Legal Reproduction of U.S. Currency: Size, Color, and Coin Rules

The legal reproduction of U.S. currency is allowed under federal law if you follow three core rules: the image must be smaller than 75 percent or larger than 150 percent of the real bill’s linear dimensions, color reproductions must be printed on only one side, and every file, plate, and negative used to make the image must be destroyed after final use. These conditions come from 18 U.S.C. § 504 and 31 CFR Part 411, the regulations the Treasury issued after the Counterfeit Deterrence Act of 1992 directed it to permit color illustrations under controlled conditions.¹ Break any of them and you are exposed to counterfeiting charges, which are class B felonies.

The 75/150 Percent Size Rule

Every illustration of a U.S. bill has to be either less than 75 percent or more than 150 percent of the real bill’s size, measured in linear dimensions.² Length and width are measured independently, and the same threshold appears in both 18 U.S.C. § 504 and 31 CFR § 411.1, so it governs black-and-white and color work alike.³

The regulation refers to the “linear dimension of each part,” so you can’t scale the overall image and let a recognizable portion of the bill land inside the forbidden range. Measure against the real bill’s 6.14-by-2.61-inch dimensions on both axes. Working at roughly 60 or 65 percent gives you a safety margin; landing at 74.9 percent invites an argument you don’t want to have. Anything between 75 and 150 percent is flatly illegal regardless of context.

Color vs. Black-and-White Rules

The default rule in 18 U.S.C. § 504 is that printed illustrations of U.S. obligations and securities have to be in black and white.³ A black-and-white illustration still has to meet the 75/150 percent size rule and still requires destruction of negatives and plates after final use, but that is the whole picture.

Color reproductions exist only because § 504 told the Treasury to write regulations permitting them. Those regulations are 31 CFR Part 411, and they stack three conditions at once: the size restriction, one-sidedness, and destruction of production materials.² If you’re working in color, expect a stricter framework than a black-and-white illustrator faces, with the one-sidedness rule as the main additional burden.

The One-Sided Requirement for Color Prints

A color reproduction of a U.S. bill has to be printed on only one side of the medium.² You cannot print the front of a bill on one side of a sheet and the back on the other, even if both images are dramatically oversized. A two-sided reproduction could be folded or cut and pass a quick visual check; a one-sided print cannot.

The rule targets opposite sides of the same physical surface. Printing the obverse on page 3 of a booklet and the reverse on page 4 is fine, because those are different sheets. Screens do not have a “back,” so the one-sidedness issue doesn’t arise for digital displays, but electronic reproductions carry their own constraints.

Digital and On-Screen Reproductions

18 U.S.C. § 504 says electronic reproduction of obligations and securities isn’t permitted unless the Secretary of the Treasury authorizes it, and it tells the Secretary to build a system that doesn’t unduly restrict legitimate use by businesses, hobbyists, and the press.³ Treasury implemented that authorization through 31 CFR § 411.1, which explicitly covers “digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, [and] optical storage devices.”⁴

A color currency image on your website, in an app, or in a digital publication still has to comply with the 75/150 percent size rule. The measurement applies to the image’s print dimensions at native resolution, not to its pixel count. A 4,000-pixel-wide image that displays at two inches on screen can still violate the rule if someone prints it at native resolution and lands inside the prohibited range. Keep both the display size and the native resolution well outside the 75 to 150 percent window.

Destroying Files, Plates, and Negatives

Both § 504 and § 411.1 require you to destroy everything used to create the reproduction once you’re finished. The statute says “negatives and plates used in making the illustrations shall be destroyed after their final use.”³ The regulation goes further, requiring destruction, deletion, or erasure of all negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage media, graphic files, magnetic media, optical storage devices, and anything else containing the image.⁴

Compliance tends to fall apart here. A designer finishes the job and forgets about the layered Photoshop file sitting in a cloud backup, or the high-resolution scan on a shared drive. The regulation doesn’t care about your intent; retaining those files after the project ends is itself a violation. When your print run, publication, or digital project is finalized, delete the source files, empty your trash or recycle bin, and remove any cloud-synced copies. Physical plates and film negatives have to be physically destroyed, not just boxed up.

Reproducing Coins

Coin reproductions run on much looser rules than paper currency. Flat images of coins in a textbook, on a website, or in a catalog aren’t subject to the size or one-sidedness restrictions that apply to bills.² Educational materials routinely show actual-size photos of coins, and that’s fine so long as the image stays on a flat medium like paper or a screen.

