Where's Willy?® and the Law

and

the Law

Is marking bills legal? Read this page and find out!

So, you're down at the local bank, getting your weekly stack of bills to enter on Where's Willy?®. The teller, a little suspicious of the large stack of $5 bills you always get every week, asks what you do with them all:

Bank teller: I'm curious. You always order a bazillion $5 bills every Friday. What do you do with them all?

WW user: Oh, I enter the serial numbers on Where's Willy?®, a currency tracking website. Then I mark the bills with the website and spend them. When people find and enter them, I find out how far they traveled. It's a lot of fun!

Bank teller: So it's you marking up all of those bills that I see all the time? What's the matter with you?! Don't you know it's illegal to deface government property?! You could go to jail for marking up these bills like this!!

WW user: No way! It is not illegal.

Bank teller: It most certainly is! Defacing bills is illegal and you can get in a lot of trouble for doing this!

WW user: Marking bills with a pen or rubber stamp is not defacing, and even if it were, it still is not illegal.

Bank teller: That's what you think! I've been in this business for 30 years, and under the terms of the Bank Act, defacing bills is illegal. I should report you to the RCMP!

WW user: It looks like you're a decade behind the times! At one time, defacement of bills was indeed illegal, but this is no longer the case:

"At one time, the Bank Act contained a section that prohibited the mutilation and defacement of bank notes. Section 311 of the Bank Act was repealed in 1993. It was not added to the current version of the Bank Act nor was it added to any other legislation. It is therefore no longer an offence to deface or mutilate paper money."

-Sylvie Dionne, Bank Note Communications and Compliance Team, Bank of Canada.

Bank teller: Okay, so it's not illegal. But you're costing the taxpayers money, because these bills now have to be destroyed and replaced. And they have to cut down trees to make the paper, so it's bad for the environment, too! So it's still wrong, even if it isn't illegal.

WW user: Also wrong! First of all, Canadian bank notes are made from 100% renewable cotton, not from wood pulp. No trees are cut down to make paper money.

Secondly, marking them is perfectly fine. The Bank of Canada says a bill is unfit for circulation "when it is damaged, worn, soiled, discoloured, or mutilated. A note is also unfit if it is heavily creased or has a tattered appearance, indicating that the fibre of the paper is broken and that disintegration has begun." So there you have it. They're no problem with marking bills.

Bank teller: But wait! That paragraph says "mutilated." Now that you've written on them, they are mutilated and have to be destroyed.

WW user: FALSE! Check the definition of mutilated. Ripping a bill into pieces is mutilating. Writing or rubber stamping clearly isn't.

Bank teller: Well, that's totally subjective. I still think they are mutilated when marked, and have to be taken out of circulation. I always send them in to be destroyed.

WW user: Oh really? You really shouldn't do that! It's then YOU that's costing taxpayers money. Look at what the Bank of Canada has to say about what bills are fit for keeping in circulation:

"A 'fit' note is a note of the current series that is clean enough that its denomination and authenticity can readily be determined and is sufficiently stiff to be handled with ease."

So there you have it! Marking bills discreetly is not a problem. It's not like we're adding a zero to a $10 bill to make it look like a $100 bill!

Bank teller: Well, gee. I guess it is okay after all. But the Bank of Canada still can't be too pleased about it.

WW user: Well, the Bank of Canada doesn't specifically encourage marking bills, nor do they endorse Where's Willy?®, but they really don't care one way or another. In fact, in a radio interview, a Bank of Canada official even stated that anything that increases the profile, the exposure, or raises public knowledge and awareness of Canada's national currency is just fine by them.

Bank teller: So they know this site exists and don't try to get it shut down?

WW user: Of course not! In fact, the Bank of Canada recently gave the operator of the Where's Willy?® site permission to use one of their copyrighted bank note images.

Bank teller: Well, that certainly is a surprise. Well, I guess I'll change my ways and turn marked bills back loose again.

WW user: Excellent, just like this teller did! And be sure to enter them on the Where's Willy?® site when you get them. Maybe you'll get hooked on Where's Willy?® too!

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