Came up in the Binion Ranch thread I thought maybe the discussion could include some facts and more than FOAF hearsay:

According to the Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550, Section 411 of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations, you can make and display color reproductions of bills as long as the illustration is one-sided and “less than three-fourths” the size of the original — or 150 percent larger than the original.

Also some stock photo agencies claim the restriction is not straight on, which of course be of little use to counterfeiting. And paper money for the US can be used, when less than 66% is visible. All kinds of imagined laws, but the one above is real. Note, it says color, so there's another way to avoid a legal conflict. (as in Binion's was taking B&W photos for souvenirs?)

This is a good general coverage: http://desktoppub.about.com/od/scanninggraphics/a/papermoney.htm

In most of the optional situations photographs of the $1 Million Dollars is not an offense! It's not going to be reproduced or used for fraud.

UK coins and currency can't be photographed or used in ads without permission. The Royals images are protected.

US Postage stamps, cancelled are fine, and the line in Scott's, for example, is a nice way to make them more difficult for the temptation. I'll assume people here have heard of scanners, photo copiers, and photoshop. Old photo laws were not written with digital in mind. It's pretty easy to scan just about anything and print it. Or take a high res photo and print it.

US Postage before 1972 was when USPS was a government agency. Just like NASA photos (except with people or some design elements) are Public Domain. Taxpayers paid for those stamp designs and images on them. When USPS went private all stamps and images on them, were copyrighted and protected.

1963 PD and cancelled besides

But my point in this is for some agency to try to block Brown or Binion from using the money for a tourist attraction, or vacation photo is absurd! Someone with too much time or an axe to grind? Harassment?