U.S. Government Prints 614.9 Million Notes Worth $13.5 Billion in May

0

BEP Production FiguresHave you ever wondered how much money the US government prints each month? There’s no need to wonder. With government provided figures and a little extrapolation, finding totals are easy.

Those totals, however, could be less than what you’d assume given the money the government alone spends. Clearly, electronic transactions dominate paper money in use.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) produced 614,912,000 U.S. banknotes in May worth a total of $13,541,120,000.

The BEP’s May production figures reflect a volume reduction compared to total notes printed in April, but do show a slight increase in total value. How? Fewer denominations were produced across the board with the exception of $100 bills. The $100s made up the difference with a nearly 4,500 increase over April for $448M.

There chart below also shows a quantity of 512,000 star notes in $10 bills.

For monthly comparisons of the total weight of printed banknotes — just for the sake of curiosity:

  • February came in at 1,432,122 lbs or 649,600 kilograms,
  • March notes weighed at 1,728,446,180 lbs or 784,010 kilograms,
  • April banknotes weighted 1,563,342 lbs or 709,120 kilograms, while
  • May notes weighed 1,355,649 lbs or 614,912 kilograms

Spread across the 31 days in May and counting weekends and holidays, the BEP averaged over 19.8 million notes per day with a total face value of approximately $437 million.

Chart of Printed Notes by Denomination:
Volume and Face Value (May 2008)

Denomination Total Printed by Denomination  Total Face Value
Ones 352,000,000 $352,000,000
Fives 76,800,000 $384,000,000
Tens 64,512,000 $645,120,000
One Hundreds 121,600,000 $12,160,000,000
Total 614,912,000 $13,541,120,000

While that is certainly a lot of cash, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing indicates 95% of the notes printed each year are used to replace notes already in, or taken out of circulation. If this percentage is run across the May totals, then "new or extra" notes for circulation is slashed down to $21.8 million per day.

Chart of Printed Notes: Denomination and Production Information (May 2008)

Denomination
Production Location
Series
Serial Numbers (Beginning From and Ending To)
Quantities Total Face Value
$1.00 Washington, DC 2006S D 25,600,001 B  D 64,000,000 B  38,400,000 38,400,000
$1.00 Washington, DC 2006S E 38,400,001 B  E 96,000,000 B  57,600,000 57,600,000
$1.00 Washington, DC 2006S E 1 C  E 32,000,000 C  32,000,000 32,000,000
$1.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006S F 19,200,001 F  F 64,000,000 F  44,800,000 44,800,000
$1.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006S G 38,400,001 C  G 96,000,000 C  57,600,000 57,600,000
$1.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006S G 1 D  G 64,000,000 D  64,000,000 64,000,000
$1.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006S L 1 J  L 57,600,000 J  57,600,000 57,600,000
$5.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006G IE 1 B  IE 44,800,000 B  44,800,000 224,000,000
$5.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006G IF 1 A  IF 32,000,000 A  32,000,000 160,000,000
$10.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006G IG 76,800,001 A  IG 96,000,000 A  19,200,000 192,000,000
$10.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006G IG 1 B  IG 32,000,000 B  32,000,000 320,000,000
$10.00 Forth Worth, TX 2006G IH 1 A  IH 12,800,000 A  12,800,000 128,000,000
$10.00 Forth Worth, TX 2004GA GG 1 *  G 512,000 *  512,000 5,120,000
$100.00 Washington, DC 2006N HB 54,400,001 E  HB 99,200,000 E  44,800,000 4,480,000,000
$100.00 Washington, DC 2006N HB 1 F  HB 32,000,000 F  32,000,000 3,200,000,000
$100.00 Washington, DC 2006N HC 32,000,001 A  HC 70,400,000 A  38,400,000 3,840,000,000
$100.00 Washington, DC 2006N HD 60,800,001 A  HD 67,200,000 A  6,400,000 640,000,000

*The banknotes with stars in their serial number indicated a "star note". These are replacement notes for misprinted notes and to also replace certain serial numbers, like 000 000 000. Star notes are generally more desirable to collectors as they are rarer than normal banknotes.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments