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The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

calvin.sh

181–190 of 578 posts

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#181

> For all we know, the middle is just air and crumpled-up old newspaper. I think this is the answer. I suspect the exhibit designers had a cool idea for a display, did a rough estimate of the area needed and then commissioned the exhibit builders to make the big metal-framed cube. Either they made an error in their calculation or the innate variability in the size of stacks of used bills threw it off. It's also possi…

I think those bills didn't go through decommissioning process for used bills. It's much easier to just keep $1M on passive cash balance forever. Yes, they lose about $5k/month on lost interest rate, but a bank can afford it.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#182
> “Hey so… we’re $550,400 over budget on the million-dollar cube project.”

The cube did not cost $1.5M+. These are decommissioned dollars diverted from the normal process. The Federal Reserve is responsible for destroying currency. These bills are worthless. The only expense here is building the walls of the cube.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#184

> For all we know, the middle is just air and crumpled-up old newspaper. I think this is the answer. I suspect the exhibit designers had a cool idea for a display, did a rough estimate of the area needed and then commissioned the exhibit builders to make the big metal-framed cube. Either they made an error in their calculation or the innate variability in the size of stacks of used bills threw it off. It's also possi…

> I'm more interested in is "$1M dollars in $100 bills fits in this area"

Here's $1,000,000 in $50 notes at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Museum: https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/600x600/2817090_qnRbbX_q...

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#185

> For all we know, the middle is just air and crumpled-up old newspaper. I think this is the answer. I suspect the exhibit designers had a cool idea for a display, did a rough estimate of the area needed and then commissioned the exhibit builders to make the big metal-framed cube. Either they made an error in their calculation or the innate variability in the size of stacks of used bills threw it off. It's also possi…

Rather than counting error it’s likely the ~1 ton weight of stacking bills like this would deform the lower sections and possibly stress the glass depending on thickness. So rather than random filler there may be internal structural bracing so the outside of the cube looks nice and neat.

Simplest way to double check is if top and bottom corners have the same bill density.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#186

Instead of writing the counting tool he could have used the Multi-Point Tool in ImageJ [1] [2]. I used it just this morning for counting some embryos I collected. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhFNiPsVRoM [2] https://fiji.sc/

Being a web tool is significantly lower friction. I will definitely look into self hosting a version of this I can use in the future.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#187

> For all we know, the middle is just air and crumpled-up old newspaper. I think this is the answer. I suspect the exhibit designers had a cool idea for a display, did a rough estimate of the area needed and then commissioned the exhibit builders to make the big metal-framed cube. Either they made an error in their calculation or the innate variability in the size of stacks of used bills threw it off. It's also possi…

Yeah, there's no way they piled the cash into a square on the floor and then measured it and then had the box made based on the measurements. They had the box made FIRST based on rough calculations, being sure to over-estimate it's size on purpose, knowing they can fill the interior with cardboard boxes as needed to space things out.

[deleted]

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#188
post #4

Do they claim it's packed solid all the way through?

I assume there's a really big ink bomb in the center.

I assume that at least 51% of the non visible bill parts have been destroyed. Then you do not care if anyone tries some elaborate heist.

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#189
post #59
post #56

It's always amusing how people easily carry $1M cash in the movies.

well, using larger denominations helps.

I think you could tell if the bill was purple (Swiss franc [1]) instead of green in the movies...

[1] https://www.snb.ch/.imaging/flex/jcr:778b68b3-1344-4872-93d7...

Re: The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because going >50% over-budget isn't a good way to further anyone's career in exhibit design, engineering and construction. I have a friend who works at a firm which specializes in engineering and constructing exhibits for museums and all kinds of public spaces. There's a whole industry ecosystem around doing this. They get brought in on contracts by design firms which specialize in permanent installation exhibits wh…

It is the Fed though, does money actually "cost" anything for them? They're the ones who make the money!

Per this site: https://home.treasury.gov/services/currency-and-coins

> "U.S currency is produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and U.S. coins are produced by the U.S. Mint. Both organizations are bureaus of the U.S. Department of the Treasury."

But even if this exhibit was at a U.S. Mint site, your assumption doesn't account for how the real world works. The people involved in planning, creating and operating a public exhibit space like this on behalf of some museum, department or company are just regular employees who report to mid-level managers with careers in facilities management. I'm not an expert but if this was a U.S. Mint site, I'd guess that the bills on display would be technically 'retired' (or whatever term they have for bills that are removed from circulation). Since the Federal Reserve is a quasi-governmental organization, I can't really guess if these bills are similarly retired or simply cash, the time-value of which this exhibit space is carrying on their balance sheet. Either way, based on the way the real world actually works, it's almost certain the cost of this cash is very precisely tracked and accounted for on an audited budget that some mid-level manager is responsible for balancing right alongside the payroll for ticket takers, security guards and janitorial.

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