The Dollar Bill

The Federal Reserve Bank uses high-speed processing equipment to count and sort currency at the rate of 90,000 notes per hour.

U. S. Currency is printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), in Washington D. C., and Fort Worth, Texas. Each year, Federal Reserve Banks instruct the BEP on how many bills of each denomination to print. Each Federal Reserve Bank then orders the amount of new currency that meets the demands of financial institutions and replaces worn currency.


Currency arrives at Federal Reserve banks in two ways.

Armored carriers contracted by financial institutions deliver currency on a daily basis. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing deposits new currency at Federal Reserve Banks, while the U.S. Mint deposits new coins.

Currency arrives at Federal Reserve Banks in sealed, tamper-evident bags.

The deposit is then verified in bulk, stored in the vault and later extracted to individually verify each bill. The average Federal Reserve Bank receives more than 750 million notes per year.

Coins are received with each denomination bagged separately. The bags are weighted to verify the stated amount, stacked on racks by denomination and stored in a coin vault.


The next stop for deposited currency is high-speed verification. High-speed currency processing machines not only count the money, they evaluate the fitness of the notes, check for counterfeit and shred notes too worn or soiled for circulation.

Approximately $500 million dollars per day in notes are shredded by Federal Reserve Banks. Counterfeit bills are turned over to the U.S. Secret Service.

Paying
In the paying section, employees prepare currency for delivery to financial institutions and other Federal Reserve Banks. Financial institutions place orders for currency and coin through a voice response system.



The U.S. Mint ships the majority of new coins to contracted terminals, as well as Federal Reserve Banks. Arriving coin is verified by weighing each bag. Coins are counted individually only if the bag falls outside weight requirements.