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Uncut Currency

usmint.gov

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Re: Uncut Currency

#341

Post by tedunangst »

bossyTeacher wrote: post #337
type_enthusiast wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Wozniak famously would get a bunch of $2 uncut sheets, and have them perforated and bound into a tear-off book. Then, he would dramatically produce the book and tear out a sheet of them to pay for things, as a sort of gag. I think it got him investigated by the Secret Service at one point.

> I think it got him investigated by the Secret Service at one point. Is it illegal?

It is discouraged to well actually I didn't technically say that they were counterfeit although someone who is not as very smart as me may have incorrectly concluded that from my ambiguous statements.

Re: Uncut Currency

#342

Post by yellowapple »

switchbak wrote: post #274
lupire wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per influencer rules, if you screws around neither someone's head for lolz, you should pay them combat wages for their time afterward.

"if you screws around neither someone's head for lolz" ... are you having a stroke right now? What is that supposed to mean?

Maybe someone screwsed around neither his head for lolz?

Re: Uncut Currency

#343

Post by supernova87a »

rtkwe wrote: post #209
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> surely a change of the design is possible too It's changed plenty of times [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_d...

The printed design has remained the same but the form factor has been pretty static for the last century or so. Things like bill readers are a big reason for that once they appeared it became a lot harder to swap around bill shapes.

I remember hearing that the Susan B Anthony dollar coin failed because there was no extra position in the coin drawer of cash registers to put it in. Can you image if every cash drawer now has to be redesigned to have different sized bills?

(I know, I know, it's not actually that big a deal. The drawers have removable inserts, but you get the point of it.)

(actually, on second though, automatic bill readers in vending machines, etc. would need a big retrofitting, that's probably much more a big deal).

Re: Uncut Currency

#344

Post by valarauko »

kube-system wrote: post #336
valarauko wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems ... odd. I can pay my apartment rent with a debit card with a fixed transaction fee (eg, $999.99 and up to $1,999.99 the service fee is $4.95), while covering it with a credit card has a different fee structure of a flat 2.95%. This is with Rent Cafe in NYC, and from what I can tell, it's a very widespread platform across the country. The 2.95% fee specific to credit cards will wipe out the points earned f…

Platforms like RentCafe are highly configurable to support local laws, because the nature of landlord/tenant law is that it is highly variable by state. Going though that same effort is a waste of time and implementation budget for something like selling novelty bills.

Fair enough - in which case the Mint just needs to pad the sale price a bit to cover interchange fees, and make a little extra on top, and shipping can be extra. 10% on top of the face value should be more than enough, and would have the side effect of sapping any would be manufactured spend. Yet the prices on the Mint are way above that - it looks like more than 50%. Sure, if the novelty or collector market values it at that premium, great. What I struggle to understand is that this is primarily to combat manufactured spend. I still don't see why manufactured spend is a problem for the Mint to solve, rather than the credit card companies.

Re: Uncut Currency

#346

Post by thebruce87m »

unregistereddev wrote: post #325
muhammadusman wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

kinda off topic but since you're an expert here: what do people do with these uncut sheets? Is it mainly for collectors? also, my favorite form of getting currency is $2 bills in a 100 stack (so $200) from the bank. I used to use these for gift money on holidays :) but unfortunately my credit union doesn't order new stacks anymore, just jumbled up old $2 bills now.

Woz pays a print shop to perforate them so that he can troll people by tearing perforated bills off a sheet and handing them out. If anyone asks where he got them, he says "Oh I have some friends at a print shop that do these up for me" and leaves out the part where they started as uncut sheets of legal currency. https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n36a40.html I wouldn't advise doing this. Story goes he's been pulled…

Shame the link in the article to read the rest of the story doesn’t work

Edit: full story: https://web.archive.org/web/20180311084811/http://archive.wo...

Re: Uncut Currency

#347

Post by jabroni_salad »

thebruce87m wrote: post #346
unregistereddev wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woz pays a print shop to perforate them so that he can troll people by tearing perforated bills off a sheet and handing them out. If anyone asks where he got them, he says "Oh I have some friends at a print shop that do these up for me" and leaves out the part where they started as uncut sheets of legal currency. https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n36a40.html I wouldn't advise doing this. Story goes he's been pulled…

Shame the link in the article to read the rest of the story doesn’t work Edit: full story: https://web.archive.org/web/20180311084811/http://archive.wo...

Could just watch Mr woz explain it directly: https://youtu.be/LJ1TIYxm1vM?si=o2GHQaFirc9_alwe

I will point out since this site is full of professional pedants, Woz plainly enjoys the art and craft of exaggerating stories and not correcting interviewers :)

Re: Uncut Currency

#348

Post by kube-system »

valarauko wrote: post #344
kube-system wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Platforms like RentCafe are highly configurable to support local laws, because the nature of landlord/tenant law is that it is highly variable by state. Going though that same effort is a waste of time and implementation budget for something like selling novelty bills.

Fair enough - in which case the Mint just needs to pad the sale price a bit to cover interchange fees, and make a little extra on top, and shipping can be extra. 10% on top of the face value should be more than enough, and would have the side effect of sapping any would be manufactured spend. Yet the prices on the Mint are way above that - it looks like more than 50%. Sure, if the novelty or collector market values i…

> What I struggle to understand is that this is primarily to combat manufactured spend.

I agree with you, it is well known that these collector products are intended to generate revenue.

Also, they literally have their pricing rationale in their FAQs:

https://www.usmint.gov/help-center/most-popular-questions.ht...

> We cannot use any tax dollars to fund our numismatic operations.

> The United States Mint’s numismatic programs are self-sustaining and operate at no cost to the taxpayer. Any excess funds are returned to the Treasury General Fund to reduce the annual budget deficit of the federal government.

Re: Uncut Currency

#349

Post by extraduder_ire »

tejtm wrote: post #96
Stratoscope wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, what? You have doubts about Steve Wozniak's character? Anyone who knows Woz can assure you that he is quite a character!

and a laser safety officer https://www.geekculture.com/mt2/archives/2018/02/wozs_laser_...

The eyepatch in his photo is a nice touch.

Re: Uncut Currency

#350

Post by charlieyu1 »

nlh wrote: post #154

(Professional coin & currency nerd here) Fun fact about these — when the treasury first issued these, many people decided to cut them into odd off-center pieces and sell the resulting notes as miscut errors. Once that started happening, the treasury (BEP to be specific) very quickly changed the serial numbers so they’re all very recognizable as having come from an uncut sheet. I didn’t check the latest for all denomi…

People do the same with uncut sheets of MTG cards, but I doubt these will sell for high enough to be worthwhile
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