Prop money for music videos: the rules, and the crypto version of the prop

When real cash is legal on camera, what the US, UK, Canadian and Australian rules say about prop bills, each from the authority that issues the currency, a checklist for the shoot, and what the prop becomes when the money in the scene is crypto.

Published: 18 October 2026

Prop money for videos: the short answer

A music video with a table of cash, a skit that ends with someone fanning out hundreds: the question on set is always the same. Real money, or prop money? Real banknotes are legal on camera in the United States. Prop bills are legal only when they follow the reproduction rules of the country whose currency they copy, and those rules differ more than sellers' pages suggest. Presenting either one as real money in a transaction is a crime everywhere.

Below: the rules for the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, each from the authority that issues the currency, a checklist for the shoot, and the crypto version of the prop.

Can you use real money in music videos?

In the US, yes. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco puts it plainly: using United States currency on camera is "perfectly legal". Its Los Angeles branch works with film and TV crews, and one of its cash services executives described handing a strap of new $20 bills to an actor take after take while keeping "a line of sight at all times".

The same article explains why large productions rarely do it: a pile of real cash on set is a liability, and burning currency is illegal under US law. For scenes that need many bundles, it describes straps in which only the first and last bills are real, the point where productions usually turn to prop houses.

In the UK, real notes on camera come with a condition. The Bank of England treats photos and filming of genuine banknotes as digital reproductions. A note shown flat on screen with more than half of one side visible must carry a SPECIMEN overprint unless it sits at a slant of more than 20 degrees; a note showing less than half of a side needs neither. A fanned stack or a bag of bundles usually stays on the right side of that line. A slow close-up on one flat £50 note does not.

The platform changes nothing: the rules follow the notes, whether the video ends up on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram.

Is prop money legal? The rules by country

Every row comes from the issuing authority's own page or the statute it cites. It is a map for planning a shoot, not legal advice for your situation.

Two details matter for video. The US statute separately allows film and TV images of real currency, but no prints from that footage without the Treasury's permission. In the UK nobody needs to apply: since February 2019, meeting the Bank of England's conditions is its consent.

Owning prop money vs passing it

The US Secret Service files notes printed with "Prop Money" or "Motion Picture Use Only" under "altered design notes", together with notes carrying foreign text or the word "copy". It has tracked the category since 2015 and says altered design notes made up 10.4% of counterfeit notes passed in the US in 2025. Its own explainer puts the line where it bites: "Technically, someone must try to use the fake money as genuine U.S. currency for it to be counterfeit." Police in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, said the same about prop $100 bills in 2018: "As soon as you present them as real currency, it then becomes a criminal offense."

The SF Fed reports a Secret Service estimate that more than $2 million of prop money has been passed into circulation since the early 2000s, much of it carried off sets by extras and bystanders. In Canada, Winnipeg police said in May 2025 that reports of fake cash had more than doubled from the same period of 2024, after seizing about $12,000 in notes printed with the words "prop money" and advertised for sale on social media.

Prop money on a shoot: a checklist

1. Buy for the currency you are copying. A seller's "legal" claim refers to one country's rules at best.
2. Count it out and count it back. Log the bundles at call time, collect them after every setup, and give one person the job.
3. Frame for the story. Bundles, a bag or a fan of bills read as money at a glance. A close-up on one flat note is where the rules bite hardest.
4. Keep it out of crowds, tips and giveaways. Throwing prop bills into a crowd puts them in hands nobody can account for.
5. Add a line to the credits or the description. For example: "All currency shown is prop money. No real notes were used." That settles the music video props disclaimer question before anyone asks.
6. Lock it away or shred it after the shoot. Leftover bills are the ones nobody counts.

The crypto version of the prop

In many money scenes now, the money is not paper but a phone held up to the lens with a crypto balance on it. The options are the same, real or prop, but the real one behaves very differently from a stack of bills.

Real cash on set can be stolen, and that is the whole risk. A real wallet on camera leaks something cash never does: an address, a QR code, a token list, recent activity. Bitcoin.org's privacy page states the consequence: "Anyone can see the balance and all transactions of any address." In its August 2026 report on violent attacks against crypto holders, Chainalysis counted a record $58 million stolen in 2025 and warned that "publicly disclosing cryptocurrency holdings, whether through social media, conference appearances, or on-chain activity linked to known identities, can make individuals targets."

