A Hundred-Dollar Bill Costs Under Ten Cents to Make

Printing a crisp $100 bill costs the US government only about 8.6 cents in linen, cotton paper, and color-shifting ink. Even a basic $1 bill costs roughly 2.8 cents to produce. The colossal gap between a banknote's negligible manufacturing cost and its real-world purchasing power represents seigniorage—instant government revenue created out of thin air. In a typical year, this manufacturing spread generates tens of billions of dollars returned directly to the US Treasury.

Sources

• How much does it cost to produce currency and coin?federalreserve.gov ↗
• Federal Reserve NoteWikipedia ↗