Marking Your Territory?

I've noticed this as well. I think people do this so they can see if they are searching the same coins over and over again.

it's illegal, stupid, and disrespectful,...but yes people are out there doing it

I use a permanent marker to put a thick line at the end of the paper roll, but not on the coins themselves. At this point in my area it's getting harder for me to find any that I haven't gone through.

Sixthcents, Many of us don't have the option to return coin in rolls. We would be asked to unroll the coin because they want to count it. For us, marking coins can provide very valuable information. I marked a few coins when I first started. And I'll do it again when/if I establish a new dump location. There is a lot of information to be provided from finding your marked coins. If I put a unique mark on a coin in June, and I get that coin back, I know that my dump bank is sending coin to the same location I buy coin from. If you know the date and how many you marked, it can help determine if the box you receive is mostly your old coins or mixed with a bunch of other coins. If I mark 10 with the same symbol and get one back every few boxes, I know that I'm at least getting a bunch of coin that I haven't seen. If I get 5 of the 10 in one box, I know that its mostly the same coin I've looked through and I probably need to change something up. Its just about gaining knowledge...not marking territory, at least for me.

That said, I am torn a bit. I hate when I find an error coin that has a sharpie mark. And who's to say I wouldn't put a mark on a coin that someone else wanted to keep. Because of the markings on coin by other CRHers, I pretty much know after just a couple rolls if I'm getting a box of coin that is mostly composed of other dumps. May not be super useful but it does help determine the amount of time and effort I give to the box of coins.

Personally, I'll take the downside with the upside and try to find a happy medium and only mark enough coin to meet my objective.

OO

Not so. One can easily mark 100 half dollars in about 10 seconds. I won't say how.

There is a provision of law making it legal for the coin pressing machines to turn pennies into tokens. Perhaps more of the context of the law seen below doesn't expressly state putting sharpie, nail polish, spray paint, etc. as illegal....but I'd be curious to know if any of those disrespectful enough to mark coins would be inclined to send a picture of their handy work to the Secret Service for confirmation that such defacement is indeed legal.

From the USBEP "Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service."

Permanent marker can be removed with alcohol.

VetStudent, what you quoted from the BEP applies to Federal Reserve Notes, not coins.

However, I agree with you in principle, I do not mark or mutilate coins. Except for the elongated cents, which my four year old son collects (and I am hoping becomes a gateway into our hobby).