You can't refuse my unreasonable request. After all, I pay your wages!

[Captain Trips]

Unless the law has changed since I checked last, defacing US currency is not illegal, provided the defacing is not an attempt to coutnerfeit or defraud.

You have the perfectly legal right to tear up a hundred dollar bill.

In fact, you can then sent the torn up parts to the US Treasury, and if they can verify the seriel number, they'll send you a fresh one.

Sort of. The details are this: There must be at least 2/3 of the bill present, and enough of both copies of the serial number that they can be certain the missing portions can't be used to defraud. They've even reimbursed on bills that have gone through shredders!

[EmiOfBrie]

The law in the US has been amended....as of last week, it's now illegal to melt coins, mainly because the metal in the coins is now worth slightly more than the face value of the coins. I believe the metal in a penny is worth like 1.5 cents and the metal in a nickel is worth about 6 cents.

[Gurndigarn]

The law in the US has been amended....as of last week, it's now illegal to melt coins, mainly because the metal in the coins is now worth slightly more than the face value of the coins. I believe the metal in a penny is worth like 1.5 cents and the metal in a nickel is worth about 6 cents.

Yet, for some reason, they haven't decided to kill the penny. >sigh< Sooner or later...

[Reyneth]

Yet, for some reason, they haven't decided to kill the penny. >sigh< Sooner or later...

Although plastic has made the physical penny rarely used, could you IMAGINE gas prices - instead of $2.11, it would be $2.15 etc. You know it wouldn't get rounded down - I'm not one to want to get rid of the penny!

[Bliss]

What they'll do is change the aliation on the coins to make them worth less than face value, same happened here in Venezuela about 10 years ago or so. meanwhile the change to the law forbiding the melting of coins is a stopgap measure to avoid bigger troubles.

I was about to refute you guys saying most countries have laws about defacing currency but then I remembered something, you guys have machines everywhere (I met a few while I visited Disney World, and a few more at NASA in Cape Canaberal) where you insert a penny and a quarter (for payment) and the machine flattens the penny and stamps a logo on it, surely these wouldn't exist if defacing was illegal.

[Gurndigarn]

Although plastic has made the physical penny rarely used, could you IMAGINE gas prices - instead of $2.11, it would be $2.15 etc. You know it wouldn't get rounded down - I'm not one to want to get rid of the penny!

If you're talking on a per gallon basis, we already use fractional money. It's not $2.11, it's $2.109 or $2.119. And if you have a sales tax, you also deal with fractional money. Most people don't worry about the half a cent or so, and I believe most stores round to the nearest penny, just so they don't have to deal with customers screaming over three quarters a penny.

And even if they don't, it would be worth the 15 cents it would cost me, on average, per week, not to have to deal with what is a worthless coin.

[Bella_Vixen]

I was about to refute you guys saying most countries have laws about defacing currency but then I remembered something, you guys have machines everywhere (I met a few while I visited Disney World, and a few more at NASA in Cape Canaberal) where you insert a penny and a quarter (for payment) and the machine flattens the penny and stamps a logo on it, surely these wouldn't exist if defacing was illegal.

Good point, but no one tries to spend the flattened pennies (well, maybe on accident...).

[HalloranElder]

Although plastic has made the physical penny rarely used, could you IMAGINE gas prices - instead of $2.11, it would be $2.15 etc. You know it wouldn't get rounded down - I'm not one to want to get rid of the penny!

Well, they did it here in Australia.

When the government decided that it was too expensive to make 1 and 2 cent coins, they got rid of them and changed the law accordingly.

When dealing with plastic, the price remains the same.

When dealing in cash, the price is rounded to the nearest 5 or 10 cent mark. So, anything ending in 8, 9, 1 or 2 gets rounded to the 0, while anything ending in 3, 4, 6 or 7 gets rounded to the 5.

While you are "loosing" money on some transactions, you are gaining money on others, so it all averages out in the end.

Of course, a stand up comedian decided that the best way to buy fuel after that was to get 2 cents worth, which would round down to free...

[Barefootgirl]

Ask your friendly neighbourhood cop about people who yell about how "they pay your wages". One of my policeman friends got so sick of hearing that line after pulling over yet another dangerous driver (along with the second favourite line, "why aren't you out there catching real criminals?" to which he calmly answers, "You are a real criminal sir, and I would appear to have caught you..."). He started pointing out that he too pays taxes and thus therefore is technically self-employed.

[greensinestro]

Ask your friendly neighbourhood cop about people who yell about how "they pay your wages". One of my policeman friends got so sick of hearing that line after pulling over yet another dangerous driver (along with the second favourite line, "why aren't you out there catching real criminals?" to which he calmly answers, "You are a real criminal sir, and I would appear to have caught you..."). He started pointing out that he too pays taxes and thus therefore is technically self-employed.

Thank you for telling me about that. Yes, I have neighbors who are cops and they have also told me about that. How about the line after the cop tells the speeding, dangerous driver how fast they were going, and the driver says, "Well, officer. You were also breaking the law being you were driving beyond the speed limit to come after me." Gimme a break.