tangent
07-21-10, 00:23
Is it illegal to damage or deface coins?
AnswerSection 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who “fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.” This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/coins/portraits.shtml#q13
there is another thread in this sub-forum that lists weights of US coins for use with home made scales.
AnswerSection 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who “fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.” This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/coins/portraits.shtml#q13
there is another thread in this sub-forum that lists weights of US coins for use with home made scales.