The Money Store !!

Do you need more money??? Do you need it printed now and fast?? I have just the place where you can see all the money you could ever want. You can see it, but you can’t touch it. Well unless you work at the DC Mint.

We took a tour of the Washington DC Printing and Engraving Bureau. It was a neat little tour. We could not take pics of the inside where the money was made, just in the gift shop. We learned lots of interesting facts about money and how it is made. But most of all we were all awe struck with all the stacks of money just lying around this place.

The first interesting thing we learned is that money does not grow on trees!! No joke, right?? Buuuuut, paper money does come from trees, right? Nope!! Money is really a fabric. It is is made up of 75 percent of cotton and 25 percent of linen . Sounds like a great fabric to me, I wonder how good it sews. Might just make me a money dress.

The people that create the designs for the money are master crafters. Not only do they have to make a pretty bills but they also have to work specific security features into their designs. Here are just a few of the security features we learned about. There is a watermark and security thread made into the fabric of the money. These can only be seen by hold the bill up to the light. The new bills also have color shifting ink. This can be found on the bottom right of most new bills. Each bill also has micro printing. This is very hard to see without magnification. Micro printing is the bills name written very small and disguised into the lines of the drawings. Every 7-10 years they change and update the bills designs.

The largest bill in printing at this time is the 100 dollar bill. They have made larger ones, the 100,000 being the largest. This bill is a collectors items, and is worth about 5 times it’s face value. If you have one, hold on to it!!

This printing bureau prints 900,700,000 dollars a day, 95 % of this is replacement money and 5 % is inflation. Well they did not call it inflation but that is what it is.

Money, who needs it??? The Washington Mint has it! This place also tried to sell you money by the sheets. They were charging almost twice what a bill cost. We said no thanks, but we did enjoy our money tour!