It is in your wallet. It is hanging out in the local grocery store’s cash register. It has made its way from a gas station in California all the way to a fine dining restaurant in New York. We all have it, we all need it, and we all want more of it.
United States paper money is one of the most circulated materials in the world. It even makes its way overseas (exchange rates anyone?). But have you ever wondered how long a note stays in circulation? That $20 bill in your wallet: how many more years does it have before the Federal Reserve Bank deems it no longer usable?
Evaluation Process
The Federal Reserve Bank is the determining body that decides whether a note should be destroyed. The quality of the note is evaluated by high tech, sophisticated equipment that processes the paper money based on strict criteria. Notes that pass the test, or are still considered to be in good condition, continue to be circulated while those that do not make the cut are forever taken out of circulation and destroyed.
Denomination
With really anything, there are determining factors when it comes to currency and its condition. How the public uses federal reserve notes is the biggest and most often visited factor when figuring out a lifespan. Higher values tend to get used less often as lower values which in turn, allows for their condition and single lifespan to be much greater. Think of a $100 bill versus a $1 bill. We as consumers use $1 bills much more than $100 bills and while holding up a circulated note of each, it will most likely be apparent how different they are.
The Federal Reserve System has identified a chart that uses existing currency notes and gives an approximated number on their average lifespan.
- $1 - 5.8 years
- $5 - 5.5 years
- $10 - 4.5 years
- $20 - 7.9 years
- $50 - 8.5 years
- $100 - 15.0 years
The Federal Reserve System also introduces a few caveats with this chart as the estimated lifespans are as of December 2013 with a sidenote explaining that the $2 bill is not published and/or listed in their estimated lifespans due to lack of circulation. They also mention that the $100 note was redesigned in October of 2013 which inhibits the data needed to estimate their lifespan. The chart is based on December 2012 findings for the $100 note.
The next time you look in your wallet or pocketbook, take more than a passing glance at those notes of yours. Some of them might be on their last Tour de America. Some might look as if they were printed just yesterday. With all the knowledge gained from this particular article, do you think you can tell how long