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This website at the Mint summarizes some of the law regarding counterfeit coins.

Conder - By classic US currency, I meant any US currency - paper or coin - not considered modern. One must not file a copyright application with the copyright office to have one. The government, nor anyone else, needs to copyright (verb) a design or work to have a copyright (noun). When I said the US government seems to be doing nothing to protect their copyrights to classic currency, I was implying that the US has exclusive rights to manufacture currency in its name and exclusive rights to the designs as they appear in their original work. That is the definition of a copyright. If the government does not have exclusive rights to the production and reproduction of the work commissioned by the US Mint and Bureau of Engraving and Printing prior to the modern era as I assume, then I apologize for my mistake.

Currently however, the US Mint website does say that some modern designs are copyrighted by the Mint and some copyrighted by third-parties:

Do be aware of existing copyrights in United States coin designs.
The United States Mint may own copyright by assignment, as permitted by 17 U.S.C. § 105. In fact, the United States Mint owns copyright in several commemorative and circulating coin designs.

 

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