every year more than five hundred and fifty five billion dollars circulates in the United States for the government making enough cash to go around and keeping it safe is an enormous job from the US Mint making coins to the Bureau of Engraving and printing making cash to the Federal Reserve distributing at all we were given unprecedented access to follow the money from start to finish much of our currency begins here in the shadow of the Washington Monument from the outside the Bureau of Engraving and printing looks like any other federal office building in our nation's capitol but inside its a money making factory churning out billions of dollars a year literally the buck starts here the Bureau of Engraving and printing employs more than 2,500 people their Washington headquarters sprawls over 25 acres of floor space it takes two buildings six floors and miles of corridors to accommodate all of their production rooms and vaults what we call dollars or bills they call notes from ones to fives tens 20s and on up to 100 they make the equivalent of three tractor-trailer loads of new notes every day inside the printing room price presses run round the clock thing you notice when you walk in here is the noise it comes from the bureau special ink and smells like something straight out of chemistry class it's their own secret formula and they can go through three tons of it in just 24 hours just like the ink their recipe for the paper is also a carefully guarded secret but director Tom Ferguson did tell me a little bit about what makes it so unique these presses can turn out more than eight thousand sheets an hour it's about 25 to 40 tons of pressure per square inch on a sheet to get the print right when it hits between the two cylinders is like having four or five school buses fall on top of it when you're finished these notes will be worth ten dollars but they cost just a little less than seven cents apiece to make the backs of the notes are printed first it will take 72 hours before they're dry enough to print the other side even though you could never spend at these unfinished pages the bureau is not taking any chances the sheets are locked up in a vault to dry I've seen a lot of signs around say and effect what is that we have to have at least two people in any security at one time so there there's no single person in there alone it doubles our opportunity to make sure that nothing is going on as well as having closed-circuit TV in all of these areas secure production rooms and bolts line the hallways there's one lock door after another again we have to badge in computer I'll note up we're going in and it's this access to go into the cage in here three ships work night and day putting the finishing touches on the notes where we print the seals and serial numbers on the bills so we actually turn it into money next the sheets go under the knife and come out as money ready to spend what we say is that you've been here for more than two weeks and it still seems like money it's probably not the good place for you to work it's just product us it really doesn't seem like money it seems like money to me money that was being compounded by the minute packs of 100 turn into bundles of 1,000 which turned into bricks of 4,000 and I just pick up one package certainly this is $4,000 waste got 8 pounds one dollar bill this is how it goes out won't fit in your pocket but very easy to handle downstairs is the note packaging room a carefully choreographed whirl of activity how much money is in here right now approximate today we have over 100 million notes with a face value of just a little over four billion dollars we could pretty much have double that on a busy day this is the last stop for the new notes here workers are busy wrapping and packing these bundles of money will go to a Federal Reserve Bank which will distribute them to local banks each is shrink wrapped and labeled with its destination the main mission here at the bureau is making new money but there's a little-known office where behind closed doors they handle old money old moldy ripped torn burned and chewed money across the street and down a long corridor is the mutilated currency department most people don't know it but if you have a note that's so badly damaged a bank won't accept it you can mail it to the Bureau of Engraving and printing so 3 if their team of examiners can verify that more than half of the note is there they'll send you a check for the full amount it's a painstaking job examiner's can spend hours or even days piecing together tiny fragments a good examiner will be a person that I would say has a lot of patience a person that loves crossword puzzles a person that loves to read mystery stories because you never know what you're going to get until you actually get it and open up the case so you have to be adventurous you have to have compassion you have to know that this could be the only thing that someone has left in there in the world some notes have been damaged in a flood or fire often it's thousands of dollars sent in by people who don't have money to burn unfortunately this person rolled that currency up and it was exposed to a fire but you can see we'll be able to take care of and we'll just unroll it and try to count it they warned you not to try to fix the money yourself and ask that you send it in its original container farmer was out on the farm and he dropped his wallet cow ate it and when we said send in an original container he sent the cow stomach in of course that was not the best smell in the world so many people have sent in damaged currency they have a 20 month backlog for the most difficult cases volume is up thanks in part to y2k you had a lot of people who buried their life savings I guess in the ground unfortunately mother nature is not too kind to money money is made to be spent each year they examine twenty eight thousand cases and refund 86 mmm dollars back across the street the new cash is packed and ready to go keeping it safe inside the building is one thing keeping it safe as its transported is another armored trucks are brought in to move the money to the Federal Reserve banks under the watchful eye of the bureau police every truck is carefully checked before it's allowed to enter the building's perimeter once inside armed police surround the truck