interpretation of that law would be that if you tore a bank note into two pieces, then you could be jailed and fined if they could show that you intended to do it.
Forgers
The law is very widely drawn, but the intent is to try and catch people who are trying to fool or cheat people. Changing a $1 bill into a $10 bill is defacing the currency and would be prosecuted. This is also forgery, but that is a more difficult crime to prove.
What Can I Do?
According to the law, you can't fold, mutilate or spindle money if your treatment means that the coin or note cannot be reissued by a bank.
Prosecution
You can be prosecuted, and it would be possible (not easy, though) to make a case that you putting your name on a bill meant that it could not be reissued.
Source:
Resource:
United States Secret Service
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC