With the impending June 15th release date of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, promotions for the movie are in full swing. 20th Century Fox’s latest promotion for the film, however, has been said to be illegal and the studio could face potential penalties and fines from the U.S. Government. So what exactly did they do?
20th Century Fox teamed up with The Franklin Mint to alter approximately 40,000 U.S. Quarters to feature the Silver Surfer character. The coins used were quarters honoring the state of California which entered circulation in 2005. As usual, they feature George Washington on the front, but the back of the coin has been changed to show a colorized version of the character on back. If you happen to find one of these coins in your change, hold on to it. Fans who find one can enter a contest online to win prizes and a private screening of the movie.
It sounds like a reasonable enough contest that someone obviously put some creative thought into, but unfortunately, it’s highly illegal. You see, in the U.S. it is illegal to intentionally alter or deface currency. Don’t believe me? Consult the United States Code, TITLE 18 – Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Part I – Crimes, Chapter 17 – Coins and Currency, § 333. Mutilation of national bank obligations, which states:
“Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or
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, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System,
with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence
of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than six months, or both.â€
The US Mint said they learned of the promotional quarter this week, and advised the studio and The Franklin Mint that they were breaking the law. The Franklin Mint, however, contends that they’ve not broken the law, but will take whatever means necessary to correct the mistake or issue. But it’s too little, too late as the coins have already been defaced and released into the wild.
Ooops. Someone made a big boo-boo.
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Ryan said
May 29 2007 @ 1:13 pm
Yeah the Franklin Mint is a joke, they have been making “colorized” coins for years, usually it is just snowmen and santa claus etc, the Franklin Mint is mostly a granny site.
They sell mini busts of Marilyn Monroe, angels riding unicorns, etc, mostly just junk, but the coloring coins thing they have done for many years.
Mike Mohammed said
June 15 2007 @ 3:35 am
Hm. It don’t surprise me too much that the Franklin Mint lacks someone with the common sense to think, “hey, this might be illegal.”
But come on, Fox, don’t you have lawyers?
I mean… for fuck’s sake. In high school we did some stupid experiment involving dissolving the nickel inside a penny in acid, leaving only the copper shell. And the obscure educational company that wrote the lab manual thought to include a note about why dissolving pennies isn’t illegal (the answer, I think, was that pennies suck and deserve to die).
20th century fox…. for the first time ever, I’m disappointed in your judgment.