18 U.S.C. § 331
Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins
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.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 30
cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1949–2024 · leading case: Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705 (1977).
Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705 (1977). “I cannot imagine that the statutes, see 18 U. S. C. §§ 331 and 333, proscribing defacement of United States currency impinge upon the First Amendment rights of an atheist.”
Ctr. for Bio-Ethical Reform, Inc. v. Napolitano, 648 F.3d 365 (6th Cir. 2011). “currency, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 331 and 333. 2 . We note Plaintiffs’ allegation that the DHS Assessment is “part of the RWE Policy.”
Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566 (1974). “Title 18 U. S. C. § 331 prohibits the alteration of any Federal Reserve note or national bank note, and 18 U.”
United States v. Charles Demore Jewell, 532 F.2d 697 (9th Cir. 1976). “1969) ( 18 U.S.C. § 331 and others); Verdugo v. United States, 402 F.”
California v. Zook, 336 U.S. 725 (1949). “And see 18 U.S.C. §§ 331 , 472, 479. In short, we would be setting aside great numbers of state statutes to satisfy a congressional purpose which would be only the product of this Court's *733 imagination.”
United States v. Loren Robie Wilson, 451 F.2d 209 (5th Cir. 1971). “§ 485 6 demonstrated that the coins were *212 not counterfeited but were altered within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 331 . 7 This contention is based upon the testimony of the government’s expert witness that the coins in question were originally genuine dimes which had been…”
United States v. William Sheiner & Victor Piacentile, A/K/A Victor Pease, 410 F.2d 337 (2d Cir. 1969). “§ 371 ; in addition, appellant Sheiner was found guilty of the sale and possession, and appellant Piacentile of the sale, of fraudulently altered pennies in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 331 . Appellants were each sentenced to three months imprisonment on one count of the mail fraud…”
Andy Wallace Barnett, Robert Taylor Newman & Jack Coleman Stewart v. United States, 384 F.2d 848 (5th Cir. 1967). “GODBOLD, Circuit Judge: Appellants Barnett, Newman and Stewart were tried under an indictment *852 with five substantive counts charging violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 331 1 and a conspiracy count under 18 U.”
One Cocktail Glass v. State, 565 P.2d 1265 (Alaska 1977). “The Minnesota Supreme Court, in reversing an order for the sale of scrap materials after the destruction of slot machines and the turning over of the proceeds and of the money found within the machines to the county treasurer, said: "The purpose of the statute is to destroy…”
United States v. Barney A. Gertz, Owner of 3,827 Coins Being Likenesses of the 1847 'Hapa Haneri' Issued by the Hawaiian Gov't, 249 F.2d 662 (9th Cir. 1957). “§ 331 , relating to the mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins, is limited, in so far as foreign coins are concerned, to “any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States.”
Madalyn Murray O'Hair v. Jon Murray v. W. Michael Blumenthal, Sec'y of the Treasury, 588 F.2d 1144 (5th Cir. 1979). “§§ 324 and 324(a) requiring the imprinting of the motto on the coin and currency of the United States; and of 18 U.S.C. §§ 331 and 333, which provide criminal penalties for removal of the national motto from United States coin and currency.”
O'HAIR v. Blumenthal, 462 F. Supp. 19 (W.D. Tex. 1978). “Plaintiffs have finally asserted that 18 U.S.C. §§ 331 and 333 violate the free speech and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment because they attach criminal penalties to the removal of the national motto from United States coin and currency.”
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