Fed ‘Quarantines’ Over 1 Billion $100 Bills After Misprint
- Posted on December 7, 2010 at 6:53am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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The Federal Reserve is scrambling for answers after it was discovered that it misprinted over 1 billion new, high-tech $100 bills, rendering the the bills unusable and costing taxpayers about $120 million.
CNBC reports that the bills, due out in February 2011, are so complex and chock full of high-tech security measures that regular printers are having difficulty producing the bills. Those printing complications, a source told CNBC, led to 1.1 billion bills — the total number of new bills produced thus far — being quarantined in Texas and Washington, D.C. vaults.
At one point as much as 30 percent of the new bills rolling of the presses were flawed and carried a crease that when stretched out revealed a blank piece of the bill.
“There is something drastically wrong here,” a person familiar with the situation told CNBC. “The frustration level is off the charts.”
Since officials do not know what caused the problem, all the new bills have had to be quarantined. Sorting through them by hand could take “20 and 30 years,” says CNBC, leaving the government trying to develop a mechanized sorting system. Once the defective bills are discovered they will be shredded.
The bills reportedly cost 12 cents a piece to produce, meaning the government now has about $120 million worth of bills it cant use — $110 billion if one counts the face value.
The new bills were supposed to be the first ones bearing the name of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Instead, the Fed is now printing “old” bills bearing the name of Bush Treasury Sec. Hank Paulson.
See the new bills here.
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Comments (120)
microace
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 8:05amBernanke said on 60 minutes that they weren’t printing money…
Report Post »tacomia
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 8:50amJust Obama Money :o)
Report Post »HumanDoing
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:58amProbably just be easier at this point top just release the Amero huh.
How these broken bills got into the system when we don’t print is beyond me
So how do these extra bushel basket fulls of broken cash artificially effect overall dollar value..sheesh…
Report Post »BlueStrat
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:58amThe problem is that they are so intent on cramming so much privacy-invading & tracking tech into bills to be able to do things like detect hidden money stashes and track every single transaction and movement of people‘s money that the product fails at it’s first purpose: Legal tender for all debts, public and private.
The real counterfeiters are Nation-States like N. Korea that have the resources to copy just about anything we can print. This has little to do with counterfeiting and nearly everything to do with monitoring every person’s spending habits, purchases, and identify cash hoarders & smugglers.
A future pedestrian’s encounter with police:
“Sir, we stopped and questioned you because our handheld cash-detecting-scanners have determined that you are carrying $5 over the legal cash possession limits for this part of the city.
In accordance with the new Executive Order governing maximum permissible amounts of cash possession by unlicensed individuals in designated public areas, we are confiscating this contraband cash in order to keep you safe. The cash is, of course, totally forfeited under the new cash confiscation rules. Please assume the position for the mandatory anal probe, Citizen.”
Strat
Report Post »Uncle Sambo
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:57amDon’t worry. The Counterfeiter Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama will soon order that the lower denomination bills, One Hundred and less. are printed only on one side so that there is plenty of money to finance QE13.
Report Post »ConsConsMA
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 8:37amUncle Sambo, thanks for my chuckle of the day!
Report Post »TOSKIMAN
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:52am>We would spend less if we just bought our $100 bills from North Korea.
Report Post »>How does “quality control” let 1 billion bills go unnoticed?
>I think you may be able to write this off if you use Turbo Tax.
bataviabard
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:51amGuess Kinko‘s wasn’t up to the job
Report Post »ANewActivist
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:50amThe real error was putting Tim Geithner’s name on the bill.
Report Post »ObserverOnTheHill
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:49amso you’re telling me that JUST the “cost” to print these is 10% of their stated value ?
Report Post »$ 120 MILLION ON 1.1 BILLION = APPROX 10% ( I went to school when a public education wasn’t so bad )
TOSKIMAN
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 8:00amActually, the cost is much higher considering it is a 1 dollar bill with 2 zeros.
Report Post »Rn mom
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:40amWasn’t that snake Bernanke on TV last night telling us that it is a myth that the fed is printing money?
Report Post »felina g
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:59amYes. Bernie lied. They are also digitizing God knows how much for the stupid people who think it is worth something.
It isn`t the money that is important….it`s the DEBT. Power and control is in fashion you see.
