Do Your $20 Bills Explode In the Microwave? 1165
msaulters writes "After repeatedly setting off RFID scanners in a truck stop, the author discovered the culprit was a wad of $20's in his back pocket. In a paranoid attempt to keep the government from tracking him, he attempted to fry the embedded chips in his microwave, with interesting results." Alex Jones has interesting theories about a number of things, but evidently a lot of readers were interested in this one.
'Quotes' (Score:5, Funny)
And GEEZ. I remember being 12 and having a twenty burn a hole in my pocket, but...
*smacks forehead* Sorry.
They've gotten to my eggs too (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They've gotten to my eggs too (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Haha (Score:5, Funny)
Thank goodness you posted that. I've been storing gasoline in my microwave for years thinking it was safe.
F.Y.I. The worst you could do to a microwave by putting metal inside is break the magnatron, and when it breaks, it will just die, not explode or any cool shit like that. This urban legend was debunked like last season. [discovery.com] I can't even find the listing for it anymore.
Re:Haha (Score:5, Funny)
Super Happy Microwave Fun. (Score:5, Funny)
Tell me about it. I broke my Magnatron, and totally fried Optimus Prime too. That's the last time I play Decepticon Rays From Space with my Transformers.
Re:They've gotten to my eggs too (Score:5, Funny)
Super convienient hard boiled eggs!
Unfortunatly on my first attempt I discovered what a mess it made and abandoned the project... (who whoulda thunk it!?)
It was acctually on the last second of the pre-set time I had given it which made it quite dis-hartening to hear a -BANG- and then immediately a BEEEEP of the microwave having finished.
Re:They've gotten to my eggs too (Score:5, Insightful)
The store tracking sensors that this guy is talking about aren't even rfid, and only have a fleeting resemblence, all they can tell is the presence of a tag moving through them. The system is called electonic artical survalance and most are made by sensormatic [sensormatic.com] to my knowledge the only thing that these machines keep track of is the number of times they're triggerd daily.
the only way to get the effect that this guy got would be to do just what he did, microwave a big tightley packed stack of brand new bills. once they're not stuck together they won't burn nearley as well, as for the exploading thing, they look more like they caught on fire from getting too hot, not like they blew up.
I'm not terrorably concerned with the goverment tracking the movement of money, they do allready. The real concern that we need to have with rfid is that we can be essentially fingerprinted based on the unique blend of objects that we carry around with us every day.
anyone correcting my spelling should find something better to do.
Re:They've gotten to my eggs too (Score:5, Interesting)
in response to the tracking of money... people even do it voluntarily... Where's George [wheresgeorge.com]
this isn't interesting, insightful, or anything else... I just wanted to point it out
Re:'Quotes' (Score:5, Interesting)
This guy is viewed as a Class-A crackpot in Austin, Texas. He has a cable access show twice a week in which he rants about conspiracy theories of all kinds of varieties. He has run numerous shows on how the government literally has black helicopters following him around South Austin. He was predicting armageddon when the Y2K bug was supposed to hit. He fully espouses the notion that Bush not only had previous-knowledge of 9/11 but planned it. He did a special [yahoo.com] where he claims that all presidents past and present meet at Bohemiam Grove, worship an owl god, and sacrifice children. He also believes the United Nations is preparing to occupy the United States any day now (according to him it has been for at least the last ten years). A quick look at his shop [yahoo.com] will give you a pretty good indication of his beliefs.
Keep this in mind when judging the validity of this article
Hey, Slashdot higher-ups... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:'Quotes' (Score:5, Funny)
but it's true about the owl god.
[wink]
Re:'Quotes' (Score:5, Funny)
In Capitalist America, YOU burn a hole in money!
Re:'Quotes' (Score:5, Funny)
Mod grandparent down on general priciples.
Mod parent up, because we do really care that he doesn't think anyone gives a crap what the grandparent poster thinks.
Don't give me mod points. Instead, give me those twenty dollar bills you suspect of having chips implanted. I'll test them for you. To preserve anonymity, you may send them to me via Pay Pal.
And whatever child or grandchild posts appear here (if any) mod them up, again, on general principles.
