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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dcarr, post: 1416277, member: 4781&quot;]What about a counter-stamp, or someone who imprinted their initials into the coin ?&nbsp;&nbsp; There is no law specifying a threshold as to how much of a modification constitutes a nullification the legal tender status.&nbsp;&nbsp; The only related laws involve lightening (the weight) of a coin.</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">The key word is &quot;fraudulently&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; When the US Mint had this statute posted on their web site, the only word presented in bold type was &quot;fraudulently&quot;.&nbsp;&nbsp; Obviously, they wanted to emphasise that component.&nbsp;&nbsp; Without a fraudulent action, this law does not apply.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">Basically, all this law establishes is that the penalty for counterfeiting 1-cent and 5-cent coins is less severe than that for other higher-denomination coins.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">A strict interpretation of that law would mean that anybody who ever made any reproduction of any US coin, even if clearly marked &quot;COPY&quot;, would be in violation.&nbsp;&nbsp; There have only been two remotely-related court cases in recent times:</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">1) The US Mint sued (in civil court, not crimminal court) the Washington Mint for making giant silver Sacagawea medals.&nbsp;&nbsp; But this was a copyright infringement case - the Sacagawea obverse design is one of the very few US coin designs that is actually copyrighted.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">2) The &quot;Liberty Dollar&quot; organization and Bernard Von Nothus were convicted of &quot;counterfeiting&quot; for attempting to pass their tokens as &quot;legal tender&quot;.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">My situation is quite different than both of those cases.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><b>But the important point is, the &quot;Hobby Protection Act&quot;, which was enacted AFTER 18 USC 487, specifically ALLOWS numismatic replicas to be made, and by implication, also allows molds or dies in the likeness of US Coins to be posessed and used (so long as not for FRAUDULENT purposes).</b></span>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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