PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

If the Secretary of the Treasury adopts a special paper for U.S. obligations or securities, anyone who has similar paper without the Secretary’s permission commits a class B felony. If the Secretary publishes a special counterfeit-deterrent feature in the Federal Register, anyone who has an essentially identical feature without permission also commits a class B felony. Distinctive paper = any medium used to make currency (for example, wood pulp, rag, plastic substrate, or other fibers or materials). Distinctive counterfeit deterrent = things like ink, watermarks, seals, security threads, optically variable devices, or other features that the United States owns exclusively or that are not in public or commercial use and the Secretary says are needed to stop counterfeiting.

Title 18, §474A

Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Whoever has in his control or possession, after a distinctive paper has been adopted by the Secretary of the Treasury for the obligations and other securities of the United States, any similar paper adapted to the making of any such obligation or other security, except under the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, is guilty of a class B felony.

(b)Whoever has in his control or possession, after a distinctive counterfeit deterrent has been adopted by the Secretary of the Treasury for the obligations and other securities of the United States by publication in the Federal Register, any essentially identical feature or device adapted to the making of any such obligation or security, except under the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury, is guilty of a class B felony.

(c)As used in this section—

(1)the term “distinctive paper” includes any distinctive medium of which currency is made, whether of wood pulp, rag, plastic substrate, or other natural or artificial fibers or materials; and

(2)the term “distinctive counterfeit deterrent” includes any ink, watermark, seal, security thread, optically variable device, or other feature or device;

(A)in which the United States has an exclusive property interest; or

(B)which is not otherwise in commercial use or in the public domain and which the Secretary designates as being necessary in preventing the counterfeiting of obligations or other securities of the United States.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1996—Subsecs. (a), (b). Pub. L. 104–208, §§ 101(f) [title VI, § 648(a)] and 2603(a), amended section identically, substituting “class B felony” for “class C felony”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1996 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 104–208 effective Sept. 30, 1996, and to remain in effect for each fiscal year following Sept. 30, 1996, see section 101(f) [title VI, § 648(c)] of Pub. L. 104–208, set out as a note under section 474 of this title.

§474A Deterrents to Counterfeiting of Obligations and Securities