Re:'Quotes' (Score:5, Funny)
Re:'Quotes' (Score:5, Funny)
Just look at it! (Score:5, Funny)
Not the evil eye... (Score:5, Funny)
Idiot. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Idiot. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Informative)
Second, these magnetic antitheft systems are capable of being set off by odd things, such as items of personal electronics or odd bits of metal. (Heck, I even remember seeing one recent news story about a kid who sets off those scanners just by walking through them without anything in his pockets at all, just because his body happens to generate the precise frequency of electromagnetic energy they're keyed to.)
Third, RFID tag or not, those new bills do happen to have a strip of metal foil running through them, right at about the point of Jefferson's left eye...to make counterfeiting harder, you see. And when you subject metallic material to microwave energy, it heats up quickly...that's just basic physics.
So I'm willing to believe that the bills set off ordinary electromagnetic anti-theft detectors just by reflecting the microwaves in some funky way. (Or heck, maybe they even are magnetized in a way that anti-theft detectors can pick up...or at least can become so magnetized, since I doubt that they're all that way...if everybody shopping with new twenties was setting off anti-theft systems, we'd be hearing about that on the news, and the anti-theft system manufacturers would be making hasty adjustments or going out of business.) I'm even willing to believe that those foil strips will cause the money to scorch in the microwave. But it's one heck of a leap to conclude that this is because of Evil RFID Tags That The Nasty Gum'mint Is Sneaking Into Our Money.
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Informative)
Jackson. Jefferson is on the two dollar bill.
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Even if the money was designed to set off anti-theft systems (which would be dumb, for the reason I parenthetically enumerated above) it could only deliver one bit of data: on or off, yes or no, it was or was not tagged with a theft prevention device.
2) Even being able to track money at all is not new. [wheresgeorge.com] Why d'ya think mobsters need to launder it?
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the tags work passively (not requiring onboard battery) because inductors and capacitors can be printed on foil/similar materials, so a LC (or RLC) circuit can be designed to resonate at whatever frequency the antitheft system uses. When this resonant circuit passes between the detection gates (a receiver and transmitter), it resonates, causing a change in the received signal intensity at the gate (the circuit is now picking up energy originally flowing to the transmitter). Small electronics could set it off if some random connected inductor and capacitor on the circuit board form a resonant circuit - clothes or someones body could conceivably do this as well. The magnetic pulse in the store either permanently breaks the circuit (used in stores, etc) or bends a foil-type contact open (used in libraries so they can bend the contact shut again to activate the tag when the book is returned).
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Funny)
First time working at Kmart has qualified anyone for anything....
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Interesting)
My guess is this guy had the same problem, but because of a bit of paranoia, he blamed his cash. Microwave money long enough and I bet it starts to burn near the center. And if you have a stack of them, I bet you might get a little explosion like they wrote about.
I think he needs to loosen his tin foil hat, it's starting to cut off circulation.
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Funny)
Like hell. That's a stolen kid! Put his parents under arrest!
Re:I'm skeptical. (Score:5, Funny)
I'd be happy to help check this out. I think the easiest way would be for everyone to send me whatever bills they happen to have. I'll carefully check them out, inspecting them for any metal strips. To ensure that whatever bills I receive are in fact legal tender, I will then proceed to the nearest Best Buy or Fry's to see whether these fine institutions accept them as such.
I know, it sounds like it will be a lot of work, but its the least I can do to furhter the knowledge of teh Slashdot crowd.
No. They don't. (Score:5, Insightful)
So we chose to 'microwave' our cash, over $1000 in twenties in a stack, not spread out on a carasoul.
Now, looking at the second picture, and knowing a bit about how microwaves heat stuff... looks to me like the approximate center of the stack charred up nicely in the microwave. Notice the bills near the top and bottom of the stack are nearly untouched. The reason the center of the bills charred in the same place in all the bill is because it was the center of the stack.
I sincerely hope this article is intended as a joke, or at the very least "we did something really dumb and we're going to at least make it funny" situation.
And for the record, I just zapped a $20 bill for 20 seconds and it's barely even warm, on Jackson's right eye or anywhere else.
Re:No. They don't. (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I can't fault your methods, you've got every base covered. It would appear that you've conclusively proven this experiment to be a hoax!
Another peer-review success story.
Re:No. They don't. (Score:5, Funny)
You expect us to take you seriously when you don't even know the basic recipe for heating a $20?
Quack.
Hey everyone.... (Score:5, Funny)
Boy, when it rains, it pours.
Gee, where's the logical problem here? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ergo, $20 bills have embedded RFID tracking chips.
More likely, the metallic anti-counterfeting strips just formed a dipole resonant near the frequency used by the truck stop's anti-theft tag scanners.
Move along, nothing to see here, just some idiot with more money than brains.
Re:That's solid logic... (Score:5, Funny)
Good evening. The last scene was interesting from the point of view of a professional logician because it contained a number of logical fallacies; that is, invalid propositional constructions and syllogistic forms, of the type so often committed by my wife.
'All wood burns,' states Sir Bedevere. 'Therefore,' he concludes, 'all that burns is wood.' This is, of course, pure bullshit. Universal affirmatives can only be partially converted: all of Alma Cogan is dead, but only some of the class of dead people are Alma Cogan. Obvious, one would think. However, my wife does not understand this necessary limitation of the conversion of a proposition; consequently, she does not understand me; for how can a woman expect to appreciate a professor of logic, if the simplest cloth-eared syllogism causes her to flounder?
For example, given the premise, 'all fish live underwater' and 'all mackerel are fish', my wife will conclude, not that 'all mackerel live underwater', but that 'if she buys kippers it will not rain', or that 'trout live in trees', or even that 'I do not love her any more.' This she calls 'using her intuition'. I call it 'crap', and it gets me very irritated, because it is not logical. 'There will be no supper tonight,' she will sometimes cry upon my return home. 'Why not?' I will ask. 'Because I have been screwing the milkman all day,' she will say, quite oblivious of the howling error she has made. 'But,' I will wearily point out, 'even given that the activities of screwing the milkman and getting supper are mutually exclusive, now that the screwing is over, surely then, supper may now, logically, be got.' 'You don't love me any more,' she will now often postulate. 'If you did, you would give me one now and again, so that I would not have to rely on that rancid Pakistani for my orgasms.' 'I will give you one after you have got me my supper,' I now usually scream, 'but not before'-- as you understand, making her bang contingent on the arrival of my supper. 'God, you turn me on when you're angry, you ancient brute!' she now mysteriously deduces, forcing her sweetly throbbing tongue down my throat. 'Fuck supper!' I now invariably conclude, throwing logic somewhat joyously to the four winds, and so we thrash about on our milk-stained floor, transported by animal passion, until we sink back, exhausted, onto the cartons of yogurt.
I'm afraid I seem to have strayed somewhat from my original brief. But in a nutshell: sex is more fun than logic-- one cannot prove this, but it 'is' in the same sense that Mount Everest 'is', or that Alma Cogan 'isn't'.
Goodnight.
</Cleese>
Re:That's solid logic... (Score:5, Informative)
Amazing thing, this Google. I just did 'British slang "fair cop" ' and hit "I'm feeling Lucky!" (because I was), and there you have it. Fair cop, eh wot?
It'll be a shame when SCO sues Google out of business...
One Liner (Score:5, Funny)
Conspiracy theorists unite... (Score:5, Funny)
Mirror... (Score:5, Funny)
Mirror w/ pictures [cox.net]
According to NetCraft [netcraft.com], Alex Jones' site is hosted at EV1Servers.net... I wonder if the sum total of the ruined money is $700? I guess it would save a lot of time to just burn the money rather than give it to SCO, yet you would still have the same end result: out $700, and nothing much to show for it.
Convert your tin foil hat to a wallet? Not yet... (Score:5, Interesting)
Clearly, there's something funny going on with the microwaved bills... but stores don't have RFID scanners at the exits yet. They have an acousto-magnetic [phonelosers.org] sensor that gets deactivated by a pad at the cash register so that paying customers aren't supposed to set them off. Big difference here is that the tags in a store system don't yet emit an identifying signal... they all emit the same reply. The store doesn't know what a shoplifter did to trip the alarm, just that they did trip it. There's not quite proof that each bill is emitting its serial number yet.
