Fun With Rubber:
Jerry's Hobby
The following was published in an on-line Freethought newsletter:
An inked impression found on a five-dollar bill indicates that a unique rubber stamp is on the market. The stamp is designed to obliterate the "In God We Trust" jingle on Federal notes. The stamp image has two portions. For covering over "In God We Trust," there's a raised surface, shaped as a horizontal, solid rectangle. Below that panel is a two-word political message: "Atheist Money."
Jerry Responds:
As the originator and author of the "Atheist Money" stamp, I am curious as to where the bill was found. As far as I know, nobody outside of the Portland, Oregon, area is marking their bills with this stamp. Anybody is welcome to have a stamp made; it is a simple two-line rubber stamp that costs very little.
One of the beauties of this stamp (outside of pissing off the Christians) is that it renders the bill useless for machines that accept bills -- and that includes bank equipment. This forces banks to return the bills to the Federal Reserve Bank where it is destroyed. If everyone marks their money, maybe the treasury would prefer to leave the advertising off our currency -- or at least sell the space to the highest bidder. Instead of In God We Trust how would you like to see "Drive a Ford" or "You Deserve a Break Today" on your money? One way to help to reduce the national debt, isn't it?
As a last resort, one can take a pen and obliterate the offensive words. I have done this many, many times because I just don't spend money unless I deface it first to get rid of a phrase that I find personally abhorrent. I am of the opinion that my first amendment rights of free speech are superior to any law forbidding the defacing of money. Surely defacing currency is no worse than burning the flag and the US Supreme Court has found this latter activity to be a form of protected speech. I am also informed that this practice is not illegal but I make no claim that it is or it isn't. Dozens of clerks have asked what I was doing. I always show them and explain that I objected to printing advertising on our money. I have never had my money rejected.
Jerry Billings in Portland Oregon