I’m making paper for a client from an old table cloth and some shredded money from the US Mint. I showed my 12-year old son the bucket full of shredded money and you should’ve seen his eyes bulge. “What have you done?” he asked me, and he immediately spotted a tiny 1 cm square with two 00’s on it. “This must be $10,000 he exclaimed.”
I thought beating the linen would be the toughest part of the job, but in fact it beat down effortlessly and was a fine slurry in about 3 hours. The shredded money, on the other hand, was so tough that I started to think it was made from something unnatural. After beating it hard for almost an hour, the edges of the shreds still looked to me just like they had an hour before. I kept at it though, and after another hour it began to break down.
When I looked at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing website, I noticed that the 5 lb. bag of shredded currency my client ordered contains approximately $10,000 worth of shredded U.S. currency.
I’d say my son has mastered estimating, now if he could master spending it like it doesn’t grow on trees!