Baender v. Barnett

Citations

• 255 U.S. 224
• 41 S. Ct. 271
• 65 L. Ed. 597
• 1921 U.S. LEXIS 1815

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Code, § 169, declaring that whoever, without lawful authority, shall have in possession any die in the likeness or similitude of a die designated, for making genuine coin of the United States shall be punished, is not' intended to make criminal a possession which is. not conscious and willing. P. 225.</p> <p>2. A statute defining a crime in general terms should be so construed as to avoid manifest injustice and possible unconsjfcitutionality. Id.</p> <p>3.. In appropriate, if not necessary, support of the power to coin and regulate the value of money (Const. Art. I, §8, cl. 5), Congress has power-to penalize the conscious arid 'willing possession of dies, as in Crirn. Code, § 169. P. 226.</p> <p>4. The clause relating to the punishment of counterfeiting securities and coin (Const. Art! I, § 8, cl. 6), is not a limitation upon the power to protect the' coinage. Id.</p>