Congress may provide "for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States " (Const. Art. I, § 8, ¶ 6). Such an act is not only injurious to the public in impairing the general security of the currency and to the individuals who are actually defrauded, but it also affects directly the government issuing and authorizing the circulation of the currency, counterfeits of which are made or put into circulation; and it was therefore regarded as important that the power to punish such a crime should be given to the federal government (United States v. Marigold). So far as the act of counterfeiting affects the general public welfare or may result in defrauding individuals, its punishment is also within the scope of state power, so that the same act of counterfeiting or of circulating counterfeit money, knowing it to be counterfeit, may constitute an offence under the state law as well as under the federal law; and punishment under the one will not preclude a second punishment under the other. Congress has also provided (1877) for the punishment of those who counterfeit foreign coin or put such counterfeit coin into circulation; this, however, is not under the express constitutional power to punish counterfeiting, but rather under the power to coin money and the corresponding and necessary implied power to protect and to preserve the soundness and the security of the currency of the country. Likewise the counterfeiting of national bank notes may be punished by the United States as incident to the implied power to authorize the issuance of such notes.