Sonoma ATM issues bills ‘mutilated’ with political messages

John Brians went to the bank one day last week and withdrew $300 from the ATM, put the bills in his wallet and went back to work at his store, the Frame Factory on West Napa – where he found that six of the bills had been stamped with a political message.

"What’s this?“ he thought to himself.

“Trump 2020 – Keep America Great!” in bright red ink was emblazoned on the back side of the $20 bills.

“It’s a federal violation to deform money,” he told the Index-Tribune. He took the bills back to the Exchange Bank, and let the teller know where the bills came from – their ATM.

Carolyn Cole-Schweizen, corporate communications and social media manager at Exchange Bank, had not heard of the incident but said tellers often receive “mutilated” bills, which they exchange for “clean” bills without question.

“It is unfortunate, and when bills are marked like that they have to be destroyed,” she said. “Any time bills are stamped or damaged in any way they are sent back and slated for destruction.” The bills are eventually returned to the Federal Reserve Bank for destruction and replacement.

The money that is loaded into the ATM is delivered in bundles, and it’s impossible to look at every bill, especially the back side where such messaging is usually stamped, said Cole-Schweizen.

Brians’ discovery was only the latest, most local chapter of a political story that has been roiling for about eight years, when in 2012 Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream started a grassroots campaign called Stamp Stampede. It supported a proposed 28th amendment to overturn Citizens United v. FEC and other cases, that would declare that money is not free speech and corporations are not people.

Calling it “a really cost-effective form of guerrilla marketing,” Cohen began distributing ink-and-rubber stamp kits with slogans such as “Money is Not Free Speech” and “Stamp Money Out of Politics.” He put together a mobile novelty van that let people insert dollar bills for automatic stamping, and for a time traveled around the country promoting the campaign from the Amend-O-Matic Stamp Mobile.

What about that defacing-the-money charge? Cohen said at the time that "It's a fairly commonly held view that putting marks on dollar bills is not legal, but that's not the case,” arguing that the stamping of U.S. currency is protected as "expressive conduct" under the First Amendment as long as it does not promote a specific candidate or business.

Does “Trump 2020 - Keep America Great!” endorse a given candidate? Indeed it would appear so. But that doesn’t mean that Amazon.com can’t offer the “Donald Trump 2020 Stamp by 'Merican Stamping Co.” for purchase in its online megastore.

Amazon’s “office supplies/stamps” category page also includes copy from Stamp Stampede saying, in part, “We’re not defacing U.S. currency, we’re decorating dollars!”

The ‘Merican Stamping markets four self-inking stamps with similar pro-Trump messages and, among the comments on the Amazon page from “Verified Purchasers,” are gloating boasts of wide distribution, that the stamps “Make liberals Democrats get triggered & hate!” and complaints about the poor quality of the ink pad.

One comment reminds people to stamp the message on the back of the bills so the teller doesn’t see it. “You want it to reach (the) drawer.” The company that sells them, the ‘Merican Stamping Co., was started in 2019 according to its Facebook page, listed as a political organization.

Exchange Bank’s Cole-Schweizen emphasized that the bank itself doesn’t stamp or mark any currency, and doesn’t have a political preference. She said people can exchange bills for any reason—worn, torn, smoky or stamped—and they will be replaced.

Meanwhile Stamp Stampede is continuing to sell and promote its more left-leaning stamps, with messages – and the stampstampede.org website includes a legal argument from “Alan Levine, Esq. noted constitutional lawyer and professor,” that it’s not illegal to stamp, use, deposit or accept money with a political message, as it’s a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment.

Edward Erikson, campaign director of Stamp Stampede, said that since the campaign started in 2012, they’ve sold 114,000 stampers, and have about 50 bill sightings reported daily and logged on their website. He also pointed out in an email to the Index-Tribune that, “As a tactic money stamping goes back a really long time, Romans protesting the empire use to X out Caesar’s face on coins” among other examples. “It's not surprising to see a political campaign use it. “

It’s like the old Scoop Nisker line, “If you don’t like the stamp on your money, go out and stamp some of your own!”

Email Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.