Fiat Fact: A $100 Note Costs 14.2 Cents to Print

How much exactly it costs to create a note?

Ever wondered how much exactly that $1 dollar or better yet how much it cost to print the Founding father of America Benjamin Franklin on the $100 dollar note?

Well, your precious $100 dollar bill costs 14.2 cents, as per the Federal Reserve. According to the FAQ page of the Federal Reserve, it has been explained,

“Each year, the Federal Reserve Board projects the likely demand for new currency, and places an order with the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which produces U.S. currency and charges the Board for the cost of production.”

It has been further shared with the public,

“The 2019 currency operating budget is $955.8 million and the multi-cycle capital budget is $3.2 million.”

Source: https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm

Meanwhile, the coin production is determined by the US Mint. Reserve Banks that provide Mint with monthly coin orders and a 12-month rolling coin-order forecast. The website states, “Reserve Banks purchase coin at face value from the Mint.”

As for the quantity of these notes, for the fiscal year 2019, an order of about 7 billion Federal Reserve notes valued at $206.9 billion has been made to the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing on July 31, 2018 by the Board of Governors, which is the issuing authority for Federal Reserve notes.

Source: https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/coin_currency_orders.htm

The Federal Reserve also mentions,

“Historically, the majority of the notes that the Board orders each year replace unfit currency that Reserve Banks receive from circulation. The estimated number of notes that Reserve Banks will destroy accounts for nearly 90 percent of the FY 2019 print order and includes both unfit currency, operational changes, as well as old-design notes received from circulation.”

The order of 7 billion notes is a decrease of 5 percent or nearly 0.4 billion notes from the fiscal year 2018.

With this fact, one Twitter user quipped, “I guess they take notion of “you gotta spend money, to make money” quite literally huh.”

This surely brings out people's reactions, as one said, “That’s what I call intrinsic value.”

While another one, “From my understanding we spend about 240 billion dollars maintaining our physical currency supply and creating anti-counterfeiting tech.”

Moreover, the environmental costs, based on the data from 2002 in paper money involves,

Water Use During Paper Making: 1 million gallons / day = 1.4 billion litres per year
Water Use During Printing: 250,000 gallons / day = 0.35 billion litres per year
Waste Ink & Pulp Sludge = 6 million pounds = 2720 tonnes
Electricity Use During Printing: 97850 MWH of electricity = 0.35 million GJ
Electricity Use for Pulp Making = Same as electricity used during printing = 0.45 million GJ
Ink Usage = 3540 tonnes
Over 7100 tonnes of cotton
Over 2300 tonnes of linen

Also, a report from 2017 indicated that the global production of fiat currencies consumes about 11 terawatt-hours per year while gold mining burns 132 terawatt-hours per year. Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining consumes about 8.27 terawatt-hours per year.

Printing cost of U.S. dollars (#USD):
+ $1 and $2 notes — 5.5 cents per note
+ $5 note — 11.4 cents per note
+ $10 note — 11.1 cents per note
+ $20 note — 11.5 cents per note
+ $50 note — 11.5 cents per note
+$100 note — 14.2 cents per note
Source: https://t.co/ZPkzkdwwGk pic.twitter.com/BDOh0GLAL9

— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) January 22, 2019

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