Be careful spending those old bills

[Engineer]

What officers thought was a counterfeit $50 bill turned out to be an old, legitimate bill, but the truth wasn't discovered until a man was mistakenly charged and jailed Friday.
A clerk at Quik Mart, South Cannon Boulevard, notified police after the marker used to detect counterfeit bills didn't check as real.

http://www.t-g.com/story/1843748.html

[AGgressive Metal]

Since when are local cops currency experts? I would sue for false imprisonment just on principle. Then they had the gaul to tell him to take it to a bank and change it for a newer one - no thanks, this is legal tender you jerks.

[John_doe]

wait, aren't they illegal tender?



I am slightly confused so enlighten me here.

[John_doe]

I suppose it all depends on who you are and where you are.

[AGgressive Metal]

wait, aren't they illegal tender?

There is no such thing as "illegal tender". Legal tender is a term means that you have to accept a certain note or good in payment of debts by order of the government, not that it is "legal" or "illegal" in the criminal justice sense of the word. Every Federal Reserve Note ever printed is legal tender in the United States, as well as all silver certificates and United States Notes.

[John_doe]

wait, aren't they illegal tender?

There is no such thing as "illegal tender". Legal tender is a term means that you have to accept a certain note or good in payment of debts by order of the government, not that it is "legal" or "illegal" in the criminal justice sense of the word. Every Federal Reserve Note ever printed is legal tender in the United States, as well as all silver certificates and United States Notes.

Once again I was under the assumption that gold/silver was legal tender.

[John_doe]

wait, aren't they illegal tender?

There is no such thing as "illegal tender". Legal tender is a term means that you have to accept a certain note or good in payment of debts by order of the government, not that it is "legal" or "illegal" in the criminal justice sense of the word. Every Federal Reserve Note ever printed is legal tender in the United States, as well as all silver certificates and United States Notes.

I was not trying to be politically correct when I said "illegal" tender. I was using it in the context that it is merely not legal.

[AGgressive Metal]

wait, aren't they illegal tender?

There is no such thing as "illegal tender". Legal tender is a term means that you have to accept a certain note or good in payment of debts by order of the government, not that it is "legal" or "illegal" in the criminal justice sense of the word. Every Federal Reserve Note ever printed is legal tender in the United States, as well as all silver certificates and United States Notes.

Once again I was under the assumption that gold/silver was legal tender.

????

[hobo finds]

How about just going to buy a six pack and going thru all that! If the clerk was smart he would have taken it and bought the bill from his drawer. If he had an extra $50 that is!

[fb101]

Not after he tried magic marker on it.
Kinda like cleaning that unc 92s morgan with Brasso.

[barrytrot]

If this happened to me I would be demanding heads to roll. And a LARGE monetary compensation for my severe emotional harm.

There are many things I can tolerate and in general I let water fall off my duck-like back.

But jail is horrible. For 1 second.

Subjecting someone to that for HOLDING a single note is ridiculous. Even if it was counterfeit. The person with the bill isn't the criminal, that's whomever minted it. So this was WAY over board even if the face on the bill was "Bozo T Clown".

There are some things I cannot tolerate and false imprisonment is one of them.

Were this me, I would have a full time lawyer handling this for years until all was done to 10 times my satisfaction.

This cannot be tolerated.

Jail should be to put away violent criminals and those that intentionally defraud or steal. That simple.

Drug usage, using REAL but old bills, jay walking, speeding, lots of other bogus and victimless crimes, should be fines at best.

[John_doe]

If this happened to me I would be demanding heads to roll. And a LARGE monetary compensation for my severe emotional harm.

There are many things I can tolerate and in general I let water fall off my duck-like back.

But jail is horrible. For 1 second.

Subjecting someone to that for HOLDING a single note is ridiculous. Even if it was counterfeit. The person with the bill isn't the criminal, that's whomever minted it. So this was WAY over board even if the face on the bill was "Bozo T Clown".

There are some things I cannot tolerate and false imprisonment is one of them.

Were this me, I would have a full time lawyer handling this for years until all was done to 10 times my satisfaction.

This cannot be tolerated.

Jail should be to put away violent criminals and those that intentionally defraud or steal. That simple.

Drug usage, using REAL but old bills, jay walking, speeding, lots of other bogus and victimless crimes, should be fines at best.

the problem is that legal tender laws contradict themselves. they can arrest you no matter what you spend, technically.

[barrytrot]

No they can't. The law works both ways and is very vague, I agree. Which is why those that bother to waste their time (or their hired lawyer's time) tend to get a LOT more justice than those that don't.

[AGgressive Metal]

Even if its counterfeit, its only illegal if you KNOWINGLY pass it off as real (at least that's my understanding). So like Barry said, even if its Bozo the Clown money, they should have just taken the guys information, asked some questions, contacted Secret Service, and only charged him after an investigation found it was merited.

[hobo finds]

How old was this bill?

[Doctor Steuss]

Kind of reminds me of this story:

http://archive.woz.org/letters/general/78.html

[hobo finds]

Bill dosn't look that old. But I could see the clerk wanting to test it as it looks different. http://slumz.boxden.com/f5/may-1-man-ar ... l-1745528/ Plus I am sure they have to check all large bills.

[Engineer]

The really bad part for that guy is that the arrest will show up on his record even if the charges were dropped. Where I live, anyone can look up anyone to see if they've been divorced, sued by creditors, or even gotten so much as a seat belt ticket. Even if you were innocent, the records are there along with your address, date of birth, and most of the other stuff an identity thief would need to empty out your bank account.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be moving out of this state...

[68Camaro]

Wow - that sucks. I really dislike (to put it mildly) the direction of this country. In return for "safety" of "Homeland Security", we've given up most of our liberty and privacy. I'm for some reasonable security, but we've lost the balance and turned into a big brother nanny state. Unfortunately it seems to be a true law of social thermodynamics - there is an inherent tendency of humanity over time to move toward false promises of wealth and security, being willing to sacrifice their personal responsibilty and liberty in the process. Thus the limited life of any given civilization before it collapses and has to reset.

[AGgressive Metal]

I usually spend older notes on bullion - it makes me feel less bad about using them instead of saving them. They are pretty cool but you can't really justify hanging on to them economically; bullion is going to go up way faster than collector value on a 1950s FRN in my opinion.

[John_doe]

No they can't. The law works both ways and is very vague, I agree. Which is why those that bother to waste their time (or their hired lawyer's time) tend to get a LOT more justice than those that don't.

technically they can.

legal tender is considered to be gold/silver. there is also a law on the books that says if you spend gold you will be arrested.


I do agree that it is unethical to do this though.

[AGgressive Metal]

legal tender is considered to be gold/silver. there is also a law on the books that says if you spend gold you will be arrested.

I think both these claims are incorrect.

[John_doe]

legal tender is considered to be gold/silver. there is also a law on the books that says if you spend gold you will be arrested.

I think both these claims are incorrect.

if i am so wrong, go try to spend a gold coin and see what happens.

[John_doe]

legal tender is considered to be gold/silver. there is also a law on the books that says if you spend gold you will be arrested.

I think both these claims are incorrect.

so you reject that gold/silver is legal tender? enlighten me as to how you came to this conclusion.

[John_doe]

sounds to me like gold/silver are only money when it is beneficial. any other time it is not legal tender.


sound familiar?