<blockquote>
<p>Are there any estimates on how many US Dollars are lost or destroyed
annually? By &quot;lost or destroyed&quot;, I mean permanently removed from
circulation because the currency is no longer usable.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/the-destruction-of-money-who-does-it-why-when-and-how/236990/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The link I offered as a comment covers this question nicely.</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>When Currency Is Physically Destroyed</p>
<p>Obviously, not all money is electronic. Just look at your wallet.
Bills and coins are destroyed every day. There are three destroyers of
money, and they're the same ones who create and regulate it.</p>
<p>(1) The Bureau of Engraving and Printing and (2) The U.S. Mint</p>
<p>The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing creates all of the nation's
bills, while the U.S. mint creates its coins. But they also destroy
money.</p>
<p>Banks and individuals will hand over &quot;mutilated&quot; bills and coins to
these agencies. They then validate its authenticity and issue a
Treasury check in return. <strong>The Bureau of Engraving and Printing
receives around 25,000 mutilated currency redemption claims annually.
Each bill is shredded and sent to waste energy facilities for
disposal.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwCfK1oqRkI" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Here is a great video I found on the subject.</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>For instance, if I had a briefcase full of $100 bills that I either
misplace (any nobody ever finds it) or toss into a fire, that money is
no longer usable and cannot circulate within the economy. How much
money is lost or destroyed in ways like these annually?</p>
<p>I'm primarily interested in estimates for physical currency, but would
be interested in other means of money loss (can this happen
electronically?) as supplementary information.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By your situation previously, it is neigh-impossible to track such bills in circulation. As these bills don't transmit a signal as to their location, or who the buyer/seller is in a private party transaction. i.e. I meet up with you to buy your phone and pay in cash.</p>
<p>But at the same time, all US bills are serialized, meaning each are unique. A 1 dollar bill might have the same value as another $1, but each has its own unique identifier (serial number). When the US Treasury (through the Mint for coins and Bureau of Engraving and Printing for paper bills) issues new currency, the flow and supply chain of the money is tracked from its raw materials (ink, cotton, etc.) to distribution (banks, credit unions, foreign countries). Whenever a bill 're-enters' the system (i.e. deposited at a bank) the serial can be tracked from its origin point to its reentry point. However I am unaware of a system that can actively track its location in between.</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar" rel="nofollow noreferrer">counterfeits</a> are also taken into account the total supply of US dollars in circulation.</p>
<p>As for electronic loss, the current <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/how-ach-payments-work-315441" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ACH System</a> acts like a central authority that syncs all of the electronic activity that takes place. This is why when you pay, items on your bill are 'pending' until a couple of days later when they are 'posted'. At the same time, banks have several layers of backup systems and redundant systems to ensure 100% up-time and preventing data-loss.</p>
<p>Some reading to get started, but by no means definitive.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-09T23:03:05.040Z
Could you provide a relevant quote from the news article? The website may not always exist, and I would hate for this to become a link-only answer.
Thunderforge
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-09T08:32:08.030Z
2017-12-10T03:43:47.053Z
2020-06-17T09:40:54.643Z
Bluebird
<p>Are there any estimates on how many US Dollars are lost or destroyed annually? By "lost or destroyed", I mean permanently removed from circulation because the currency is no longer usable</p>

<p>For instance, if I had a briefcase full of $100 bills that I either misplace (any nobody ever finds it) or toss into a fire, that money is no longer usable and cannot circulate within the economy. How much money is lost or destroyed in ways like these annually?</p>

<p>I'm primarily interested in estimates for physical currency, but would be interested in other means of money loss (can this happen electronically?) as supplementary information.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-09T03:35:11.207Z
Literally 4th google result. (for me at least)

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/the-destruction-of-money-who-does-it-why-when-and-how/236990/
Bluebird
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-09T08:03:27.033Z
@FrankFYC it really doesn't matter that you found it easily to google (other than it making it very easy for you to answer, and very easy to earn rep). If a question is a fit for the site, it's a fit, and it doesn't matter how easy it is to find the answer - the question still belongs here. Thanks to Stack Exchange's mighty SEO power, this question will quickly become the top link on google for the question anyway. And what we're trying to do here, is accumulate a body of topic-specific knowledge **in one place**, rather than scattered across millions of google hits.
410 gone
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-09T08:19:16.120Z
@EnergyNumbers Thanks for the reminder. I need to be a little bit more sensitive. However, I am not unacquainted with the SE format, just a little miffed that this question doesn't generate discussion. i.e. I learned about X with Link 1, Link 2, but I wanted to ask about "quote" and what it meant. The question as-is just stops once you discuss how many USD is destroyed and why. It doesn't expand upon the topic.
Bluebird
<currency><united-states>
How many US Dollars are lost or destroyed annually?
Thunderforge
# How many US Dollars are lost or destroyed annually?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-12-08)

Are there any estimates on how many US Dollars are lost or destroyed annually? By "lost or destroyed", I mean permanently removed from circulation because the currency is no longer usable

For instance, if I had a briefcase full of $100 bills that I either misplace (any nobody ever finds it) or toss into a fire, that money is no longer usable and cannot circulate within the economy. How much money is lost or destroyed in ways like these annually?

