Is it illegal to destroy money?

I’ve heard that defacing US currency is illegal. It may be an urban legend though—I’m not a cop or a lawyer. If it is illegal, it makes me wonder about those tourist penny flattening/stamping machines (why would the police allow those machines to exist)?

Here is some info with links to various statutes on the subject. It seems like the important thing is fraudulent intent. If you just rip a dollar bill in half or put a penny on a train track to see what happens when it gets run over, you are not committing a crime. I don’t entirely understand the nuances of the law, but if you have plans that involve the destruction of U.S. currency, you might want to consult a lawyer.

As far as I can tell, yes, it it. Technically, that money is property of the US government. You may be using it for your own benefits and needs, but it is only on loan to you. So, yeah, its illegal. Will you get arrested for doing a magic trick with a dollar or flattening a penny? Probably not. Will you get arrested for destroying mass amounts of federal money? Probably so.

@lillycoyote is right.

Title 18 United States Code, Section 331

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes,
falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of
the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current
or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States;
or

Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells,
or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the
United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced,
mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five
years, or both

Also, the amount of metal in coins is not as valuable as the face value of the coin itself, so melting them down would be pointless.

Then how can it be legal for companies to create machinery designed to destroy currency? And why are old silver coins sold for melt value?

@Afos22, the machines aren’t designed to destroy money for fraudulent purposes. It’s the same reason as to why you can buy bongs (which are advertised as exotic tobacco pipes) but marijuana is mostly illegal.

Old silver coins aren’t usually sold for melt value, but for the inherent collector value which is often much more than the actual silver value by weight.

The reason why less collectible silver coins (such as the newer walking Liberty coins) are sold isn’t because they are intended to be melted down. They represent the inherent value of the silver contained within if it were to be melted down.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard wouldn’t the only fraudulent purposes be changing the amount on the coin and trying to pass it off as another?

@Afos22, as far as my research can tell, “fraudulent purposes” is mostly ambiguous. I could be wrong.

I’m pretty sure it is because it’s considered destruction of government property.

Destroying or defacing U.S. coins and currency is a federal violation of law. this law is enforced by the Secret Service.

Too bad, I would love to be part of a currency “burn” and see all the bucks go up in smoke, never to used by man. The love of money is the reason the world is bastardized. Money laundering, prostitution, influence peddling, bribery, robbery, false investment schemes, indebtness (oh i struck a nerve) are more than enough reasons why money should go by way of the dinosaur! We’ll all be dead b4 that reality happens. Shiddy lyfe!

@steven_howard_ray You know if that happened, we would be more or less flung back into the stone age, economy wise, right?

And what would be wrong with that?

@LostInParadise, ummm… mass starvation, for starters. A massive decrease in the standard of living. That sort of humdrum.

I am not convinced that would happen. – maybe a decrease in standard of living if by that you mean surrounding ourselves with all kinds of unnecessary stuff. What if we had small nearly self-sufficient communities that could use barter for the additional items they needed, maybe something roughly like an Israeli kibbutz.

I’ve taken on the habit of crossing out “In God We Trust” with Sharpie.

I figure I’ll follow the rule of not defacing currency when the government follows its own rule of separating church and state.