Banks will often have dye packs that can be mixed in with bills that are given to bank robbers. They’re explosively rigged, so that when triggered, they will contaminate an entire large container full of bills. So the robber is just left with a bunch of weirdly dyed bills that scream “robbery money.”
So, just for entertainment purposes, would it be possible to purchase just the dye used in those cartridges, or a similar dye?
And then imagine you took your own completely legal and taxed currency. You withdraw money right from your account at the ATM. So no actual theft is involved. You withdraw however much you want to dye, dye it, and now you have a large collection of purple money that screams “robbery money!” And then you just spend it as normal, casually handing what appears to be criminal evidence to random services, restaurants, and stores.
Would this be legal? Is there anything preventing you from dying currency, if there is no intention or act of counterfeiting? Can I just dye legal cash purple if I want?
If one actually did this, the obvious risk would be having the cops raid your house thinking you’re a bank robber. But if you were willing to take that risk, maybe didn’t have any weapons or anything illegal in your home? Maybe not so great a concern for some.
But in terms of actual criminal liability, would this be legal? Is there anything legally stopping you from making your town think you’re a gangster who robbed a bank and somehow got away with it?
You don’t need anything special to buy those packs. The dye is made to appear black and easy to wash off, but it’s actually ultraviolet pigmented and nearly impossible to wash off.
That being said, the vast majority of banks I’m familiar with just have known serial straps and/or GPS tracker straps that activate when lifted out of the drawer. Ink is a bit old-fashioned. Especially with network connected counters, it’s easy enough to flag appearances of know serial bills and most robbers aren’t checking the money for lumps from a GPS pack.
Also you may be missing the point of the dye a bit. It’s so potent that it flags counting machines in small quantities and also cops can identify you as a suspect if it’s unknowingly on your clothes, car seat, bag, etc.