yes alive ones are brown dead ones are white
If they are tan and hard they are most likely dead. Sometimes they might be slightly alive if they are fuzzy and have some color.
They live in water, if found on dry shore, they are dead or dieing! , try to throw it back into deep water!
Sand Dollars are the carcasses of dead sea urchins, and when alive, they eat though a mouth.
Yes it is extremely rare to find sand dollars on the jersey shore.
only if they are still alive, if they are still alive return to water, if dead you can collect.
nonliving
At first it was not known that the sand dollars are living things. People thought (myth) it was like a large coin and that it was the coin/dollar used by the sea mermaids. It was found on beach sands. hence the name sand dollars.
AT THE BAECH WHEN IT IS LOWTIDE
Sand dollars usually are in the water, yes, but they are found on the shore because they are brought in by the tide. They aren't acctually living, they are like a type of shell, but only flat.
Sand dollars are born from eggs. The female sand dollar releases eggs into the water, where they are fertilized by males. The fertilized eggs develop into larvae that float in the ocean before eventually settling to the seabed and metamorphosing into adult sand dollars.
Assuming you mean the skeleton of a sand dollar after it's dead, no it's not illegal. You can collect as many as you want. I don't think there is a restriction on keeping live sand dollars in salt water aquariums, but they are a shrinking population.
Click on the link for a picture on a different website.