That is the part a real wallet cannot solve: it cannot appear on camera without being itself. The crypto equivalent of a prop bill is a screen that only looks like a wallet. A larp wallet, also called a crypto wallet app simulator, is an app that shows a believable crypto wallet screen built from the balances you type in, for videos, skits, pitch decks and demos. It holds no funds and touches no blockchain. The larp wallet guide covers the term and its other meanings.

The practical side of filming a phone, from flicker to notifications, is in prop phone screens for film and recording a wallet screen for video.

Where the line is

Prop money and a wallet mockup work under the same rule: they are for a story the audience knows is a story. A prop bill becomes counterfeit the moment someone hands it over as payment. A wallet mockup becomes a deception the moment it is presented as somebody's real holdings, a proof of funds or a record of gains. Every number on it was typed, so it proves nothing about anyone's money, and our terms of use forbid passing it off as real.

That rules out showing a balance to a seller, a partner or an investor, or posting the money shot as "my wallet". It leaves the uses props were invented for: music videos, skits (30 money skit ideas lists what each one needs), POV trader videos and parodies of the rich-larp genre.

My Larp Wallet is one such app: you type the tokens and amounts, prices move with the market, and the screen opens full screen on the phone in the shot. Like a prop bill, it should read as money from across the room and say what it is up close, so keep the Mockup label in frame.

Sources

• Legal Information Institute, 18 U.S. Code 504: Printing and filming of United States and foreign obligations and securities, read 2026
• Legal Information Institute, 31 CFR 411.1: Color illustrations authorized, read 2026
• Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, U.S. Currency's Starring Role in Film, 2019
• U.S. Secret Service, Learn How to Spot Fake Money Before it Reaches Your Wallet, 2025
• CBS Boston, Police Warn Of 'Motion Picture Use Only' $100 Bills In Circulation, 2018
• Bank of England, Using images of banknotes, updated June 2026
• Bank of Canada, Using bank note images, undated (read 2026)
• Bank of Canada, Counterfeit prevention, undated (read 2026)
• Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Counterfeit bank notes, 2026
• CBC News, Winnipeg police warn of counterfeit cash marked 'prop money' after $12K seized, 2025
• Reserve Bank of Australia, Reproducing banknotes, undated (read 2026)
• Bitcoin.org, Protect your privacy, read 2026
• Chainalysis, Violent wrench attacks targeting crypto holders, 2026

Questions

Is prop money legal?

It depends on the currency it copies. For US dollars, 18 U.S.C. 504 and 31 CFR 411.1 allow color illustrations that are one-sided and less than three-quarters or more than one and a half times the size of a real note, with the files and plates destroyed after use; the San Francisco Fed sums up that fakes outside these rules are illegal. Using any prop bill as real money is counterfeiting.

Can you use real money in music videos?

In the US, yes: the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco calls using US currency on camera "perfectly legal". Burning it is a separate offense. In the UK, filming genuine notes counts as a digital reproduction, so a note shown flat with more than half of one side visible needs a SPECIMEN overprint unless it is slanted more than 20 degrees.

Is prop money legal in Canada?

Only as a reproduction that meets the Bank of Canada policy: less than three-quarters or more than one and a half times the real size, color copies single-sided, SPECIMEN over any copy showing more than half of a side, and written permission for commercial users. The Bank refuses novelty notes, and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre states that novelty bank notes are considered counterfeit in Canada.

Is prop money legal in the UK?

Reproducing a Bank of England note needs the Bank's consent under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, and since February 2019 the Bank gives it to anyone who meets its conditions, with no application. Physical copies must be one-sided, at least 25% smaller or larger than a real note, and either printed on a clearly different material, overprinted SPECIMEN, or showing less than half of one side.

What are the prop money laws in Australia?

The Reserve Bank of Australia publishes guidelines under the Crimes (Currency) Act 1981: physical copies less than three-quarters or more than one and a half times the length and width of a real note and one-sided only; digital images less than three-quarters and no more than 72 dpi. It does not approve specific reproductions and advises taking legal advice.

What is the crypto version of prop money?

A wallet screen that only looks like a wallet: a mockup built in a crypto wallet app simulator from balances you type in, with a Mockup label in the frame. Like a prop bill, it is legitimate in a story the audience knows is a story, and it becomes a deception the moment it is presented as somebody's real holdings.