---
kind: "section"
citation: "15 U.S.C. § 203"
title: "15"
title_heading: "Commerce and Trade"
number: "203"
heading: "Replacing lost standard weights and measures; cost"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/15/203"
units:
  - "Chapter 6 — Weights and Measures and Standard Time"
  - "Subchapter I — Weights, Measures, and Standards Generally"
---

# §203. Replacing lost standard weights and measures; cost


The Secretary of Commerce is authorized and directed to furnish precise copies of standard weights and measures, bearing the seal of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and accompanied by a suitable certificate, to any [State](/usc/15/15g.md?p=2), Territory, or institution heretofore furnished with the same, upon application in writing by the governor in the case of a [State](/usc/15/15g.md?p=2) or Territory, or by the official head in the case of an institution, setting forth that the copies of standards applied for are to replace similar ones heretofore furnished, in accordance with law, which have been lost or destroyed: Provided, That the [applicant](/usc/15/7a.md?p=3) shall, before the said standards are delivered, first deposit with the Secretary of Commerce the amount of money necessary to defray all expenses incurred by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in furnishing the same, which amount shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States to the credit of miscellaneous receipts as soon as the weights or measures are delivered for transportation into the hands of such [persons](/usc/15/7a.md?p=6) as are designated by the officers ordering the same.


## Source credit

(Aug. 18, 1894, ch. 301, § 1, 28 Stat. 383; Mar. 3, 1901, ch. 872, § 1, 31 Stat. 1449; Feb. 14, 1903, ch. 552, § 10, 32 Stat. 829; Mar. 4, 1913, ch. 141, § 1, 37 Stat. 736; Pub. L. 100–418, title V, § 5115(c), Aug. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 1433.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1988—Pub. L. 100–418 substituted “National Institute of Standards and Technology” for “Bureau of Standards” in two places.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Change of Name

Act Mar. 4, 1913, created Department of Labor and renamed Department of Commerce and Labor as Department of Commerce.

Act Mar. 3, 1901, provided that Office of Standard Weights and Measures should thereafter be known as National Bureau of Standards.

### Transfer of Functions

Act Feb. 14, 1903, transferred National Bureau of Standards from Treasury Department to Department of Commerce and Labor.