pictures of currency and stamps

I believe it used to be the case that photographing (scanning, etc.) US currency used to be strictly outlawed (for obvious reasons).

However, increasingly, I have seen pictures of money appearing in TV commercials and even magazine ads... this is not really a copyright issue, I know.. but have the rules about this changed? How about other countries?

Specifically, someone I know wishes to scan some Japanese currency and put it on a home page as a jpeg in relatively low-res form.

The work of the US govt is not copyrightable, but I would assume laws about currency override this. I can't find anything in Title 31 which would address the issue specifically of what constitutes an infringing copy.

How about stamps? I have noticed copyright claims by the US Postal Service (the text accompanying the Marilyn Monroe stamp was pretty amazing with copyright being shared by the USPS and the Marilyn Monroe estate (which apparently claims a trademark on the name and the visual likeness of Marilyn)). USPS is no longer a department of the executive branch, but still seems to be under the US govt. -- but what about stamps produced while the Post Office Department was still a branch of the US govt? Those stamps are still accepted, I presume by the USPS for mailing letters.

The USPS came into existence as a result of the Postal Reorganization Act in 1971 and is, according to http://www.usps.gov/history/his3.htm#REORG "an independent establishment of the executive branch of the Government of the United States." I don't readily see anything in Title 39 which would give the USPS copyrighting powers, but apparently something did.

As always, guidance is appreciated.

David Dailey (ddailey[_at_]williams.edu) Received on Tue Oct 17 1995 - 16:04:38 GMT