www.moneyfactory.com

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, an arm of the U.S. Department of the Treasury (and also known as the U.S. Mint), is a real kidpleaser and makes for a fun family tour. Timed tickets are required during the busy season and can be obtained at the visitors' center in front of the building or by writing to your representative or senator ahead of time. Once you have a ticket, you may have to wait awhile for your thirty-minute tour, but it is fascinating to see the bills, stamps, and White House invitations being printed. (Coins are minted in Texas and Philadelphia.)

To enter, you must pass through a security checkpoint. While you wait in line for your tour to begin, you will see a brick of $20 bills that totals a million dollars and television displays of interesting facts about our currency. Did you know, for instance, that dollar bills aren't made out of paper? They're actually 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen. And did you know that the average lifespan for a dollar bill is a year and a half?

The tour begins with a brief film about the history of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. (In 1862, it consisted of six employees who separated $1 and $2 bills printed by a private company; the staff is currently about 3,000 people.) The presentation also includes an introduction to the printing of money, with a description of how the U.S. currency was recently redesigned to include a watermark portrait that you can see by holding the bill up to the light. These changes were implemented to make counterfeiting more difficult.

The “money factory” prints 35 million notes a day, totaling approximately $635 million. The tour leads you through the actual printing process. You witness the giant presses in action behind a Plexiglas wall and smell the paint-like odor of the green and black inks. The production process of U.S. currency involves sixty-five steps, including examining the bill sheets, overprinting, slicing the sheets, and shrink-wrapping the bills.

After the tour, you are let out into the gift shop, which sells such novelties as bags of shredded money and imperfect sheets of currency. It has a number of interactive displays for kids, as well as a photo booth where kids can have their picture imprinted on a $20 bill.

Location and Hours

The Bureau is located on 14th and C Streets, not far from the Smithsonian Metro station (Orange or Blue Line). During the winter, tours are given from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M., Monday through Friday. In the summer, afternoon hours are added from 4 to 7:30 P.M. The Bureau is closed on weekends, federal holidays, and the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The Bureau is open on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but this is one of its busiest tour days of the year, so plan ahead.

Tickets are required for all tours during the peak season from March through August. They are free on a same-day, first-come, firstserved basis from the ticket booth located on Raoul Wallenberg Place (formerly 15th Street). The ticket booth opens at 8 A.M. Monday through Friday and closes when all tickets have been distributed. Lines form early and tickets go quickly; most days' tickets are gone by 9 A.M. No tickets are required during nonpeak season, from September through February. Just line up at the Visitors' Entrance on 14th Street.

Eats

Street vendors along 14th Street and Independence Avenue offer quick refreshment. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Cafeteria is open to the public from 6:30 A.M. to 2 P.M. Present a valid picture ID at the Wing 3 entrance, 12th and C Streets SW, in the South Building. The Museum Cafe, located on Raoul Wallenberg Place adjacent to the Holocaust Museum, is open from 9:30 A.M. to 3 P.M. Delicatessens can be found in the buildings at 12th Street and Maryland Avenue SW.