Those penny crushing machines are fine. The issue is when people deface money with the intent to fraud. A silly crushed penny with a location smashed into it is only a problem if you try to use that penny to pay for something.
The defacing law doesn’t spell that out, and is open to interpretation that can include propaganda, not just fraud. So the people who stamped the OP coin would have been prosecuted for defacing currency even though the stamp had nothing to do with fraud.
Nobody in government cares about the tourist penny kiosks, though.
I mean, I get it, but also, there is less than zero evidence of these machines not being used for that … … (yes yes, I know, proving a negative, yadda yadda, the point is it’s a silly superstitious concern!)
Those penny crushing machines are fine. The issue is when people deface money with the intent to fraud. A silly crushed penny with a location smashed into it is only a problem if you try to use that penny to pay for something.
That’s true until you do what’s in the OP here.
The defacing law doesn’t spell that out, and is open to interpretation that can include propaganda, not just fraud. So the people who stamped the OP coin would have been prosecuted for defacing currency even though the stamp had nothing to do with fraud.
Nobody in government cares about the tourist penny kiosks, though.
I mean, I get it, but also, there is less than zero evidence of these machines not being used for that … … (yes yes, I know, proving a negative, yadda yadda, the point is it’s a silly superstitious concern!)