escorting it through two more locked gates security is so tight no one has even attempted a heist the truck is a vault on wheels that can carry almost 400 million dollars this shipment is destined for the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank 140 miles away when we come back we follow the money to the bankers bank and into a massive vault filled floor-to-ceiling with cash behind closed doors will continue in a moment here on Amy behind closed doors with John London continues here on A&E while the US Treasury is responsible for actually making our money it's the Federal Reserve in Washington that determines how much new money needs to be printed each year most of us only know the Federal Reserve Board through headlines would interest rates change but behind closed doors it's the Federal Reserve banks that distribute and store billions of dollars of new cash the Federal Reserve Bank here in Philadelphia is one of 12 scattered across the country their job to supply enough cash to meet the ongoing demand think of it as a bank for the bank's just around the corner from the Liberty Bell the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank has one of the largest cash operations in the country Anthony santomero is the man in charge of the money just as the average customer has a checking account balance and has some currency in his pocket so the the local bank has some money in its vaults but basically turns to us when they need more currency the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank turns to the Bureau of Engraving and printing when it needs new currency the armored truck that left Washington DC a little more than two and a half hours ago is now arriving in Philadelphia the bank gets a large delivery of new cash like this each month this bank deliberately keeps a low profile although you'd never know it judgey from the outside this is one of the most protected buildings in the country once inside the trucks run a gauntlet of security locked gates and cameras are just the beginning it does take longer to go through security at the Federal Reserve Bank because there's so many different ID checks it makes it much more secure than any other place that we visit to go behind these closed doors we agreed not to reveal the exact location of their loading dock and vault or show you the faces of the employees who handle cash chief operating officer bill stone took me on an unprecedented tour of their massive vault do you always have these containers like this filled with money yep this is a pretty normal day you usually have five day billion dollars here in the vault on any given day billion that's billion and that's because we are serving the need of all the banking industry as they you know demand money especially around Christmas time or you know holidays people have a high demand for currency there is so much money here that if you spent ten thousand dollars a day it would take you almost 2,000 years to spend all of the cash in this room has there ever been any kind of a security breach here there's never been any kind of security breach at a vault of any Federal Reserve office we've got security right on the perimeter of the building and just even get down here to get the area would be a very difficult task internal security is just as important in rooms where cash is handled cameras record everything and employees are required to wear special uniforms all right we're in our blues what the point of the Blues this is to protect our employees because employees could ever be accused of putting money in their pocket so I think these there aren't any pockets in these smocks so let's just take away temptation it takes away temptation this is the cash processing room when banks send their excess currency back to the Federal Reserve every note has to be checked to make sure it's not dirty worn or counterfeit here machines hum 16 hours a day electronically scanning the money the Federal Reserve is pretty picky each note has to be good enough to go through an ATM or a vending machine 25% of all of the money that comes in here has to be destroyed and replaced with new notes a one dollar bill that might have a life of eighteen months or so four hundred dollar bill and may have a life of eight to ten years one dollar bills can handle a lot people put them in their pockets people put him through the washing machine and typically that you wouldn't think maybe you wouldn't do that with a hundred dollar bill if you had it in your pocket you're probably right now if it's really bad then it goes over and gets shredded it gets shredded the shreds go up through the tube and come out here where the blizzard of bills is dumped into huge trash bins but the fit isn't just looking for worn or damaged dollars when a processing machine spots something suspicious its hand checked by a counterfeit specialist this is not even the same color right sounds like a bad dupe look at a bad counterfeit this is a very bad counterfeit we're often surprised when a bill like this gets all the way through to us because it's usually been handled by somebody in a retail store maybe a bank maybe a bank is handled and then this bills gotten all the way to us it's just totally the wrong color counterfeiting has entered the digital age with computers scanners and inkjet printers at first glance the notes may look genuine but on closer inspection the paper is usually wrong and the security features are missing can I see that what a real one looks like true let's hold it up and look to see if we can see the security future oh yeah now I see clearly with the watermark and over here this is right here the security thread okay let me just prepare yep you're right pretty obvious very very obvious now when I when I look up our notes are so difficult to fake few criminals even try less than five one hundredths of one percent are forgeries in fact most people will never encounter a counterfeit bill when we come back I go to the US Mint where they make billions of coins and protect billions in bullion behind closed doors we'll continue in a moment here on Amy behind closed doors with John London continues here on Amy nickels dimes and quarters pocket change while you're busy spending them the US Mint is busy turning out brand new ones there are four u.s. mints but Philadelphia is