Passing Counterfeit Currency: Federal Charges, Penalties, and Defenses

The penalty for passing counterfeit currency under federal law is up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine as high as $250,000 per count. The crime lives in 18 U.S.C. § 472, which punishes anyone who knowingly hands over fake bills intending to defraud the person on the other side of the transaction.¹ Those are the statutory ceilings. The real-world average is far lower: 17 months of prison in federal counterfeiting cases in fiscal year 2024.²

What Prosecutors Have to Prove

Section 472 is built around two mental states, and the government has to prove both beyond a reasonable doubt. First, you knew the currency was fake. Second, you intended to defraud the person or business you handed it to.¹ Receive a fake $20 as change at a coffee shop, spend it later without noticing, and no federal crime has occurred. You lacked the knowledge and the intent the statute requires.

Knowledge is where most cases are won or lost. Prosecutors build it from circumstantial evidence: hiding the bills, passing fakes at several stores in a short window, statements to someone else that the money wasn’t real. A single bill in a single transaction, without other indicators, makes the knowledge element hard to establish.

The act the statute punishes is called “uttering” or “passing,” which simply means offering the fake note as payment. The crime is complete the instant you tender the bill. If the cashier spots it as fake and refuses, you’ve still committed the offense, and an attempted pass carries the same statutory penalty as a completed one.¹

Prison, Fines, Restitution, and Supervised Release

The 20-year maximum under § 472 makes this a Class C felony, since the ceiling sits between 10 and 25 years.³ An individual defendant can be fined up to $250,000 under the general federal fine statute.⁴

Restitution is separate from the fine and often more costly in practice. Federal law makes restitution mandatory for property offenses committed by fraud with identifiable victims, which counterfeiting fits squarely.⁵ Pass $5,000 in fake hundreds across several retailers, and the court will order you to repay those businesses that full $5,000 on top of your fine and prison term. The debt stays until it’s paid.

After prison comes supervised release. A Class C felony allows up to three years of it.⁶ During that period, federal probation officers monitor your finances and movements, and a violation can send you back to prison for the remaining balance of the term.

How Judges Actually Set the Sentence

The 20-year number is the ceiling, not the norm. Federal judges work from the United States Sentencing Guidelines, specifically § 2B5.1, which calculates a recommended prison range for each defendant. That calculation, combined with the fact that most cases involve small dollar amounts and first-time offenders, is why the fiscal year 2024 average came in at 17 months.²

Section 2B5.1 starts the calculation at a base offense level of 9. Two factors move it up the most: how much counterfeit money was involved, and whether the defendant was mixed up in production.⁷

On face value, a total between $2,500 and $6,500 adds one level. Above $6,500, the increase follows the escalating table used for theft and fraud, which can add many levels in large operations.

On production, if you made the counterfeits or controlled printing equipment or materials, the offense level jumps by two with a floor of level 15. That bump separates producers from people who merely passed someone else’s work. There’s a quality carve-out: the manufacturing enhancement doesn’t apply to items “so obviously counterfeit that they are unlikely to be accepted even if subjected to only minimal scrutiny.” A home inkjet print on copy paper falls into that bucket. Counterfeits good enough to pass a bank teller are treated far more seriously.

Role in the operation matters too. Organizing a printing and distribution ring triggers role enhancements under the general guidelines; a minor participant may get a downward adjustment. Combined with the defendant’s criminal history, these calculations produce a recommended range the judge uses as a starting point before weighing individual circumstances.

Related Charges That Often Come Bundled

Passing fake bills rarely travels alone. Depending on the facts, prosecutors may add related statutes to the indictment.

Manufacturing counterfeit currency is charged under 18 U.S.C. § 471, which targets anyone who creates or alters a U.S. obligation with intent to defraud. The penalty mirrors § 472: up to 20 years and up to $250,000.⁸ Someone who both prints and passes often faces counts under both sections.

Possessing counterfeiting equipment or digital files is its own offense under 18 U.S.C. § 474. The statute reaches plates, printing stones, and “analog, digital, or electronic images” of U.S. obligations.⁹ It is classified as a Class B felony, carrying a 25-year maximum. A high-resolution scan of a $100 bill sitting on your computer, held with intent to defraud, is enough to charge, even if nothing was ever printed or spent.

One boundary worth noting: foreign bank notes and coins have separate statutes. Passing fake foreign bank notes inside the United States carries the same 20-year ceiling under 18 U.S.C. § 483.¹⁰ Counterfeit coins above five cents, including foreign coins actually circulating in the U.S., are covered by 18 U.S.C. § 485, which carries up to 15 years.¹¹ The protected “obligations” are also broader than paper bills: Federal Reserve Notes, Treasury bonds, government checks, certificates of deposit, and postage stamps all count under 18 U.S.C. § 8.¹²

Statute of Limitations and Common Defenses

The government has five years from the date of the offense to bring charges. That deadline comes from 18 U.S.C. § 3282, the general federal limitations statute that applies to non-capital crimes unless Congress sets a different period for the specific offense.¹³ Counterfeiting is not an exception, so the five-year clock applies.

The leading defense is the one the statute invites: you didn’t know the bill was fake. Because intent to defraud is built into § 472, a defendant who genuinely believed the money was real hasn’t committed the crime.¹ This comes up often when someone received the bills from a source they trusted and never looked closely. The government carries the burden of proving knowledge and intent, and one isolated transaction with no other suspicious behavior often leaves prosecutors short.

A second defense attacks the quality of the counterfeits. If a bill is so obviously fake that no reasonable person would accept it (think movie prop money with “NOT LEGAL TENDER” printed on it), the defendant can argue there was no real capacity to defraud. The argument doesn’t always win, since the statute reaches attempts regardless of outcome, but it chips at the intent element.

If You Receive a Counterfeit Bill

Once you suspect a bill is fake, do not try to spend it. That is the single rule that keeps a victim from becoming a defendant. Knowingly passing a bill you believe is counterfeit flips you to the wrong side of § 472, even if the goal was just to avoid losing the money. You won’t be reimbursed for the fake bill either way, so spending it does nothing except create criminal exposure.

If you have information about who gave you the bill — a description, a vehicle, a location — report it to your local police department or a Secret Service field office. Banks, casinos, and other cash-processing businesses that need help verifying currency should contact a field office directly. If you have suspected fakes but no useful leads, the Secret Service accepts mailed submissions at its Counterfeit Currency Processing Facility in Washington, D.C., using Form SSF 1604. Each note is presumed counterfeit unless the agency determines otherwise, and only bills found genuine come back. Electronic submissions have not been accepted since November 2024.¹⁴

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 472 – Uttering Counterfeit Obligations or Securities
2
United States Sentencing Commission. Quick Facts – Counterfeiting Offenses, Fiscal Year 2024
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3571 – Sentence of Fine
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3663A – Mandatory Restitution to Victims of Certain Crimes
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3583 – Inclusion of a Term of Supervised Release After Imprisonment
7
United States Sentencing Commission. USSG 2B5.1 – Offenses Involving Counterfeit Bearer Obligations of the United States
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 471 – Obligations or Securities of United States
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 474 – Plates, Stones, or Analog, Digital, or Electronic Images for Counterfeiting Obligations or Securities
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 483 – Uttering Counterfeit Foreign Bank Notes
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 485 – Coins or Bars
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 8 – Obligation or Other Security of the United States Defined
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3282 – Time Bars to Indictments for Non-Capital Offenses
14
United States Secret Service. Reporting Suspected Counterfeit Currency to the United States Secret Service