Banknotes.

[AndThenSome]

Is writing on them illegal?

[Buenchico]

"If any person prints or stamps, or by any like means impresses, on any bank note any words, letters or figures, he shall, in respect of each offence, be liable on summary conviction to a penalty not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale" (Section 12, Currency and Banknotes Act 1928, as amended by later legislation).

The maximum 'level 1' fine is £200.

Chris

[AndThenSome]

Cheers chris, i knew there was an old law somewhere!

So is the reason it goes unenforced because its nearly impossible to prove who wrote what, or is it just one of those funny old laws like these...


# 1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27%)

# 2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the
British king or queen's image upside-down (7%)

# 3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a
clerk in a tropical fish store (6%)

# 4. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned (5%)

# 5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use
of your toilet, you are required to let them enter (4%)

# 6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere
she wants, including in a policeman's helmet (4%)

# 7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast
automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the
Queen (3.5%)

# 8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want
him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him
knowing (3%)

# 9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of
armour (3%)

# 10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls
of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (2%)

[fredpuli47]

Oh, good. So merely writing on a bank note isn't an offence under the 1928 Act, then? "If any person prints or stamps or by any like means impresses" means by some mechanical device or tool, such as a stamp or a die.Surely,if the draftsman meant 'write' he had have said so and certainly wouldn't have explained or expanded the foregoing words with 'by any like means".

That's a relief.

[Gmcd01]

I refuse to (yet again) get reeled into explaining why such stupid suggestions as #10 are completely ridiculous. All due respect AndThenSome, but come on, be serious. Tell you what, I dare you to try it. Go on, see what happens :-)

[fredpuli47]

Agreed Gmc. The 'topless clerk" must be from an American site. What's a clerk in a store? And what are the percentages in brackets for?Are they the percentage of Americans who believed each statement?

[sophie_1003]

the first one is true though

[hc4361]

The per centage thing is because AndThenSome copied and pasted from a poll where people were asked to vote on the law they believed to be the most absurd.
http://www.theregiste...11/07/absurdest_laws/

[Gmcd01]

A couple are true, Sophie_1003. #8 is true, but only if one puts a humourous spin on reading the legislation. It doesn't say such a thing in the laws.
So people believe that the ability to legally kill a Scotsman is the least absurd thing? Perhaps that reflects the lack of respect for human life! Or maybe it's because nobody actually believes it's true.

[fredpuli47]

#1 is not true.Under what statute or provision of the common law is it illegal to die anywhere, let alone the Houses of Parliament ? Who'd be prosecuted? The idea has, perhaps, come from what happens if an MP dies in the House. The House is part of a Royal Palace, 'the Palace of Westminster' and there's a right palaver if someone dies in a Royal Palace and so, unless they happen to be royalty, the fiction is employed that they died elsewhere, usually in whatever hospital their body were taken to . Then any inquest is held by the usual coroner for that place and and all the legal formalities of registration of death etc conducted on that basis. This fiction has been employed in every recent case of a death in Parliament.

# 8, is true if as stated above, it's read humorously. It provides an example of one of the very few instances in our law where there's no privilege against self-incrimination and there's no right to remain silent.You are obliged, by law, to answer the taxman!

[sophie_1003]

oh, i had heard from an MP that number 1 was true, obviously no-one could be prosecuted but there are some other strange laws about dying so thought he was telling the truth (he probably thought it was true to be fair!) thanks for clearing it up though!

[fredpuli47]

Yes, Sophie , the law about dying which always raises a smile with me (and it really shouldn't) is the provision that, if, for example, I murder my wife and bury her in the garden the police may charge me with failing to inform the coroner. It's not the burial in the garden that's the trouble, just the failure to inform. The police sometimes use the coroner offence as a holding charge when they can't immediately establish cause or circumstances of death.It's quite common for an offender to say that the victim died by accident or was found dead but they panicked and buried the deceased because they feared they'd be wrongly held responsible.Unfortunately I can't think of a case where offering a plea of guilty to that but not guilty to murder or manslaughter was accepted by the Prosecution as sufficient. Still, it might be worth a try!