How much is a small printing error really worth? How about $110 billion?
Just over one billion of the Fed’s new $100 bills, which were scheduled for general release in February 2011, are currently under quarantine after a printing error caused the bank notes to crease while printing, revealing an unprinted, white strip, reports CNBC. It seems as though the high tech security features, such as a 3D strip, were simply too much for the government’s money printers.
(See Pictures of The Dangers of Printing Money.)
The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve officials announced the new security-savvy notes in a grand unveiling ceremony back in April but with a potential 30% of the bills having been defaced by the machinery, it could take between 20 and 30 years to sort through the 1.1 billion bank notes by hand. However, officials want to develop a mechanized counting system which should take approximately a year to sort through the bills. Until then, all of the notes will sit in quarantine in massive vaults owned by the Fed.
(See inside the world of Federal Reserve Chairman and 2009 TIME Person of the Year Ben Bernanke.)
CNBC states that the notes cost 12 cents each to make, which leaves the American taxpayer footing a $120 million bill for just over a billion notes that may never see the light of day, or indeed the inside of your wallet. However, officials at the Treasury remain optimistic that most of the notes will eventually be salvaged. It certainly does cost money to make money.