The Issue: Counterfeiting
Few should be surprised to learn that federal law prohibits the reproduction or forgery of U.S. currency and other securities. Yet there are exceptions to that prohibition. Illustrations of currency are permitted if they are significantly different in size to actual currency and are produced in black and white. Color illustrations of currency are only permitted if the term "non-negotiable" is printed across the center of the illustration in a font at least one quarter inch high. Reproductions that do not meet these requirements are illegal even if they bear only a partial resemblance to actual currency.
The Case: Boggs v. Bowron
J.S.G. Boggs is an artist who draws, prints, and otherwise replicates the paper currency produced by various countries, including the United States. His “Boggs Bills” typically feature the same size, coloration, design patterns, and symbols as the bills he is inspired by, but with a few noticeable variations usually aimed at comedic effect. There is no evidence that he has ever attempted to pass his bills off as authentic currency, or that his “bills” have been mistaken for the real thing.
Nonetheless, in 1991, U.S. Secret Service agents seized 15 of Boggs’ pieces from an exhibit in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The following year, Secret Service agents seized the majority of Boggs’ remaining work from his studio, home, and office at Carnegie Mellon University. In neither instance, however, was Boggs charged with counterfeiting. In 1993, Boggs sued for the return of his work, claiming the seizure of his work violated his First Amendment right of free speech. He argued the counterfeiting statute was written too broadly, allowing law enforcement officials to apply it to works never mistaken for actual currency. His legal efforts were unsuccessful. Both trial and appellate courts upheld the seizure of Boggs' work, finding that the federal statute served the government interest of preventing counterfeiting without unduly restricting free expression. To this day Boggs has never been charged with counterfeiting, yet his work remains in the possession of the Secret Service.
http://www.tjcenter.org/ArtOnTrial/counterfeiting.html
Boggs' Bills
(6 & 1/4" x 2 & 1/2")
by
J.S.G. Boggs
