Have you ever wondered how much money the US government prints each month? There’s no need to wonder. With government provided figures and a little extrapolation, finding totals are easy.
Those totals, however, could be less than what you’d assume given the money the government alone spends. Clearly, electronic transactions dominate paper money in use.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) produced 614,912,000 U.S. banknotes in May worth a total of $13,541,120,000.
The BEP’s May production figures reflect a volume reduction compared to total notes printed in April, but do show a slight increase in total value. How? Fewer denominations were produced across the board with the exception of $100 bills. The $100s made up the difference with a nearly 4,500 increase over April for $448M.
There chart below also shows a quantity of 512,000 star notes in $10 bills.
For monthly comparisons of the total weight of printed banknotes — just for the sake of curiosity:
- February came in at 1,432,122 lbs or 649,600 kilograms,
- March notes weighed at 1,728,446,180 lbs or 784,010 kilograms,
- April banknotes weighted 1,563,342 lbs or 709,120 kilograms, while
- May notes weighed 1,355,649 lbs or 614,912 kilograms
Spread across the 31 days in May and counting weekends and holidays, the BEP averaged over 19.8 million notes per day with a total face value of approximately $437 million.
Chart of Printed Notes by Denomination:
Volume and Face Value (May 2008)
| Denomination | Total Printed by Denomination | Total Face Value |
| Ones | 352,000,000 | $352,000,000 |
| Fives | 76,800,000 | $384,000,000 |
| Tens | 64,512,000 | $645,120,000 |
| One Hundreds | 121,600,000 | $12,160,000,000 |
| Total | 614,912,000 | $13,541,120,000 |
While that is certainly a lot of cash, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing indicates 95% of the notes printed each year are used to replace notes already in, or taken out of circulation. If this percentage is run across the May totals, then "new or extra" notes for circulation is slashed down to $21.8 million per day.
Chart of Printed Notes: Denomination and Production Information (May 2008)
| Denomination |
Production Location
|
Series |
Serial Numbers (Beginning From and Ending To)
|
Quantities | Total Face Value | |
| $1.00 | Washington, DC | 2006S | D 25,600,001 B | D 64,000,000 B | 38,400,000 | 38,400,000 |
| $1.00 | Washington, DC | 2006S | E 38,400,001 B | E 96,000,000 B | 57,600,000 | 57,600,000 |
| $1.00 | Washington, DC | 2006S | E 1 C | E 32,000,000 C | 32,000,000 | 32,000,000 |
| $1.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006S | F 19,200,001 F | F 64,000,000 F | 44,800,000 | 44,800,000 |
| $1.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006S | G 38,400,001 C | G 96,000,000 C | 57,600,000 | 57,600,000 |
| $1.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006S | G 1 D | G 64,000,000 D | 64,000,000 | 64,000,000 |
| $1.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006S | L 1 J | L 57,600,000 J | 57,600,000 | 57,600,000 |
| $5.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006G | IE 1 B | IE 44,800,000 B | 44,800,000 | 224,000,000 |
| $5.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006G | IF 1 A | IF 32,000,000 A | 32,000,000 | 160,000,000 |
| $10.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006G | IG 76,800,001 A | IG 96,000,000 A | 19,200,000 | 192,000,000 |
| $10.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006G | IG 1 B | IG 32,000,000 B | 32,000,000 | 320,000,000 |
| $10.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2006G | IH 1 A | IH 12,800,000 A | 12,800,000 | 128,000,000 |
| $10.00 | Forth Worth, TX | 2004GA | GG 1 * | G 512,000 * | 512,000 | 5,120,000 |
| $100.00 | Washington, DC | 2006N | HB 54,400,001 E | HB 99,200,000 E | 44,800,000 | 4,480,000,000 |
| $100.00 | Washington, DC | 2006N | HB 1 F | HB 32,000,000 F | 32,000,000 | 3,200,000,000 |
| $100.00 | Washington, DC | 2006N | HC 32,000,001 A | HC 70,400,000 A | 38,400,000 | 3,840,000,000 |
| $100.00 | Washington, DC | 2006N | HD 60,800,001 A | HD 67,200,000 A | 6,400,000 | 640,000,000 |
*The banknotes with stars in their serial number indicated a "star note". These are replacement notes for misprinted notes and to also replace certain serial numbers, like 000 000 000. Star notes are generally more desirable to collectors as they are rarer than normal banknotes.
