Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Kansas

copyright laws regarding currency

I am designing a business card and would like to use a dollar bill as a graphic background. In what ways is it illegal to copy U.S. currency for such purposes?


Asked on 8/12/99, 10:39 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Patrick Tracy Patrick J. Tracy, Esq, P.E.,

Re: copyright laws regarding currency

This is something that I don't recommend. However if you are still set on doing this you need to check with the treaury regulations which are listed in the code of federal regulations. Any good public library will have a set of these regulations. Look up the section which relates to paper currency.

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Answered on 8/17/99, 2:57 pm

Re: copyright laws regarding currency

I disagree with my brother. I don't think it's a bad idea. But I can't quote you the law, either, without looking it up, and I won't do that unless I'm being paid! Want to hire me? Send me $100 ... but ... well, this reminds me of the joke about the first color copiers, that Xerox halted shipping when they realized they were being

paid with bills that all had the same serial number.

I recall vaguely reading somewhere, probably on an old copier (copy machine) or a color copier, that if you make an image of a bill, it must be either 50% larger or 50% the size of a real bill -- well, these might not be the exact numbers! But you get the gist. The point is that there must be no possible way for someone down the road to get 'confused' and accept or pass your counterfeit bill as real, not according to your criteria but according to their criteria. The regulations provide a so-called "safe harbor".

Also, you probably ought to use only a piece of a bill.

You don't want to try to have any of your card look like it's on their copyrighted paper that has blue and red specks within it.

Good luck.

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Answered on 8/17/99, 5:28 pm


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