Maybe I’m committing a terrible sin by posting 2 GQ’s practically in a row, but this is closely related to this thread I just started, while being distinct enough to probably merit its own thread.
When the US Treasury Department prints/mints new money, how do they disperse it? I’m guessing banks order bills by making electronic transfers? Who gets it besides banks? If it is based on electronic transfers, how did they do it before computers? And if the Treasury is collecting dollar credits for every physical dollar they dole out, how do they subsequently divide up those funds? Or am I just completely off in understanding how this must work?
I probably forgot the most obvious aspect of the process - the trading in of old bills to be destroyed. Corollary question - how does that work? (I also wonder how hard it must be for the workers who have to destroy all that tattered-but-probably-still-valid money…)
I am not a banker, but… I think there’s a link between your questions. I guess banks trade old worn out bills for new ones. I also guess that when new bills and coins go into circulation to increase the total ammount of money it’s used to pay back banks for loans they’ve made to the government. And if the government just wants more money available, and can’t be bothered to print it, they do the same, except electronically.
Well, I have often wondered about this, and hope some Smart Person will come along to fill in the gaps.
The Bureau of Printing and Engraving not the mint makes paper money in the US. They used to print them in DC (on E Street?) but now some production has moved to Fort Worth, Texas.
Money is printed, sealed in bricks and (somehow) shipped out in huge amounts. It goes to very secure warehouses maintained by each Federal Reserve District. The Districts release it as required to the member banks.
The district warehouses keep large stocks on hand. One reason is to have ready money at hand in the event of an attack on the US.
Still, I would like to know how several hundred tons of money moves out each and every day across the country.
You have the rest of it correctly. The twelve federal reserve branches do work directly with the banks in their districts to sort out worn bills from the ones that are taken in, which are then shipped back to be shredded. (My wife’s father is an engineer who was working on designing these shredding machines. We used to have bags of shredded money around the house. This was before some entrepreneur bought them up and made money by selling plastic eggs full of ex-money. A short-lived fad, but somebody made money from it. Sure wasn’t my wife’s father.) Equivalent supplies of new bills are shipped out to the banks. Smaller banks can also work with larger ones for quicker supplies of bills.
Money moves around the country all the time. Makes me wonder why more robberies don’t take place. I guess you need a big and highly organized gang, and the risk level is extremely high. Not to mention that the feds will be on your case forever. But with the number of really stupid people in the country…
(Years ago in France, thieves sidetracked a railcar full of newly-minted 20 FF (?) coins. They were never very popular. What the hack can someone do with a house full of the local equivalent to Susan B Anthony dollar coins? I never heard of the case again.)