Are you breaking GA laws when you write on cash or toss pennies away?
Whether you’ve scribbled a note on a dollar bill or considered tossing a few coins, you may have wondered: Is that legal?
The short answer is yes, kind of.
Here’s what Georgia residents should know about the rules for writing on money and discarding coins.
Writing on money is legal, with some exceptions
A lot of people assume it’s illegal to write on paper money, but that’s not always the case. Federal law prohibits altering bills only when the intent is to make them unusable or to commit fraud.
Under Title 18, Section 333 of the U.S. Code, it’s illegal to “mutilate, cut, deface, disfigure, or perforate” currency if you’re trying to change it so that it is unfit for reissue.
That means:
Writing a note, doodling or stamping a message on a bill is (usually) allowed
The money must still be functional and recognizable
Intent matters—altering for fraud or destruction is where it becomes illegal
According to The Stampede, as long as the bill still works and isn’t being used for advertising or deception, you’re likely in the clear, but there are some specific restrictions:
You can’t change the denomination (e.g., turning a $1 into a $100)
You can’t use the bill to promote a business or website
You can’t destroy or damage it to the point it’s no longer usable
You can (technically) throw away money in Georgia
Georgia has no state law that prohibits throwing away coins, including pennies. On the federal level however, the law mainly targets melting coins for their metal or altering them for counterfeit purposes.
Throwing out small amounts of coins is legal, but discouraged. Sure, it’s wasteful, but it can also be a little suspicious. It can raise questions if done in large amounts or if it seems you intend to profit from the metal.
The U.S. Mint does have rules against destruction or melting of nickels and pennies. The Federal Register says the rule is “to ensure that sufficient quantities of 5-cent and one-cent coins remain in circulation to meet the needs of the United States.”
The bottom line is that writing on bills is legal if the money can still circulate and you can’t stamp “shop at Bob’s” on the bill. Tossing a few pennies in the trash isn’t really breaking the law, but is also not the best way to get rid of that unwanted change.
Just buy a piggy bank. What do you do when you get a bill with writing on it and how do you store your spare change? Email me at srose@ledger-enquirer.com or find me on social media.
This story was originally published June 2, 2025 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Are you breaking GA laws when you write on cash or toss pennies away?."