the original it's also one of the largest coin manufacturers in the world last year we made I think it was 12 billion points billion with a fee I'm here on the production floor of the US Mint in Philadelphia the fortune 500 company and it's run like one in the year 2000 million dollars in other words the mint this is one of the few government agencies with a flair for marketing commercials help sell a wide assortment of products everything from collectible gift sets to investment quality coins all with a healthy profit margin to make the coins it takes a massive manufacturing process down on the production floor if hot and noisy it sounds like thousands of slot machines hitting the jackpot earplugs and goggles are required here are 1,500 foot long strips of metal go in and blank coins come out these lightning-fast presses can stamp more than 12 pennies a second Penny's right here they are finished and each operator checks the coins that he produced to make sure that we have a good product all right how do you do that well he'll look under he'll look at the coin under a microscope what are you looking for well first you look for the coin turn you want to make sure that the reverse of the coin is standing straight up just like the opera's and also you want to look for any feedback that looks pretty good what happens if it doesn't look good well if the operator rejects it the bin will be destroyed getting melted down and starts all over it'll be mailed it down and then recycled this is where all the points are counted and bagged in fact those about 400,000 Lincoln cents in this bag of coins it weighs more than 2,000 pounds it's worth $4,000 while the mint wants perfect coins collectors want mistakes these error coins rarely make it into circulation so a coin that's been accidentally missed struck can be worth as much as $100,000 it's up to the mint police to make sure those mistake coins or any coins are not illegally taken out of the building from this control room officers watch as security cameras continually sweep the area police also check everyone on the way in and on the way out before these bags leave there's one last inspection then they're good to go off to the Federal Reserve which gets them into circulation the US Mint does far more than manufacture coins it's also charged with protecting our nation's gold supply you may think all of it is locked up at Fort Knox but it's not West Point New York its best known for its prestigious military academy but within its grounds is a small fortress the US Mint at West Point as you would expect security here is extreme everyone entering must pass through a maze of steel and barbed wire there is layer upon layer of security checkpoint after checkpoint door after door behind these closed doors the government not only houses more than one quarter of the nation's gold but 31 million dollars in silver and nearly 73 million dollars in platinum inside there was one more stop hey miss Linda if you have a seat in the chair you'll need to remove your shoes and you have any metal on you have any type that will affect the machine everyone is searched for weapons explosives and metal you see the green light there you go we use a very special magnetometer in that facility which measures the amount of metal that is in your body so we can compare it to the amount of metal that's on ER in your body when you leave it takes six laps through the machine to get an accurate reading all employees and visitors must do this every time they come in manager Alan McCallum escorted me inside we were always accompanied by an officer for security reasons we won't reveal the layout of the building on camera where do you see this gentleman deep inside this already secure fortress behind two more sets of bolt doors is an amazing sight bar upon bar stacked from floor to ceiling it's brilliant breathtaking and just a little overwhelming about 1/4 of the nation's gold is stored here one thing that really surprised me is how heavy these bars are you've seen movies and people you know get the bar of gold and they run that would almost be impossible they weigh about 27 pounds but they're very dense and when you pick them up people are very surprised to find out how very heavy it is and they kind of step back with their toes because if it drops you'll know it the 27 pound bar so heavy it takes a forklift to move them now the purity I guess is stamped on here right right nein nein nein nein is that good very good it's 999 out of a thousand very good it's not just gold stored here these 6-foot high pallets of silver are worth about a half a million dollars each surprisingly the mints most precious metal is this little bar oh now okay I thought this wasn't gonna be so heavy because it was a little smaller this is platinum right is platinum is far more valuable than gold right now is that heavier than gold it's heavier yes I can tell so this is not like a piece of a bar this is how they this is a bar it's a whole bar one of the rarest and most valuable of all precious metals platinum is selling for nearly $600 an ounce how much is this little pallet here right there you probably have about 13 and a half million dollars 13 and a half million yes Wow but they're not just guarding the precious metals they're using some of them to make investment quality coins behind closed doors here is an entire manufacturing operation making collectors coins from silver gold and platinum all right now we are in the pressing room is that what they call we're in the press room yes and this is where we strike all the coins the Mint allowed me the unique opportunity to make one of their most valuable collector coins a one out silver bullion dollar the Silver Dollar all right let's see wow it's really The Walking Liberty my coin like all these investment quality coins will be hand checked bucks and shipped for me seeing all of this wealth in one place was astounding but what about the people who work with the day in and day out every time I go into a mint I am still amazed at all the money that is there and all the goal that is available and is stored in those facilities I have never lost my awe at all of that value from the US Mint to the Federal Reserve to the Bureau of Engraving and printing they're making the money that makes the economy run behind closed doors
