Copper Penny Floor

[John Aspinall]

Can't argue with you on this one John, but they do post some good ideas from time to time. Plastic bottles turned into brooms, some Earthship homes using recycled bottles in the walls that I really liked, and an old trampoline turned into a hanging bed. I try not to delve too deeply into the thought processes behind it all.

I guess the question is: do they have another tag for "do it yourself", "homemade", etc., or are you automatically a "survivalist" the moment you pick up a tool in your own hand?

[Belinda Barfield]

I really don't have an answer to your question. I don't know the folks personally. They do offer a lot of information on gardening and food storage, making do with what you have, etc., so mayby that qualifies them as "survivalists".

[Belinda Barfield]

They have taken the photo down, possibly because someone pointed out that it is illegal to pave your floor in pennies. It was still pretty!

[ray hampton]

why is it illegal to pave your floor with one cent pieces since you will be using your own money , not other people money

[Belinda Barfield]

why is it illegal to pave your floor with one cent pieces since you will be using your own money , not other people money

Basically, you are taking money out of circulation, and making it unavailable/unfit for reissue. It would probably be considered defacing of coins.

[Brian Elfert]

This could be considered defacing US currency although it is usually only an issue if the coins are used fraudulently. I doubt anyone would get in trouble for putting pennies in a floor.

I copied the follow from a forum posting at etsy.com:

Section 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.

[Larry Browning]

Basically, you are taking money out of circulation, and making it unavailable/unfit for reissue. It would probably be considered defacing of coins.

Would that also apply to those machines you see everywhere that flatten pennies and stamps a logo of some kind on them? They have several of those at Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. Those pennies are definitely defaced and out of circulation.

[Belinda Barfield]

Please note that I said "probably". I have no idea about the actual laws concerning defacement of coins. I "think" there was some revisement of the code to allow for penny and nickel souvenier machines. I doubt very seriously that someone from the goverment is going to knock on your door and remove your penny floor.
The U.S. Code

• The only law against defacing currency is found in the United States Code, which contains the permanent laws of the federal government. U.S. Code Title 18 includes several specific sections that govern U.S. currency.
  Sections 331 and 332 specify that it is illegal to alter coins. The Code mentions altering, scaling, mutilating, defacing, impairing, diminishing and lightening as the illegal forms of coin defacing. Individuals are liable if they create defaced coins, but also if they import, possess, sell or pass them.
  Section 333 covers paper currency. It states that it is illegal to cut, deface, mutilate, disfigure, perforate or rejoin bills. Section 333 also pertains to any other activity that is intended to make a bill unfit to be reissued and remain in circulation.
  
  

Other Defacing

• The language of the U.S. Code as it applies to defacing currency restricts it to acts that individuals commit with an intention of defrauding others or making currency unfit for reissue. Other acts, such as writing notes on a bill or causing the kind of damage that occurs naturally, are not illegal. However, the U.S.
  
  

Read more: Defacing U.S. Currency Laws | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6535889_def...#ixzz1xnc8VgD3

[ray hampton]

section 333 mention the rejoin of bills, are this rejoin the same as placing tape on two halves of a bill that got torn in half ?

[Brian Kerley]

This has been done for a few years now:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/real...roundup-123419

And, a how-to:
http://makeprojects.com/Project/Inst...ountertop/85/1

[Rich Engelhardt]

section 333 mention the rejoin of bills, are this rejoin the same as placing tape on two halves of a bill that got torn in half ?

This is way way way off topic - but - ray's question about two halvex of a bill reminded me of a story I once heard.
I was driving down to Lodi Ohio one day - about an hour and a half drive. On the way there. I was trying to find a radio station to listen to. I stumbled on one station - I have no idea which one - that was telling a story about a counterfitter back in the 1920's or 1930's.

The guy was so good and the $20.00 bills he made were so perfectly done, it was impossible to tell them apart from the real thing.
They had to pull one particular series of $20.00 bills out of circulation.

To obtain the paper for the bills, the guy shaved dollar bills in half, bleached out the two halves and glued them back together again!
Then he printed his $20.00's on what was now blank legitimate paper.

Eventually they caught the guy and tossed him in prison.
Things quieted down for a few years, then, all of a sudden a new set of "perfect" counterfit $20.00's started showing up.

Turns out the guy was back in business - in his prison cell - printing money with a press he made out of a cigar box!

I wish I could recall his name and more details about the whole thing.
It was a facinating story.

[ray hampton]

This is way way way off topic - but - ray's question about two halvex of a bill reminded me of a story I once heard.
I was driving down to Lodi Ohio one day - about an hour and a half drive. On the way there. I was trying to find a radio station to listen to. I stumbled on one station - I have no idea which one - that was telling a story about a counterfitter back in the 1920's or 1930's.

The guy was so good and the $20.00 bills he made were so perfectly done, it was impossible to tell them apart from the real thing.
They had to pull one particular series of $20.00 bills out of circulation.

To obtain the paper for the bills, the guy shaved dollar bills in half, bleached out the two halves and glued them back together again!
Then he printed his $20.00's on what was now blank legitimate paper.

Eventually they caught the guy and tossed him in prison.
Things quieted down for a few years, then, all of a sudden a new set of "perfect" counterfit $20.00's started showing up.

Turns out the guy was back in business - in his prison cell - printing money with a press he made out of a cigar box!

I wish I could recall his name and more details about the whole thing.
It was a facinating story.

If this man had the control to shaved a greenback into two pieces the way that he did,miss his calling of being a doctor

[Bill Cunningham]

This is the country that makes a coin with the queen on one side and a beaver on the other. I'm still trying to figure that one out...

Ahhh yes.. we also have one with the queen on the front, and when you flip it over, you see her bear behind

Polar bear that is!

[Bill Cunningham]

Do the Canadian government still make non-round coins
this coin would fit together better than a round coin

The only non-round Canadian coin I remember, was a nickle.. I had multiple flats around the circumference but it was still round..

[ray hampton]

The only non-round Canadian coin I remember, was a nickle.. I had multiple flats around the circumference but it was still round..

I got the unusual nickel only because a pay phone [phone booth] refuse to accept it, I can remember that like it was yesterday but I had trouble remember yesterday