Heartland View

Take a dollar bill out of your pocket. Do you see anything interesting about your dollar bill? Probably not, and that is understandable. So who really cares about a dollar bill? It is just a dollar. That is a very good question.

Across the nation there are many famous sites to see, Devil's Tower, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Lincoln Memorial, Library of Congress, or the White House being just a few of them. But, there is one site in particular that is very interesting and it is located right outside of Saginaw, Texas. This particular place is a very large money maker; quite literally. Moreover, the almost nine hundred employees who work at this site make money their life.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing located in Fort Worth, Texas prints over 60 percent of the United States' currency. The facility prints roughly six hundred million dollars per day. Yes, that is per day!

The facility offers forty five minute long tours to the general public for free. On the tour, visitors are guided on a suspended walkway overseeing the production floor. People are able to watch the hard work that goes into creating U.S. currency.

The process starts with the paper. Thirty two notes are placed on one sheet, and then sheets are put into stacks of ten-thousand. If you think about each sheet containing one hundred dollar bill notes, then one stack will contain thirty two million dollars in it.

During the process, each note is examined three times to ensure that the extremely high standards are met after each phase of the printing process.

To reduce counterfeit a number of security measures are employed into the printing process such as micro printing, color changing ink, watermarks, Intaglio presses, and the actual paper includes security strips.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a part of the United States Treasury Department and has other locations where currency is created. Washington D.C. is responsible for creating the other forty percent of printed currency. The United States Mint is responsible for creating our coin currency; the coins are minted in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, PA; Denver, CO; San Francisco, CA; and West Point, NY.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth, Texas is a very interesting place to go visit. The moment is very surreal when you think about how much money is created each day. As for sites to see in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, this is at the top of the list.

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