Also, having microwaved everything in a stack makes things a bit unclear. Did every eye burn on its own, or did just one or two bills in the middle of the stack catch flame which in turn burned all of the bills above and below in varying degrees. Notice that the top and bottom bills were unharmed. Could one bill alone be microwaved safely?
And, BTW, if you so much as put slightly crumpled tin foil in your microwave, you get a similar effect. Could there just be a small metal content in the bill designed so that somebody who has $1000 worth of $20 bills (rather than simply 10 $100's) in their wallet is sure to set off an airport security alarm until they show their wallet to make sure they get an extra security questions?
It's interesting, but I think more research needs to be done. Microwave carefully, people.
No money lost (Score:5, Interesting)
They may have exploded, but they're still valid currency. The treasury has an entire department which is solely for processing damaged money. I remember seeing an interview with one of the inspectors. I believe the essential part of it was that you had to have more than the majority of the bill material in OK condition to prove that you didn't just cut it up and try to claim all the pieces.
Since the bills are intact all the way around and it looks like in many cases the serials are OK, I'd say he's OK, and can get them exchanged for non-exploded ones. Of course, he better not go saying he microwaved them, as destruction of currency is a federal crime(the penny-mangling machines are 'licensed' to do it, to nip one question in the bud...)
What is interesting is that they burned so readily- US currency is supposed to be decently non-flammable(it's one of thousands of tests done on the paper and ink- that's why your bills make it through the laundry OK, for example). It's probably the toughest paper in the world, able to survive virtually anything. Except microwaving, apparently :-)
The actual law on mutilation (Score:5, Informative)
US Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 17
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
Section 333
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.
Re:No money lost (Score:5, Informative)
two words (Score:5, Informative)
Way to find the the microwave's focal point, Mr. J (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, you should go look at Alex Jones' apparent infiltration of Bohemian Grove [infowars.com], an annual meeting of powerful people -- now that's intriguing.
Hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd just like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that there have always been serial numbers printed on bills, for the purpose of tracking them. An RFID tag would make it easier to do so electronically, but being able to uniquely identify a particular bill is nothing new - in fact, see Where's George? [wheresgeorge.com]
Having said that, the possibility that someone could scan the contents of my wallet while my wallet is in my pocket is rather disturbing for a number of reasons. If I were carrying $1,000 in twenties, I wouldn't want to advertise that fact to those around me.
groan... (Score:5, Insightful)
*Dons tinfoil wallet (Score:5, Funny)
Not a real surprise (Score:5, Funny)
I made that mistake once, about 20 years ago. My mother gave me a Wendy's Kid's Meal, I didn't eat it right away. Later, I wanted to warm it up so I put into the microwave. I didn't open the box, and I forgot that they wrapped the burgers in a foil type wrapper. It was like fireworks. Bright flashed of blue-white light were coming out of the Kid's Meal box.
I nearly soiled myself out of fear. In those days they led you to believe that if you put metal in a microwave it would be like the Ghostbusters crossing the streams of their proton packs.
LK
Burning towels in the microwave (Score:5, Funny)
Moral of the story: don't put a wad of cash into the microwave.
You fool!! (Score:5, Funny)
You've got to question the source (Score:5, Insightful)
Looking around the website, one can find this choice quote by Alex Jones:
AJ: And that also happened- where you aware the New York Times and Chicago Tribune reported this in '93, the FBI cooked the bomb and trained the driver[s] and had an Egyptian security agent doing it for them, had two retarded Muslims, literally retarded, drive the truck and park it, let the bombing go forward. At Oklahoma City, the same company that destroyed the remnants of the World Trade Center, blew up the remnants of Oklahoma City [and] had that buried under machine gun guard at a private landfill to this day. And they hauled the rubble away from the W T C to China! They wouldn't let you take photographs. Yes, exactly.
what?! (Score:5, Insightful)
Why the hell was someone carrying around $1000, mostly in 20s, in their wallet?
Maybe I'm the only one that doesn't get that part...
bullshit. (Score:5, Interesting)
Secondly, who is STUPID enough to ruin that much money?