What you cannot do is create physical objects that could be confused with real coins. Federal law prohibits making any token, disk, or device that resembles a U.S. or foreign coin in design, color, or inscription, unless the Secretary of the Treasury authorizes it.⁵ Arcade tokens and novelty coins are legal when they look nothing like real currency; the problem arises when someone manufactures objects designed to pass as genuine.

Physically altering real coins is governed by 18 U.S.C. § 331, which makes it illegal to alter, deface, or mutilate U.S. or circulating foreign coins with fraudulent intent.⁶ The word “fraudulently” does all the work. Tourist penny-press machines that flatten pennies into souvenirs are legal because nobody is trying to spend the result. Shaving edges off pennies to pass them as dimes in a vending machine is a federal crime carrying up to five years in prison.

Film, Television, and Advertising

Film and television get a carve-out. 18 U.S.C. § 504 permits motion-picture films, microfilms, and slides of U.S. currency for projection on a screen or use in telecasting.³ The catch is that you cannot make prints or other reproductions from that footage without Treasury permission. That’s why prop money on a set typically bears markings like “FOR MOTION PICTURE USE ONLY” and often uses noticeably different sizing. The physical props still have to comply with the general reproduction rules; only the filmed or projected image gets the § 504(3) safe harbor.

Placing a business advertisement on something that resembles U.S. currency is separately prohibited by 18 U.S.C. § 475. You cannot create a flyer, business card, circular, or handbill that looks like a bill or other U.S. obligation, and you cannot stamp or attach an advertisement directly onto real currency.⁷ This is the provision that makes fake $100 bills used as restaurant promotions or church handouts legally risky. The only exception is approved evidence of postage payment from the U.S. Postal Service.

Foreign Currency

The 31 CFR Part 411 size, one-sidedness, and destruction rules apply only to U.S. currency. They don’t reach foreign banknotes. That doesn’t leave you free to reproduce foreign money any way you like. Under 18 U.S.C. § 504, illustrations of foreign government notes, bonds, and securities follow the same basic framework as U.S. obligations: black and white, with the 75/150 percent size restriction and destruction of production materials afterward.³

Penalties escalate fast. Under 18 U.S.C. § 481, possessing or creating plates, digital images, or other tools for counterfeiting foreign banknotes or securities carries a fine and up to 25 years in prison.⁸ Many foreign governments also have their own reproduction laws that apply regardless of where the reproduction is made, so a Euro or British pound illustration for a U.S.-based publication can trigger legal exposure abroad too.

Penalties for Non-Compliant Reproductions

The most serious charge, producing or possessing counterfeit currency or the tools to make it, falls under 18 U.S.C. § 474 and is a class B felony carrying up to 25 years in federal prison.⁹ Lesser violations carry lighter but still significant consequences:

Advertising on currency likenesses under 18 U.S.C. § 475: a fine, with no specified imprisonment term.⁷
Making coin-like tokens or devices under 18 U.S.C. § 489: a fine and potential forfeiture of the equipment used.⁵
Fraudulent coin alteration under 18 U.S.C. § 331: up to five years in prison and a fine.⁶

The United States Secret Service enforces these provisions. Retaining production materials after a project ends, reproducing a bill within the prohibited size range, or printing a color illustration on both sides of a sheet can each independently trigger an investigation, even where the person had no intent to pass the reproduction as genuine currency. Intent matters for some charges but not all, and ignorance of the specific regulatory requirements has never been a successful defense in this area.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 470 – Counterfeit Acts Committed Outside the United States – Section: Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
2
eCFR. 31 CFR Part 411 – Color Illustrations of United States Currency
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 504 – Printing and Filming of United States and Foreign Obligations and Securities
4
eCFR. 31 CFR 411.1 – Color Illustrations Authorized
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 489 – Making or Possessing Likeness of Coins
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 331 – Mutilation, Diminution, and Falsification of Coins
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 475 – Imitating Obligations or Securities; Advertisements
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 481 – Plates, Stones, or Analog, Digital, or Electronic Images for Counterfeiting Foreign Obligations or Securities
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 474 – Plates, Stones, or Analog, Digital, or Electronic Images for Counterfeiting Obligations or Securities