The Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 (c 45) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

which makes it illegal to make fake versions of many things, including legal documents, contracts, audio and visual recordings, and money of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and certain ''protected coins''. It replaces the

Forgery Act 1913 The Forgery Act 1913 ( 3 & 4 Geo. 5. c. 27) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided a definition of forgery and created several offences of forgery and uttering, while repealing numerous other offences of forgery, thereby ...

, the

Coinage Offences Act 1936 The Coinage Offences Act 1936 (26 Geo. 5. & 1 Edw. 8. c. 16) was an Act of Parliament, Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which related to coinage offences. It was repealed by section 30 of, and Part II of the Schedule to, the Forgery an ...

and parts of the

Forgery Act 1861 The Forgery Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict c 98) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It consolidated provisions related to forgery from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the ...

. It implements recommendations made by the Law Commission in their report on forgery and counterfeit currency.

Part I – Forgery and kindred offences

These offences are the intentional creation and publication of documents which, if not fake, would have legal force. These sections of the law cover all manner of documents, for example

wills Wills may refer to: * Will (law) A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the pr ...

contracts A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

, and

promissory notes A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...

. Section 1 creates the offence of

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...

. Section 2 creates the offence of

copying a false instrument Copying is the duplication of information or an artifact based on an instance of that information or artifact, and not using the process that originally generated it. With analog forms of information, copying is only possible to a limited degree ...

. Section 3 creates the offence of using a false instrument. Section 4 creates the offence of

using a copy of a false instrument Use may refer to: * Use (law), an obligation on a person to whom property has been conveyed * Use (liturgy), a special form of Roman Catholic ritual adopted for use in a particular diocese * Use–mention distinction, the distinction between using ...

. Section 13 abolished the

common law offence Common law offences are crimes under English criminal law, the related criminal law of some Commonwealth countries, and under some U.S. State laws. They are offences under the common law, developed entirely by the law courts, having no specific ...

of forgery.

Part II – Counterfeiting and kindred offences

Section 27 defines the expressions "currency note" and "protected coin". This section makes it illegal to forge or counterfeit money. In addition to the money of the United Kingdom it explicitly states that certain foreign coins are ''protected coins'' under this act, and counterfeiting them is just as great an offence as counterfeiting coins of the United Kingdom.

Protected coin

Section 27(1) provides that, in Part II of the Act, the expression "protected coin" means any coin which is customarily used as money in any country, or which is specified for the purposes of Part II in an order made by the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

. The following coins have been specified for the purposes of Part II: *

Sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'. The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...

The Forgery and Counterfeiting (Protected Coins) Order 1981 (S.I. 1981/505)
article 2
an
Schedule
/ref> *

Half sovereign The half sovereign is a British gold coin with a nominal value of half of one pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and ...

Krugerrand The Krugerrand (; ) is a South African coin, first minted on 3 July 1967 to help market South African gold and produced by Rand Refinery and the South African Mint. The name is a compound of ''Paul Kruger'', the former President of the South A ...

*Any coin denominated as a fraction of a Krugerrand. *

Maria Theresia thaler Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

bearing the date of 1780 *Any

euro coin There are eight euro coin denominations, ranging from one cent to two euros (the euro is divided into a hundred cents). The coins first came into use in 2002. They have a common Obverse and reverse, reverse, portraying a map of Europe, but each cou ...

produced in accordance with Council Regulation No. 975/98/EC (OJ No. L139, 11.5.98, p. 6) by or at the instance of a

member state A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign states ...

which has adopted the

single currency A currency union (also known as monetary union) is an intergovernmental agreement that involves two or more states sharing the same currency. These states may not necessarily have any further integration (such as an economic and monetary union, ...

in accordance with the

Treaty establishing the European Community The Treaty of Rome, or EEC Treaty (officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community), brought about the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the best known of the European Communities (EC). The treaty was signe ...

Orders made under this section

The power conferred on the Treasury by section 27(1) has been exercised by the following orders: *Th
Forgery and Counterfeiting (Protected Coins) Order 1981
(S.I. 1981/505) *Th
Forgery and Counterfeiting (Protected Coins) Order 1999
(S.I. 1999/2095)

Part III – Miscellaneous and general

Section 29
amended section 63 of the

Post Office Act 1953 Post or POST commonly refers to: *Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries **An Post, the Irish national postal service **Canada Post, Canadian postal service **Deutsche Post, German postal service **Iraqi Post, Ira ...

. It was repealed on 26 March 2001The Postal Services Act 2000 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Order 2001 (S.I. 2001/878), article 2 and Schedule (as read with article 17) by section 127(6) of, and Schedule 9 to, the

Postal Services Act 2000 The Postal Services Act 2000 (c.26) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relating to the postal industry. It established an industry regulator, Postcomm (s.1), a consumer watchdog, Postwatch (s.2), required a "universal service" o ...

References

Halsbury's Statutes ''Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales'' (commonly referred to as ''Halsbury's Statutes'') provides updated texts of every Public General Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Measure of the Welsh Assembly, or Church of England Measur ...

External links

*
The Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981
as amended from the National Archives.
The Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981
as originally enacted from the National Archives. {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1981 Forgery