Originally Posted by
TSORon
Destroy a single dollar bill and you can be prosecuted for destroying government property. You don’t own the cash, the government does. The government backs it, secures it to ensure that its value is not reduced by fraud or counterfeiting, guarantee’s that the face value is backed by the full weight of the US government, and that the real value that your one dollar bill represents is backed by some tangible asset.
This takes the cake.
You simply don't have any idea of what you are talking about, Ron.
It is NOT illegal to destroy money. You are well within your rights to shred hundred dollar bills and use them as mattress or pillow stuffing if you wish. Additionally, you are free to melt down U.S. coins and retrieve their base metals, if you wish. There is no law stopping you.
What you cannot do is destroy or mutilate currency to commit fraud. Stuffing a pillow with shredded bills is not fraud, and I know of plenty of places that have those machines where you can stick in a penny, turn the crank and it will flatten the penny and imprint something on it.
That is illegal?