Smash Notes
Where Do the Dollar Bills Come From?
Every dollar bill in the world comes from the same paper mill in Massachusetts. Today on the show, we get a front-row seat to the dollar-making process. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here .
Notes
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On Planet Money, David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein visit the mill that makes the paper for every US dollar bill. It is Crane & Co., a small mill in a valley by a river in Dalton, Massachusetts. The Crane family has made this paper for 130 years. Vice president Douglas A. Crane handed Kestenbaum a business card so thick, he joked, that you could cut a steak with it. In an old factory, Crane pointed up at a metal sphere about 15 feet across that holds thousands of pounds of fiber. No trees go into a bill. The paper is 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen, closer to a T-shirt than to ordinary paper.
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American dollar bill is made out of 75% cotton and 25% linen. No trees are killed by printing dollar bills, while linen and cotton mix make for a very sturdy paper.
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US dollar bills undergo a quality control measure by a fold test, when a machine folds and unfolds paper, until the paper breaks.
While regular copy-paper can take ~100 folds before breaking, the paper for US Dollar Bill can take 5000 folds!
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It's been a family business for generations, starting in 1979, when Mr. Crane undercut his competitors during the bidding process and got the very first contract from the US treasury.
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While a lot of the design goes into creating subtle hard-to-copy differences, some counterfeit features are quite literally embedded into the paper. A security strip and a colored thread are just a few, among many.
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If you ever meet a truck driver with a gun, telling you he's carrying halloween candy, chances are you have just run into the truck transporting US currency paper from the mill, to the engraving department.