Unusual patterns

As I sit here at the computer, entering bills, I've noticed several patterns emerging.

1st, that most of the block letter B bills that we get are from Chicago (G). We have 520 "G" bills, and 609 bills with the block letter B. Of those, 372 are the "GB" combination. Site wide there are only 985 with this combination.

2nd, we're getting a lot of block letter R bills, most of which are from San Francisco (L). Site wide, there are 228 block letter R bills. We have 101 of those.

As you all know, we're new to bill tracking, so can you let us know if trends like this are normal? Being near the west coast, getting a lot of San Francisco bills is expected, but getting the combinations of "GB" and "LR" is a surprise. Any insight from you long time bill tracking addicts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

A new addict,

Tony

Here in the mid-atlantic, I see mostly Richmond (E) bills. Naturally, plenty of New York (B) float around here since it is usually the second highest FRB printed. However, once in awhile "strange" things happen.

For the first 50% of the Series 2003A run, the BEP didn't print ANY Richmond bills. We saw Boston (A), New York (B), Philly (C) and Atlanta (F). In the few months just before the E's finally hit the streets, I saw a massive influx of Kansas City (J) in blocks B and C. Those J bills were printed in March and April of 2006 and I still see several a month.

There is an interesting tidbit from the G-B and L-R Series 2009. In both cases Fort Worth BEP printed a huge run of Ones.
In April 2008, FW went from G 44800001 A to G 38400000 C which included all 96,000,000 B blocks.
In May 2009, FW went from L 70400001 Q to L 06400000 S which included all 96 million R blocks.

Ok. That explains why we're getting so many of the G-B and L-R bills. With 96 million of them out there and recently printed, they'll show up a lot. Still, I find it interesting that we have gotten so many of these bills when we're getting them from a variety of locations (two different Wells Fargos, credit union, and Sara's tips from the airport).

Hi,

a nice map showing the FRB areas:

http://www.answers.com/topic/federal-reserve-districts

However, the multi state banks do transport their cash (new bills) between branches. So if the head office of your local bank is in another FRB area you might see lots of new bills from this area.

Markus

Great site. Thanks for the link. I'm learning more than I ever thought I would when I came across Dave's $2 bill.

Let me know if I have this correct: The BEP prints the bills (in DC?). Those are distributed to the 12 Federal Reserve Banks. The serial numbers are added to the bills at that point. Then they are distributed to Federal Reserve Branches and to the head branches of other banks (Wells Fargo, B of A, Chase, etc.) within each of the 12 districts. And then the bank's head branches send those bills to all of their branches throughout the U.S., no matter where they are located?

That is kinda close, Tony.

Actually more bills are printed in Fort Worth, TX than in DC itself. Fort Worth is a much larger and newer facility. All the new printing presses are tested and come online in Fort Worth before they ever do so in DC. The DC BEP is a pretty old building and does not have much of the infrustructure that can be found at Fort Worth.

The BEP will print bills for the 12 Districts, but as you have seen, it does not print anything close to the same amount for each. Obviously, San Fran and New York will see many more bills printed for them (over time) than all the other districts.

The BEP fills orders from the 12 Districts. Typically, those districts will get their FRB designated bills. However, the BEP may not have printed those bills or have any on hand. So, the BEP ships Kansa City (J) bills to the Richmond district. Richmond turns around and supplies bills to Wachovia, B of A and other regional banks to meet their suuply needs. Some 3-6 months after the bill is printed, the brand new straps arrive at your local branch.

All aspects of currency printing are done at either DC or Fort Worth. There are 3 print runs - first, the backs are printed, next the front black ink portions. finally the green ink of the serial numbers and treasury seal are printed. On fives though hundreds, the colorized inks are applied in step 3.

Currrency is printed in sheets. The top sheet ends in 01 and the bottom sheet ends in 00. That way, when all the sheets are printed, they can be cut so that the numbers do not have to be suffled to get a perfect 0 to 100.

Keep asking those excellant questions.

Thanks for all the info. I love learning how things operate behind the scenes. The more I get into tracing currency, the more I'm enjoying it. I enjoy traveling, studying maps, and just seeing where the money goes, and how long it takes to get there. Also, I really like when someone puts in where and how they plan on spending it. Quite funny sometimes.