How Does Money End Up Where It Does?

Do you live close to the airport. LaGuardia and JFK are both major stops for many airlines. With thousands of people everyday from all corners of the world buying stuff at the airport, that money has to go somewhere.

I think its based on order. So those 12 FRB stamps are because that FRB had an order for a certain number so they got that area on it. Then bils just get sent in in whatever fashion they are needed as printed.

I saw something like this on one of the Discovery Channel type shows, but haven't been able to find it online or TV since. could have been How Its Made, How Do They Do That, 10 Thing You Didn't Know, or even Modern Marvels...

I want to find it again not only because of this, but it had details like coin seigniorage about bills mentioned in it.

All I can say for sure is whatever organized crime the FRB is involved in, it only stores money, it doesn't print bills

Dave there is another thought to that. Not that the money has to go somewhere, but has to come from somewhere. A foreign traveler getting US currency it could have had to been order from any of the FRBs to supply it. When I tried to get a bag of large dollars recently the bank refused because it has to order from one FRB branch near its home office and not from a closer FRB. Which is weird. So banks doing funny things and just spreading the money out to its branches could mean it doesn't even come from the closest FRB.

Here is another question form a non-flyer. Is there a limit of cash you can carry on a plane? Do people that fly even carry cash or just take it out of the bank when they get to their destination?

Another anecdote, I have seem various bills over time with all 12 letter on them. Would drive me crazy to make a set of any series from all FRBs, but I have seen them of mixed denominations and series from all the FRBs for what that is worth.

And we know bills move and others stay in the same area because Where's George data.

Drunk sailors.

I second the $10,000 rule for international flights. I am not sure it is a hard and fast limit but anything more must be declared and if there is no viable explanation and proof of where the money came from and why it is being carried it can be seized and investigated.

After working for 6 months in the states I had to buy an expensive watch in order not to be carrying too much cash.

Customs pulled me going to Vegas once and counted my money (deliberately below the threshold) they were concerned that if I won I would be carrying too much back... thankfully I left all my money there so no problem ^^ I came back with 25cents in my pocket. Vegas wasn't built on winners :P

Bills don't have to be released for the FRB they were printed for. However, the total amount printed for a particular FRB is how much that FRB receives. To make things a little more clear...
Let's say for fiscal year 2015, 800 million ones with serials starting with "L" are printed, designating them for the San Francisco FRB. Over the course of the year, the SF FRB will receive 800 million ones from the BEP, but the actual bills can be from any FRB.
So the total amount of bills received by any FRB from the BEP for any particular fiscal year is equal to the amount printed "for" that district, but the actual bills they receive from the BEP can be printed "for" any other district. So in the end it all evens out, though as you can see, any bill for any district can really be released anywhere in the country.

I work at 5/3 Bank in a suburb of Chicago. Most new FRB packs of currency are NOT from the FRB Chicago G7.

Basically yes. And the number of bills ordered by a FRB matches the amount printed for that FRB.