Third, I suspect this is FAKE and if so, someone may be guilty of counterfiting. If they printed up fake bills to make this fake "news" report, the Treasury folks may be interested.
And lastely, Alex Jones is a FLAKE that is in serious need of MEDS..
JMO..
RFID tags going into Japanese Y10,000 notes first (Score:5, Insightful)
This chip doesn't have collision avoidance, though. So a stack of bills wouldn't be individually readable.
So the technology isn't quite here yet to do it right, but it's getting close. Currently, you can get collision avoidance or tiny size, but not both. Good collision avoidance combined with fast data transfers is hard, and it's wanted by retailers, who want to be able to read out each box in a carton individually. That could be thousands of items. That's do-able, but not with the low-cost tags yet. Retailers want to get tag costs down to around $0.02. Realistically, today RFID tags cost upwards of $0.25.
True public key challenge/response hasn't made it into the smallest tags, either. Challenge/response is available in keyring size and in credit card size, and is used for access control applications. But the low end tags can't do that yet.
Two more years, and this will really be happening. But not yet.
Printing process is the culprit here... (Score:5, Informative)
The effective result of using this printing method can be felt on the bill. On a new bill the ink will be coarse and raised off of the paper. The lines will be very crisp and solid. There will be no 'breaks' even microscopic in the ink.
Since it's slightly conductive (it has some metals in it and whatnot) and the lines (and crosshatching etc) are pretty well continuous it's going to be an excellent absorber of microwave energy. Without anything else in the microwave to absorb the energy better than the money, it's likely the ink near the portrait is going to get really hot really fast. This is pretty much what I'd expect from microwaving money.
All that being said, the RFID equipment or the security equipment that this money was falsely triggering must be some of the cheapest crap on the market!
This is exactly why (Score:5, Funny)
Guv'mint conspiracy? (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article:
We could have left it at that, but we have also paid attention to the European Union and the 'rfid' tracking devices placed in their money,...
Maybe in X-files country, but here in real life, euros do not have 'rfid tracking devices'. What they do have is a metal strip which makes it more difficult to counterfeit.
Of course I fully expect now to be told that my government only wants me to think that that's just a metal strip... :-)
man, how dumb can one get? (Score:5, Informative)
put any old piece of paper (or more fun, a plate of marshmallows) into a microwave that doesn't have a working turntable. you'll get a pattern of burn marks. you can even measure the distance between them to calculate the wavelength of the microwaves if you want to. basic physics.
this isn't even a *good* conspiracy theory.
RSA RFID Blocker Tag (Score:5, Informative)
The paper describes fancier options, such as only impersonating numbers in some given range so that it only blocks reading some kinds of items, like the serial numbers on 100 Euro banknotes.
Re:RSA RFID Blocker Tag (Score:5, Funny)
Oh gee, I can see that being *really* helpful when the Homeland Defense automated luggage checking system asks your luggage "Are you a suitcase nuke?" and it answers "Why, yes I am!"
No RFID in Euros (Score:5, Informative)
This is most likely a false story (Score:5, Insightful)
The most apparent points of conjecture about this story, in my mind, are:
1. Why, if these tags are in $20's all across the nation, are not people setting off alarms for "no reason" all across the nation?
2. It appears that other
Perhaps these bills were part of a scheme, or an elaborate set of counterfeits with a specific devious purpose in mind. Or perhaps they were never microwaved at all.
Truckstop or Airport? (Score:5, Interesting)
Retail employees with hand-scanning wands. Give me a break. If there's a living, breathing witness that saw me steal something, that's one thing. But no machine is going to bear false witness against me. I would refuse to cooperate. A truckstop is not an airport where the guards are employees with authority and jurisdiction to prevent "dangerous" items on board aircraft. I refuse to recognize that they have any authority to search or probe my person.
Those magnetic tag detectors you see in stores have only one valid purpose as far as I can see. To act as a deterrent and scare would-be thieves away. They convey no authority to perform a body scan.
