Originally Posted by
jkhuggins
I hate to stick my nose in this ... but after a little web searching, it looks like both sides are right on this one.
In short: the rules are different for paper currency and coinage.
For paper, TSORon appears to be correct:
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.
I can't seem to find anything else that would qualify this; at face value, it looks like destroying paper currency is in fact against the law......
emphasis mine: not quite....
what you are citing applies to someone deliberately and with intent (n.b. deliberately and with intent) cutting in half a piece of currency (simplest example) and bringing the currency to the fed (or agent of the fed) to obtain a whole (i.e. un-cut) bill and affects those who want to commit fraud and not those simply cutting, burning, perforating, and etc just cuz they feel like it.
TSORon is wrong