What Does Colorado Law Say About Pressing Pennies?

Colorado is full of tourist attractions attached to the state's past that offer a variety of fun keepsakes and souvenirs. In addition to the typical t-shirts and hats, places like Buffalo Bill Cody's grave, the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, and Mesa Verde National Park all have gift shops with items like shot glasses, commemorative spoons, and sometimes, pressed pennies.

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In fact, the town of Manitou Springs has been called "The Penny Arcade of the West" not just for its famous penny arcade, in which the vintage games still operate on their original coin value, but the town is also known for being a mecca for pressed penny collectors.

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However, one can't help but wonder exactly how legal it is to smash pennies, real, spendable United States currency, into souvenirs. After all, isn't there a law against defacing coins? Let's take a closer look at what the law actually says.

Is it Legal to Smash Pennies into Souvenirs in Colorado?

While the law in question does apply to Colorado, it's actually a Federal law that applies to all 50 states.

The law, Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States Code, states the following:

Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States. This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.

As we see here, the thing that determines whether or not altering a coin is considered a crime is whether or not the intent is fraudulent in nature.

This question arises not just in terms of altering coins for souvenir purposes, but also in processes like melting down a silver coin to create jewelry, etc.

However, altering a coin to fraudulently attempt to increase its value is in direct violation of the above law.

Check out a further explanation of the law here.