America’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing Produces
Millions of Dollars a Day
14 November 2010
Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto
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BARBARA KLEIN: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.
STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. Today on our program, we visit the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing in Washington, D.C. to hear how American dollars are made. In two thousand nine,
the Bureau produced about twenty-six million bills a day.
Producing money requires both artistic and technological skills. Dollar bills are made so that they
are interesting to look at but very hard to copy. In total, there are sixty-five separate steps required
to make a dollar bill.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: Guided tours of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing are a popular activity
for visitors to Washington, D.C. These trips are a good way to learn new and interesting facts about
the history of money and its complex production methods. It is also exciting to stand in a room with
millions of dollars flying through machines.
TOUR GUIDE: "All right, ladies and gentlemen, once again welcome to the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing. And this is where the color of money begins. The money making process begins when
a yearly order sent by the Federal Reserve Board. That order will then be divided in half. Half will
be done here in Washington, D.C. and the other half will be done in Fort Worth, Texas.”
STEVE EMBER: Next, the Bureau orders special paper from the Crane Paper Company in the state

you look to the left of the room, ladies and gentlemen, there is a tall machine with green ink at the
top of it. That is the machine that will print your serial numbers, Federal Reserve seal and Treasury
seal onto the money.”
BARBARA KLEIN: The serial numbers on the money tell the order that the bills were printed.
Other numbers and letters on the bill tell when the note was printed, what space on the printing
plate the bill occupied and which Reserve Bank will issue the bill.
STEVE EMBER: Once the money is printed, guillotine cutters separate the sheets into two notes,
then into individual notes. The notes are organized in “bricks,” each of which contains forty one-
hundred-note packages. The bricks then go to one of twelve Federal Reserve Districts, which then
give the money to local banks. Ninety-five percent of the bills printed each year are used to replace
money that is in circulation, or that has already been removed from circulation. The Federal
Reserve decides when to release this new money into use.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: You may know that America's first president, George Washington, is pictured
on the one-dollar bill. But do you know whose face is on the two, five, ten, twenty, fifty and one
hundred-dollar bills? They are, in order, President Thomas Jefferson, President Abraham Lincoln,
Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, President Andrew Jackson, President Ulysses Grant and
statesman Benjamin Franklin.
STEVE EMBER: During the tour, visitors can learn many facts about money. For example, the
average life span of a one-dollar bill is twenty-one months. But a ten-dollar bill lasts only about
eighteen months. The one hundred-dollar note lasts the longest, eighty-nine months.
One popular question that visitors ask is about the two-dollar bill. This bill is not made very often.
This is because many Americans believe two-dollar bills are lucky, so they keep them. Two-dollar
bills do not have to be manufactured often because they do not become damaged quickly like other
bills.
People can send their damaged or torn bills to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Bureau
will replace damaged bills with new bills. However, it is illegal to purposely damage United States
currency in any way. Anyone found guilty of damaging American money can be fined or jailed.
(MUSIC)
BARBARA KLEIN: The Bureau of Engraving and Printing first began printing money in eighteen

English. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.