Currency Residue Requirements

The United States Treasury Department has imposed special conditions and regulations to recipients of currency residue as follows:

1. Conform to all of the Treasury's conditions and requirements, as well as any supplementary requirements of the Federal Reserve Bank, or other sources from which the recipients receive the residue.
2. Agree not to violate the Environmental Protection Agency's and other local or state requirements when recycling currency residue as a raw material with other materials to manufacture products such as: fuel pellets, insulator pads, roofing shingles, greeting cards, stationery, envelopes, paperweights, report covers, brochures, tissue, wall paper and etc.
3. The currency residue must not be recycled into paper of a printable quality for reuse in probable counterfeiting.
4. Firmly seal any container in which the residue is placed so that it must be broken in order to remove the residue. The container must be at least 4 mils thick. The residue must not be used as confetti, or in loose form such as used in packing materials.
5. Due to the presence of various chemicals in the currency ink, approved users of the residue are expressly forbidden from using it in making, selling, or distributing any article or product which can be used to hold or contain food or drink for human consumption.
6. Before approval can be granted to obtain the residue a sample of the product(s) you plan to market or display, including any suggested imprinted logo or inscription, must be submitted to the office indicated below for review and approval. You may use shredded paper as a substitute for the currency residue. When the product is completed, a sample of each finished product must be provided to us containing the currency residue which the users intend to market.
7. Agree not to claim the value of the residue enclosed in a product manufactured or advertised by the user as having a monetary value greater than the weight of such residue per ounce, or fraction thereof, multiplied by $165 per ounce. The $165 rate per ounce is based on the weight of $100 mixed denomination of which $100 is the largest denomination provided.
8. Agree not to ship the residue overseas.
9. Agree not place any replica of the United States Currency or any part thereof, on any product or container into which the residue is placed, or on any advertising or other written material in connection therewith.
10. Agree not to resell or otherwise dispose of the residue, or any part of it to a commercial concern or other party that plans to market it or use it in commercial art, unless:
    • The purchaser has obtained, in writing, prior approval from the Treasury to market the residue; and
    • The seller has informed us of such resale.
11. Treasury reserves the right, at its own discretion, to:
    • revoke any approval granted to any person or party to obtain currency residue of that person or party, in the opinion if the Treasury, violated the conditions as stated herein for using the residue to manufacture such product; and
    • revoke the availability of currency residue for purposes of marketing it in any form whatsoever.
12. Requests for approval should be submitted in writing to:
    Chief, Office of Compliance
    Bureau of Engraving and Printing
    Currency Residue Request
    14th & C Streets, S.W.
    Room - 321A
    Washington, D.C. 20228.

    You may acquire currency residue from the Federal Reserve System based upon Treasury Department approval. Click here for a directory of Federal Reserve Banks and branch offices.