Um... try it (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know if my bill was defective, or if I didn't put it in long enough, but I seriously doubt this story. The bill never even got toasty, and the right eye was just as warm as all the other parts of the bill. As other people have said, there are tiny amounts of metal in bills normally, so I find it very unlikely that there is any relatively large strip of metal in as well.
Anyone remember their EE or ME classes? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now place in a magnetic field to have it possibly resonate at the frequency that it resonates at.
Or like others suggested, a leftover security strip in the wallet.
People really should learn how to troubleshoot properly. Which reminds me of a story... in short, grad student doing research on fleas, trains his flea to jump when he yells out "Hop!". After much testing and mutilation, one by one, all of the legs get pulled off the flea. He yells out "Hop!", and nothing happens. Hence he begins to write his conclusion:
"When all of the legs are pulled off the flea, the flea becomes deaf".
Security alarms.. (Score:5, Interesting)
So anyway, there might be something to this although it could be related to the partially conductive ink on newer bills. I haven't bothered to track it any farther (as to specific money arrangements) as I've grown tired of the murderous looks I get from other customers as I walk through and the alarm sounds. (Oddly, the employees never seem to care...)
no dice (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The most cursory inspection (Score:5, Funny)
What, are you kidding? And ruin a perfectly good crazy conspiracy theory?
Better control experiment... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a Kastanza wallet - I put everything in there, and it's waaay too big. The wallet I had was falling apart, and eventually my girlfriend pretty much forced me into buying a new one. Which I did, at the retail store she works at.
It just so happens that after this, I could no longer get through the metal detector at airport security. The wallet would set off the wand, and the TSA agent would spend a good 3-5 minutes examining the wallet, but couldn't find anything amiss and would eventually let me through.
The *FOURTH* time I went through security an agent finally managed to find the source of my problem: An anti-theft tag placed in some obscure fold of the wallet.
As it turns out, the guy at the store responsible for putting the anti-theft tags in things has a reputation for being able to hide them very well.
So I'd be willing to bet something similar is afoot here.
As for the money burning all in the same spot, it's pretty obvious why: Metal heats up in the microwave, and paper has low thermal conductivity. Put one bill in the microwave, the heat escapes from both sides of the bill fast enough that you don't get enough heat to initiate combustion. Stack 50 of them on top of each other, and now you've got a buncha metal in the middle of a buncha paper, the heat builds up in the center, and now your bills combust. The bills didn't all burn in the same spot - one bill started burning, and then the other bills - all stacked neatly on top of each other - burned in the same spot as the fire spread up and down the stack.
A conpiracy theorist needs to be smart enough to connect a bunch of unrelated facts, but not smart enough to realize that they're unrelated.
Re:Better control experiment... (Score:5, Interesting)
As it turns out, the guy at the store responsible for putting the anti-theft tags in things has a reputation for being able to hide them very well.
Many items come from the warehouse with 4-5 tags in them in different places. I bought a bottle of aspirin the other day that not only had them on the underside of the label, it had one on the inside of the box, one on the outside of the box, and one under the cap. Excessive for a mere $3 bottle of aspirin.
This is why professional shoplifters go through the trouble of sewing in foil lined pockets & pouches in their clothing. Once these systems are in place, the security tends to rely on them. It stops some of the amateurs, but professionals can come in and rob the place blind. They never set off an alarm and the first the store is aware of it is when an entire shelf of goods is missing.
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
The only thing that would be against the law is defacing currency and attempting to use it in commerce. So we learned in Business Law.
But is it art? (Score:5, Funny)
What if I draw moustaches on the presidents and sell the doctored notes as artistic portraits of Saddam Hussein?
Re:But is it art? (Score:5, Funny)
That's legal as long as don't put Andy Warhol's signature in the bottom right corner.
In particular... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, what's illegal is attempting to use it in commerce after defacing it in a way that would let it be passed as currency of higher value.
You're entirely welcome to deface it in a way that doesn't promote fraud. In particular, some defacements are legitimate political speech and protected by the first amendment as interpreted by the courts.
My favorite defacement is to give the portrat of Hamilton on the (old) $10 a Hitler moustache and hair. Hamilton is the founding father who was the ideological head of the Federalists - the group that promoted the changes to the US central government that eventually led it to become the powerful and often oppressive machine it is today.
