Operation LIONCASH

About

Operation LIONCASH is an Anonymous graffiti meme that involves printing a lion face emoticon () over the original portraits on banknotes and releasing them “back into the wild.” According to its mission statement, this global operation seeks to convert all regional currencies into the universal LIONCASH, thus uniting the world by breaking down financial barriers.

Origin

The earliest usage of “lion face” () as an emoticon stems from another meme popularized on 4chan’s /b/ board in 2006. To read more about the origin of lion face, please refer to our entry on JESUS CHRIST IT’S A LION, GET IN THE CAR.

On April 23, 2008, an Anonymous user posted an image of an American dollar banknote with a lion face drawn over George Washington’s. Along with the image, he stated:

“From now on I’m going to add lions to my bill… I wonder how long it will take for another b-tard to see one…
Conversely, I wonder how long it would take America to break if every b-tard put lions on bills…”

How to make LIONCASH

To be recognized as a valid issue of LIONCASH, it should carry the imprint in its proper form: a diamond bracket and a colon followed by a number 3. Aside from banknotes, lion face imprints have been found on coins, personal checks, play money and even credit/debit cards. More in the Photos.

Legality of LIONCASH

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 not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

- Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code

According to the U.S. Bureau of Printing and Engraving, “defacement of currency” is a punishable offense under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service. But due to the lack of legal specifications and reinforcement, it can be said there aren’t any laws that stipulate writing or stamping on dollar bills is illegal per se (ex: stamping Where’s George imprints on dollar bills).

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Websites/Forums

• Lioncash
• Urban Dictionary
• eBaum’s World
• deviantART
• Facebook Group
• Bebo
• /i/nsurgency w/i/ki
• Video Game Memorabilia Museum
• SpreadShirt