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Did You Know? Fascinating Facts About the Fed |
May 16, 2008 |
Frequently Asked Questions
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Did You Know?
Fascinating Facts About the Fed
 The Federal Reserve turns its earnings over (after paying its expenses) to the U.S. Treasury. About 95 percent of the Reserve Banks' net earnings has been paid into the Treasury since the Federal Reserve System began in 1914. |
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Checks move through the Dallas Fed's imaging equipment at 20 miles per hour. That's faster than you can blink! |
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| The southern portions of Oklahoma and Arizona were once part of the Eleventh Federal Reserve District. |
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| The Eleventh Federal Reserve District, which includes Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico, encompasses approximately 350,000 square miles. |
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Alan Greenspan became chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in 1987. Originally appointed by President Reagan, Mr. Greenspan was nominated to a fourth four-year term in 2000. |
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| The 1792 law that established the U.S. Mint made coin defacement, counterfeiting and embezzlement by Mint employees punishable by death. |
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 Check clearing, before the Fed, was a time-consuming, costly process. One check drawn on a bank in Sag Harbor, New York, and deposited in Hoboken, New Jersey—93 miles away—traveled for 10 days, covering 1,223 miles and passing through 10 banks, before it cleared. |
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| Average life span of a currency note: |
$100
$50
$20
$10
$5
$1 |
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9 years
9 years
4 years
3 years
2 years
1.5 years |
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By the end of the Civil War, between one-third and one-half of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit. |
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| If you had $10 billion and you spent it at a rate of $1 per second, it would take you 317 years to go broke. |
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| The largest note ever printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was the $100,000 Gold Certificate, Series 1934. Today the largest bill the BEP prints is $100. |
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