Not so much deliberately, of course. For instance, his opposition to the Bill of Rights was predicated on the idea that explicitly acklowledging certain rights would create the expectation that the government could stamp out any others. The proponents of the Bill claimed that, absent an explicit list of those that are particluarly important, the government would have no guideline and would stop 'em all. (Of course they were both right.)
But you know what they say about good intensions and paving.
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
It is against the law. Men with earpieces and black suits could come knocking.
Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. This comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service.
Here's the relevant bit [house.gov] of the US Code:
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.
Uncle Sam Wants You to Destroy Money! (Score:5, Informative)
You know, all of those State Quarters that people collect with fervor are almost pure profit for the mint. I mean, it's like the mint has a license to print money!!!!
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Interesting)
A $20 bank note is your receipt for lending $20 to the government with no interest.
If you'd like to lend $20 to the government and then not claim it back later, I'm sure that the government will be very happy.
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
and in Soviet Russia
We got already
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
- (a) The oven manufacturer, for not stating that it may damage currency in the manual; or
or all of them, and won some.(b) The government, for not printing do not microwave in the currency; or
(c) The bank who gave them currency without a proper usage manual.
Federal Reserve is not a private institution (Score:5, Informative)
Who owns the Federal Reserve?
The Federal Reserve System is not "owned" by anyone and is not a private, profit-making institution. Instead, it is an independent entity within the government, having both public purposes and private aspects.
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
I once worked at a cutlery corporation where they demonstrated scissors by cutting up coins. and they told us its legal, so if the company gets fried for that, not my fault.
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
Not a problem. Just make a photocopy first.
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
Wow!
1) Take 4 * 1$
2) Break it into: 4 * ( 3 * 1/3$ )
3) Group it into: ( 2 * 3 ) * 2/3$
4) Now you have 6 * 2/3$
5) Give it to bank
6) Get 6$ from bank
Profit = 6$ - 4$ = 2$
And now repeat.
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Dang, they've thought of EVERYTHING.
US Code, Title 18 Sec. 484. [house.gov] Connecting parts of different notes
Whoever so places or connects together different parts of two or more notes, bills, or other genuine instruments issued under the authority of the United States, or by any foreign government, or corporation, as to produce one instrument, with intent to defraud, shall be guilty of forgery in the same manner as if the parts so put together were falsely made or forged, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:illegal? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe because he put it in an oven..?
What pennies are really made out of... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Who the fuckity fuck (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like smugglers to me.
Re:Who the fuckity fuck (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who the fuckity fuck (Score:5, Informative)
Remember most long distance truckers are on the road for a week at a time. This includes tolls, fuel, food, etc. I did a rough calculation a trip from Ontario to New York and back cost about $500 out of pocket. And lots of truckers transport fruit from California.
More conspiracy images on currency (Score:5, Funny)
What's the matter? That's a hell of a lot better than the Slashdot story that actually got accepted!
Re:Somebody (Score:5, Informative)
Kinda, but not quite.
Sparks on metal objects is caused by uneven voltage developed on the surface of the object because of an uneven surface, uneven radiation pattern, or both.
Because microwaves are such high frequency and the wattages of most ovens is high (most are around 1 kilowatt), high voltages are easily developed and can leap short distances.
Once the spark leaps once, it ionizes the air along the path making subsequent arcs occur at lower voltage.
Once current flows, as in an arc of this type, the metal will heat up very rapidly and could easily burn paper. I suspect uneven radiation (or even minute flaws) of the metal strips in the bills caused arcing between them, which burned through the paper.
There's normally no insulation in the microwave cavity of the oven because the goal is to reflect the microwaves off ground (the metal surfaces surrounding the cavity) until they can be absorbed by water molecules, causing them to heat up, thus cooking the food.
This is why you are normally advised not to run the microwave oven with nothing in it: the microwaves can bounce around the oven and manage to heat the magnetron instead, causing it to burn out spectacularly.
Re:Complete bullshit (Score:5, Informative)
What makes me wonder is how 'complete bullshit' gets modded up...
Re:Australian Money (Score:5, Funny)