Forging or counterfeiting revenue stamps

Forging or counterfeiting revenue stamps

a. Any person who falsely or fraudulently makes, forges, alters, or counterfeits, or causes or procures to be falsely or fraudulently made, forged, altered, or counterfeited, any stamps prepared or prescribed by the director under the authority of this act, or who knowingly and willfully utters, publishes, passes, or tenders as true, any such false, altered, forged or counterfeited stamp, or uses any stamp provided for and required by this act, which has already once been used, for the purpose of evading the tax hereby imposed, shall be guilty of a crime of the third degree.

b. Any person who secures, manufactures, or causes to be secured or manufactured, or has in his possession any stamp or any counterfeit impression device not prescribed or authorized by the director under the authority of this act, shall be guilty of a crime of the third degree and such fact shall be prima facie evidence that such person has counterfeited stamps.

c. Any person who has in his possession packages of cigarettes in a quantity equal to or greater than 2,000 cigarettes to which are affixed counterfeit stamps or impressions shall be guilty of a crime of the third degree.

Possession of such packages or cigarettes shall be deemed sufficient evidence to authorize conviction, unless the accused shall show to the satisfaction of the court (1) that when he bought the cigarettes he knew or made inquiries sufficient to satisfy a reasonable man, that the seller was in a regular and established business for dealing in cigarettes and was so licensed and (2) that the amount paid by him for the cigarettes represented its fair and reasonable value and that he received an invoice for the same.

d. (Deleted by amendment, P.L. 1987, c. 76.)

L. 1948, c. 65, s. 606; amended by L. 1950, c. 134, s. 5; 1968, c. 351, s. 7; 1987, c. 76, s. 41.