Have You Seen This Bill?

Have you seen this bill (Photo – Melissa Michelson

Looking for a fun educational activity to do with the family or just something to do to take your mind of things while sending out an important message?

By Melissa Michelson

Ben Cohen of Ben n’ Jerry’s ice cream co-founded an endeavor to literally stamp money out of politics. You can order affordable stamps with various messages on them, such as “Corporations are not People,” “The System isn’t Broken, it’s Fixed,” or simply “Stamp $$ out of politics.” (stampstampede.org).

When paying with stamped bills, they often catch the cashier’s attention and spark conversation. In other words, a message that many of us can agree with gets circulated.

Is it legal?

The answer is a simple “yes.”  As long as the currency isn’t defaced to the point that it can no longer be used as such, or as long as the bill isn’t being used for commercial advertising, it will stay in circulation. However, when deposited in a bank, the cash will be taken out of circulation. (More info about stamping legalities).

How does it work?

According to The Stampede website, “All stamps include a unique Stamper ID with a note for the person who finds a stamped bill to report it on our website. That enables you to be notified in real time when a bill you stamped is reported. It also gets added to your tally on the following leaderboards,” and you can compete in the Society of Stampers nationwide.

When someone finds the bill, they can report it found, and they accumulate points toward a free stamp of their own. The Stamper Leaderboards show how top stampers rank, a list of recent sightings of their bills, along with a mapped record of all previous stamped bills found from that stamper.

The user-friendly Stampede website has more information about purchasing stamps, email signatures, related videos about the movement to get corporate money out of politics, and proven tips on the best place to stamp on the bill.

Happy stamping!

> The person that spotted my bill reported it and sent it with a photo, complete with Coronavirus gloves.