US Currency

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces 35 million pieces of currency each day with a face value of approximately $517 million.

48 percent of notes printed are $1 notes.

The Fed’s Cash Services department processes currency using high speed machines. Each verifi es currency at a rate of approximately 1,250 notes per minute. The machines intercept potential counterfeits and destroy old, worn out notes.

The average life of United States currency corresponds to the note’s denomination:

• $1 - 22 months
• $5 - 16 months
• $10 - 18 months
• $20 - 2 years
• $50 - 5 years
• $100 - 8.5 years

Of the $690 billion of U.S. currency and coin in worldwide circulation, two thirds, or approximately $460 billion, is held outside of the United States. Roughly 80 percent of the American cash held abroad is in the form of $100 bills.

As of December 31, 2003, United States currency denominations were in circulation in the following quantities (in billions):

• ONE - 8.1
• TWO - 0.6
• FIVE - 1.9
• TEN - 1.4
• TWENTY - 5.0
• FIFTY - 1.2
• ONE HUNDRED - 4.8

Source: Federal Reserve: Fed in brief