The hard, fast life of a greenback

Live fast, die young

As every "Ocean's Eleven" fan knows, a U.S. note weighs approximately one gram, regardless of denomination. One cash-pack (16,000 notes) weighs approximately 37 pounds; one skid of 40 cash packs (or 640,000 notes) weighs about 1,480 pounds.

How much money is on each skid? Here's the breakout by denomination:

Money by the pound
$1 skid	$640,000
$2 skid	$1.3 million
$5 skid	$3.2 million
$10 skid	$6.4 million
$20 skid	$12.8 million
$50 skid	$32 million
$100 skid	$64 million

The Federal Reserve, which regulates the flow of money and credit for the U.S. economy, orders all U.S. currency from the BEP. When the nation's 10,000 banks have too much cash on hand, they send their surplus to the Fed for credit; when they need cash, they buy it back from the Fed.

Every bill that comes through the 12 Federal Reserve Banks and their 25 branch banks is checked for fitness. Bills that don't make the grade meet a swift end -- in the shredder.

BEP spokeswoman Carol Riggs says the total Fed currency order for fiscal 2007 is $181.65 billion. That breaks down into 9.12 billion notes of various denominations, 95% of which will enter service to replace worn-out currency culled by the Fed. BEP produces, on average, about 38 million notes per day with an average face value total of $755 million. That's more than $15 million face value per hour. About 45% of its annual production is $1 bills.

And little wonder. When it comes to us bills, the old phrase "live fast, die young" is all too true. In general, lesser denominations live "faster" -- more transactions, more countings and harsher treatment (crumpled in pockets, exposed to extreme heat/cold, run through laundry cycles, immersed in swimming pools, etc.).

What's our life expectancy? Here are the BEP's estimates:

How long money lasts
$1 bill	21 months
$5 bill	16 months
$10 bill	18 months
$20 bill	24 months
$50 bill	55 months
$100 bill	89 months

What are the conditions that would signal my forced retirement? When I meet the great reckoning machine that tests my fitness, here are a few things the Fed's proprietary software will look for, according to its publication, "Fitness Standards for Federal Reserve Notes" (.pdf file):

• Excessive soiling due to dirt, aging (yellowing) or extraneous markings.

• Tears, folds and holes.

• Ink wear -- bills are deemed unfit if they have lost more than 25% of the ink on their face side or 40% of the ink on their back side.

• Outdated series -- $10 and $20 bills produced before 1996 and $5 bills issued before 1999 are pulled from circulation and destroyed.

The last mile

Hey, we all gotta go sometime, even if it is estimated that you'd need to fold me 4,000 times before I tear. Carol Eckert, a spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, says that when the time comes for me to walk that last mile, the end will be swift.

"When the currency comes in for deposit, it comes in through cash receiving rooms where it is verified that the right number of straps and bundles are there as stated in the order," she says. "Then it goes to a counting room, where it is fed into this high-speed machine, where it is actually piece-counted. It is also checked for fitness at the same time, and unfit currency is automatically destroyed, right inside the machine. There are no stacks of unfit currency around; it is all shredded right away and gone."

That's right: One day, I'll end up as what is called "shred." Eckert says I'm not able to be recycled because of the security features in my makeup, so I'll most likely wind up in a landfill. (Before high-speed shredder technology, I would have met a fiery end in a blast furnace.)

There is a chance that Treasury will sell my shredded self to a novelty company, where I could come to my final rest as confetti for your birthday party or encased within a Lucite paperweight on your office desk.

Me, I'm hoping for confetti. After all, money loves to party!

This article was reported and written by Jay MacDonald for Bankrate.com.

Published Aug. 31, 2007

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