Modern Marvels - Money

'Money can't buy happiness' and 'The lull of money is the route of all evil' are just two popular sayings about money. For most of us, money consumes our lives - spending, saving and earning it. There are two agencies that work around the clock to manufacture money. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing prints our paper currency and the U.S. Mint, which is the largest mint in the world, manufactures coins. There are mints located across the Unites States in Denver, San Fransisco, West Point and more. Downtown Philadelphia has one of the oldest mints. Mints manufacture over 11 billion coins a year and 30 million coins each day. Today, the coin design is computerized. A model is sculpted in clay to get the fine details. Then a rubber mold is made to create a hard epoxy model. Machines trace the image into steel and a dye then reverses the image with recessed features. This results in a master dye. Metal strips in coils are then fed into a machine that punches out round discs called blanks. The machine makes about 1500 blanks per coil. They use heat to treat the metal blanks and soften them. The coins are then washed and dried and the blanks are then formed into the shape of the coin. There are two dyes in each machine, one for the head of the coin and one for the tail. Each machine turns out 750 coins per minute. Inspectors sample coin to check the quality before they are all counted and bagged. Two thousand pound bags are then sent to the Federal Reserve (also known as the Fed).

In 1789, there was no unified system for money in our country. Each colony had its own currency. Thomas Jefferson recommended a decimal coin system and that we create a Mint to manufacture the coins. His rival Hamilton, believed in bank notes. In 1793 production of the first Mint was started. Paul Revere's manufacturing company was used for some of the first copper coins. Back then, all coins were made by hand. It took three years to make the first million coins in the United States. Congress was not happy about the slow pace. Also, the Gold Rush complicated the countries currency problems. The rich in Georgia and the Carolinas had wealth from gold dust, but there was no simple way to turn it into coins. A gentleman named Templeton Reed actually built his own Mint and he bought the gold dust. He was the first of forty private individuals to make money from coins. The government then opened up more Mints around the country as gold rushes occurred. As coins got stronger, the paper currency was getting weaker. At that time, there were 1600 different banks using 7000 varieties of bills. There was no central point to issue the currency. It was a simple process and it was all done by hand. The ink was put into a metal dye and it filled the recessed dots of the image. They would rub it lightly rub to take away the excess ink and then buff it. Finally, a press would print the bank note. Some of these steps are still used today. Now, the paper for bank money is made from discarded scraps of denim. It is sold by the ton. This material makes stronger paper that stays crisp. The cotton denim material cooks for two hours in a vat with chemicals to break down the smaller fibers. It is then bleached and stacked in sheets. It is given a watermark along with red and blue security threads for security reasons. The dyes then put a 3-dimensional image on the paper. It takes many small steps until the bank notes are finished and ready for printing. Some of the steps today are kept private to prevent counterfeiting of the money, so these steps were not shown in this program. The thread and the watermark on the bank note paper is what makes it different from other paper. Abraham Lincoln's image is on every note and in a low light, you can see his image. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing then finishes the process.

The Fed creates money and has 12 districts nationwide that monitor the money supply around the country. Today, notes require craftsmanship and cutting edge technology. Each day, 35,000,000 pieces of currency are produced at a value of $635,000,000.00 Skilled engravers are used to work against the sophisticated counterfeiters. Counterfeit $100.00 bills called 'super notes' were at one time the highest level of counterfeit bills. The Feds found out North Korea had a big operation that was producing these 'super notes'. It was difficult to shut down the operation because their government was involved.

With the invention of the ATM machine and everyone using credit cards and debit cards, transactions with paper can be a burden, but the it is believed that our money expresses our national identity and values - 'In God We Trust' and' Liberty and Freedom'.