I’d like to introduce you to James Charles, he doesn’t design for the mint, but he ought to.  Charles can take an ordinary 5 dollar bill and, with a few touches here and there, can turn it into a $700 work of art!

Some people argue that it is not illegal to draw/ink/create or otherwise alter existing pieces of money. Believing instead that what is illegal is trying to pass that money off as a greater denomination than it represented. Such as counterfeiting 5 dollar bills on top of 1 dollar bills or Xeroxing copies of $100 bills.

If it is illegal the secret service must have bigger fish to fry. They haven’t shut down the famous ‘Where’s George’ (www.wheresgeorge.com) bill tracking movement.  I’ve seen more than a few bills with that website stamped across Washington’s face.

Even if it were against the law it would have to be forgivable. It’s that good.

Anyone able to turn 100 (Ben Franklin), 50 (Ulysses S. Grant), 20 (Andrew Jackson), and 10 (Alexander Hamilton) dollar bills into the band mates from ‘Kiss’ is an art master.

 

Charles’ subjects are pop icons, musicians, actors, politicians, artists etc.

I am partial to the bills he devotes to the artists. Notably, the Vincent Van Gogh, the Salvador Dali.

Followed second by those he’d done of fictional movie characters. Such as the 1931 Frankenstein’s monster and his bride, or the Oompa Loompa! Love that one!

If I can’t own one of these altered greenbacks, then I want to learn how to make them myself!