Is it legal to make jewelry from coins?

We strictly adhere to US law and do not break any laws creating our original jewelry. We don't represent our jewelry to be anything other than jewelry once it is altered. 

Copying coins for jewelry purposes or altering them to create jewelry is legal according to Title 18 U.S.C., Section 331. This section provides criminal penalties for anyone who alters coins for jewelry purposes and represents them to be something other than jewelry.

COIN JEWELRY

Coin jewelry has probably been around since the first minting of coins. Wearing coin jewelry goes back farther than diamonds. In ancient times it was a status symbol, proving wealth and power.

Coin jewelry today lends a certain mystique, a romance that stems from coins as a link to the past. With their dates and pictures, coins imply a linkage to a particular country, a specific event or a certain era.

Coins are bezelled, linked, soldered and mounted into jewelry. Coins are available as pendants, rings, cuff links, money clips, key chains, bracelets and belts. Both gold and silver are available tin jewelry, as well as coins combined with diamonds and colored gemstones.

Among the most popular coin jewelry styles are those featuring the American Eagle, Indian, Liberty and Double Eagle head, South African Krugerrands, Canadian Maple Leaf, and the Mexican Peso.

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 U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.

 
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