18 U.S.C. § 485
Section 485 · Coins or bars
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 16 court decisions — leading case United States v. Veal (1998)
Most recently applied in United States v. Jonathan Kirschner (April 2021)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever falsely makes, forges, or counterfeits any coin or bar in resemblance or similitude of any coin of a denomination higher than 5 cents or any gold or silver bar coined or stamped at any mint or assay office of the United States, or in resemblance or similitude of any foreign gold or silver coin current in the United States or in actual use and circulation as money within the United States; or
Whoever passes, utters, publishes, sells, possesses, or brings into the United States any false, forged, or counterfeit coin or bar, knowing the same to be false, forged, or counterfeit, with intent to defraud any body politic or corporate, or any person, or attempts the commission of any offense described in this paragraph—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than fifteen years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §277 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §163, 35 Stat. 1119).
Reference to persons causing, procuring, aiding or assisting was omitted as unnecessary as such persons are made principals by section 2 of this title.
Mandatory punishment provision was rephrased in the alternative.
The provision for imprisonment for 10 years was changed to 15 years to conform to sections 471 and 472 of this title.
Changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $5,000”.
1965—Pub. L. 89–81 struck out “Gold or silver” before “Coins or bars” in section catchline, changed the description of the United States coins covered in first par. from gold or silver coins to any coin of a denomination higher than 5 cents, and made minor structural changes in second par.
Canal Zone
Applicability of section to Canal Zone, see section 14 of this title.
Cross References
Coins and currency generally, see sections 331 to 336 of this title and sections 5111 et seq. and 5131 et seq. of Title 31, Money and Finance.