18 U.S.C. § 333
Section 333 · Mutilation of national bank obligations
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case United States v. Mitcheltree (1991)
Most recently applied in 112 F. Supp. 3d 1185 - United States v. Arevalo (June 2015)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
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.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §291 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §176, 35 Stat. 1122).
Words “or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System” were inserted because the paper of such banks has almost supplanted national bank currency.
Reference to persons causing or procuring was omitted as unnecessary in view of definition of “principal” in section 2 of this title.
Minor changes in phraseology were made.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $100”.