Report Post »RedHarley
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:29amJust more evidence that the idea of “Quality Control” in government is a foreign concept. These are the same people who are vowing to root out waste/abuse in the the health care system. The only thing I am surprised about in this story is that the government ISN’T going to hire SEIU unionized employees to sort these bills for 30 years. Talk about job security………
Report Post »iwalkalone
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:26amplease, they could just run off the 120 million on the next run. I guess it is part of the plan to convince us it really doesnt matter if its the govt printing it or Milton/Bradley
Report Post »RedHarley
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:31amThe difference is that Milton Bradley would have done it right the first time.
Report Post »chdorb
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:25amSo we blew taxpayer dollars designing and making these bills, then we cost taxpayers more money on worthless printing and now we must spend even more taxpayer dollars to R&D ways to print the high-tech money.
Report Post »And you wonder why we’re running a deficit?
jedi.kep
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:20amThis my friends is what I call ‘divine justice.’ You will reap what you sow. Sow stupidity, reap failure. I’ve seen it over and over again.
Report Post »Mick
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:19amWow. they can’t even print worthless money correctly
Report Post »Race
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 10:18amEggzackly. I wish they‘d print it on toilet paper so it’d serve a useful purpose.
Report Post »GeauxAlready
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:18amCALM DOWN EVERYONE! They only wasted a $120 million don’t panic. Yet.
Report Post »chazman
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:12amJust one more example of our government being unable to do anything correctly …
Report Post »DagneyT
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:21amTrue dat!
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 9:25amHey!!!! Now!!!! it only took one billion bills & 23 million dollars in cost to figure out they had a problem
Report Post »norcalart
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 9:35amAmen !
Report Post »Ruler4You
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:12amI thought they had all of these “quality” checks in place over the entire manufacturing process? I suppose that’s just one more lie the government makes. Apparently, they can’t even do what they do best (steal money) without screwing it up.
Report Post »truthncharity
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:11amThis can’t be true….Bernanke said the Fed printing money was a myth. Guess the myth busters are around somewhere huh?
Report Post »Konservative PUNK
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:38amMythbusters are committed liberals. I was surprised to see Jamie Hyneman on the stage at the John Stewart Rally, but then again, they’re from San Francisco.
Report Post »EP46
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:10amSimple, take a certain amount of the bills and sell them to collectors through the U. S. Mint. There are plenty of collectors who buy “error coins” and paper money. They could sell enough to make up the loss. After all, counterfit $$$ is abundant so why not sell the ‘real duds’?
Report Post »slade37
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 1:41pmGreat idea, but Obama didn’t think of it so it might never get done unless GOP can push the idea. Plus, this group doesn’t admit to making mistakes. A few months from now “What printing mistake? We never printed more money.”
Report Post »Michigan Vacation
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:08amSome deflation would be a good thing.
Report Post »PALINCAINTICKET
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:07amWhen are the people going to wake up to the competence of this administration
Report Post »NickDeringer
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:20amWe are waking up, slowly but surely.
On Pearl harbor day let’s not forget:
Report Post »We survived Pearl Harbor because America was a great country. Will we survive Barack Obama?
Psychosis
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:22amthat would be incompetence …………..just sayin lol
Report Post »catfolkartist
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:26am@NickDeringer
Yes we will survive Mr Obama and his Progressive nightmare being fabricated. As you mentioned we did survive Pearl Harbor, and our nation has survived other challenges, great and small. This land has sent men to the moon, and innovated much good for the world. We are capable of achieving anything the nation sets to achieve, and restoring the country is worth it.
We are capable.
Report Post »We are pushing on.
We will WIN.
Ialmostforgot
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:04amBut the Fed Chairman, Mr Bernake, said we weren’t printing money!
Report Post »Barb1954
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 8:06amYEAH! What “almostforgot” said! So they LIED AGAIN…..oh WAIT…..it’s not that they LIED AGAIN…..it’s…..THEY GOT CAUGHT LIEING!
Poor Timmy….can’t get NO RESPECT! LMAO! Wonder if it was Sabotage? Would be interesting to know……………..just sayin……….
Report Post »ozchambers
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 9:06amI suppose he meant they weren’t printing any money that has VALUE. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If a valueless bill falls off a Fed Reserve printing press, does it exist? Econononexistentialism?