I'm primarily interested in estimates for physical currency, but would be interested in other means of money loss (can this happen electronically?) as supplementary information.

**Tags:** currency, united-states

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Literally 4th google result. (for me at least)  https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/the-destruction-of-money-who-does-it-why-when-and-how/236990/  
> **username_2**: @FrankFYC it really doesn't matter that you found it easily to google (other than it making it very easy for you to answer, and very easy to earn rep). If a question is a fit for the site, it's a fit, and it doesn't matter how easy it is to find the answer - the question still belongs here. Thanks to Stack Exchange's mighty SEO power, this question will quickly become the top link on google for the question anyway. And what we're trying to do here, is accumulate a body of topic-specific knowledge **in one place**, rather than scattered across millions of google hits.  
> **username_1**: @EnergyNumbers Thanks for the reminder. I need to be a little bit more sensitive. However, I am not unacquainted with the SE format, just a little miffed that this question doesn't generate discussion. i.e. I learned about X with Link 1, Link 2, but I wanted to ask about "quote" and what it meant. The question as-is just stops once you discuss how many USD is destroyed and why. It doesn't expand upon the topic.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-12-09. Score: 2

> Are there any estimates on how many US Dollars are lost or destroyed
> annually? By "lost or destroyed", I mean permanently removed from
> circulation because the currency is no longer usable.

[The link I offered as a comment covers this question nicely.](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/the-destruction-of-money-who-does-it-why-when-and-how/236990/)

> When Currency Is Physically Destroyed
>
> Obviously, not all money is electronic. Just look at your wallet.
> Bills and coins are destroyed every day. There are three destroyers of
> money, and they're the same ones who create and regulate it.
>
> (1) The Bureau of Engraving and Printing and (2) The U.S. Mint
>
> The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing creates all of the nation's
> bills, while the U.S. mint creates its coins. But they also destroy
> money.
>
> Banks and individuals will hand over "mutilated" bills and coins to
> these agencies. They then validate its authenticity and issue a
> Treasury check in return. **The Bureau of Engraving and Printing
> receives around 25,000 mutilated currency redemption claims annually.
> Each bill is shredded and sent to waste energy facilities for
> disposal.**

[Here is a great video I found on the subject.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwCfK1oqRkI)

> For instance, if I had a briefcase full of $100 bills that I either
> misplace (any nobody ever finds it) or toss into a fire, that money is
> no longer usable and cannot circulate within the economy. How much
> money is lost or destroyed in ways like these annually?
>
> I'm primarily interested in estimates for physical currency, but would
> be interested in other means of money loss (can this happen
> electronically?) as supplementary information.

By your situation previously, it is neigh-impossible to track such bills in circulation. As these bills don't transmit a signal as to their location, or who the buyer/seller is in a private party transaction. i.e. I meet up with you to buy your phone and pay in cash.

But at the same time, all US bills are serialized, meaning each are unique. A 1 dollar bill might have the same value as another $1, but each has its own unique identifier (serial number). When the US Treasury (through the Mint for coins and Bureau of Engraving and Printing for paper bills) issues new currency, the flow and supply chain of the money is tracked from its raw materials (ink, cotton, etc.) to distribution (banks, credit unions, foreign countries). Whenever a bill 're-enters' the system (i.e. deposited at a bank) the serial can be tracked from its origin point to its reentry point. However I am unaware of a system that can actively track its location in between.

At the same time, [counterfeits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar) are also taken into account the total supply of US dollars in circulation.

As for electronic loss, the current [ACH System](https://www.thebalance.com/how-ach-payments-work-315441) acts like a central authority that syncs all of the electronic activity that takes place. This is why when you pay, items on your bill are 'pending' until a couple of days later when they are 'posted'. At the same time, banks have several layers of backup systems and redundant systems to ensure 100% up-time and preventing data-loss.

Some reading to get started, but by no means definitive.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Could you provide a relevant quote from the news article? The website may not always exist, and I would hate for this to become a link-only answer.  

---