Report Post »po-boy
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:03amLooks like we could just buy our 100 dollar bills from Nort Korea.
Report Post »At least they can counterfiet with quality control
guyperram
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:23amYes, but they do their best work on the$20 and $50 bills.
Report Post »Maybe they could teach how to print, or better yet, we could out-source those jobs.
EP46
Posted on December 9, 2010 at 5:53amYea, I think this ‘money’ was subcontracted out to Mexico or someone else. The Fed doesn’t pring $$$ they pay another country to do it…you know, the old ‘redistribution’ thing.
Report Post »Conserving Ink
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:00amI don’t see what the problem is, the way they are printing it these days its nearly Monopoly money anyway. Does a simple crease really make it work any less?
Report Post »_________________________________________________________________________________
http://conserving-ink.blogspot.com/2010/12/government-we-didnt-elect.html
Reagan/Demint.deciple
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:37amThats funny…
Report Post »Conserving Ink
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 8:01amI just had a thought of the black helicopter variety. How long would it take to print over $1 billion in $100 bills? Weeks, months? How does a closely monitored process go for that long without some one catching such a visible error? If you wanted to move a billion bucks without any accounting for it, how would you do it? And why would you need to?
Report Post »____________________________________________________________________
http://conserving-ink.blogspot.com/2010/12/government-we-didnt-elect.html
NickDeringer
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 6:56amIs this an omen from God?
Just sayin’
Report Post »DagneyT
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:19amThey should not be printing it to begin with; it‘s not worth the paper it’s printed on! What part of ‘broke’ do they not understand?
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:31amIt’s all funny money anyway. Save them until the $100 bill is worth about 3 cents…which shouldn’t be long from now..
Report Post »Reagan/Demint.deciple
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:36amHA !!! the thing they do best ( printing money ) they can’t even do that right..
Report Post »TXPilot
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:47amIt‘s a shame they didn’t screw up about another $900 billion.
Report Post »TOSKIMAN
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 8:09amThis is the reason Obama and his inept band of idiots can’t “afford” tax cuts.
Report Post »Anarcho Capitalist
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 9:08amI like how people just pull stuff out of… well you know, when they talk to the press. People do not use the dollar because its hard to counterfeit. They use it, or rather did use it because we would spank them if they chose not to.
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 9:20amWhats the diff its play money anyways…….put obama’s a$$ on the things
Report Post »Gas @ $3.00 gal
Silver @ $30.00
Golds @ $1400 +
dkhartman
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 9:20amYeah I‘m sure they ’messed’ up. Just continuing to purposefully bankrupt us. They sure do get a lot of pleasure out of that don’t they?
Report Post »Rogue
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 10:25amPerhaps the Fed needs some additional oversight into the manufacture of it’s goods. It’s time to call in OSHA, FDA, FTC, FCC, EPA, and USDA to regulate and inspect their operations. Let’s see how they like being strangled by bureaucracy when trying to produce anything in the USA.
Report Post »Tlc3Terry
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 11:35amNo you know whats so funny? Is that Fox News has been running footage of them printing them bills and you can see right on the video that they are screwed up and they kept printing them! What a bunch of dopes!!!
Report Post »pajamash
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 11:37amSo why are WE paying for this f*** up? Let the fed it eat the costs!!!
Report Post »CYCLONE
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:30pmactually it’s a 240 million dollar F-Up… we should’nt be double printing money because QE2 should not be happening….
and in all actuality …let‘s take the QE2 ’s 600 billion dollars of newly printed money PLUS the 1 billion dollars they screwed up PLUS the 1 billion dollars that THEY HAD TO REPRINT…hhmmmmmmmm…@ 100.00 increments @12 cents a piece…
… THAT EQUALS 602 BILLION DOLLARS OF 100 DOLLAR BILLS @ 12 CENTS A PIECE…
… DO YOU PEOPLE REALIZE THAT THAT IS 7.224 BILLION DOLLARS JUST TO PRINT IT !!!
…WTF…just the cost of printing it alone will cause inflation !!!
Report Post »t00nces2
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:48pmI thought Bernake just came out and insisted they weren’t printing money?…
Maybe the Fed chairman should be more familiar with the goings on in the building he is supposedly running.
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