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It's funny how all the comments seem to assume the conclusion is correct. I think it is far more likely that it is exactly $1M (plus or minus a couple of percen
by goodcanadian 1y ago
It's funny how all the comments seem to assume the conclusion is correct. I think it is far more likely that it is exactly $1M (plus or minus a couple of percent margin of error), and that the packing isn't uniform. It seems extremely unlikely to me that they would fuck it up so bad as to have $500k more in the box than claimed.
- conductr 1y agoGoes against the whole premise of "ever wonder what a million dollars looks like?" They could have just created a million dollar bill and hung it on the wall
- bboygravity 1y ago[flagged]
- whatevertrevor 1y agoWhen you print money by the trillions, tracking every transaction becomes more important not less. I don't know about the exhibit, it is possible that this is not real money too.
- jedberg 1y agoThe Fed keeps rigorous track of every bill. They have a database with the serial number of every live bill. The money isn't valid until the serial is put into the database, and any time a bank gets a bill, they have to verify the serial number is in the database. And if it's not they have to turn it in for a replacement that is.
- wizzwizz4 1y agoIs there anywhere I can find out more about this?
- jedberg 1y agoI learned it when I toured the Mint in Washington DC, but I suspect they have a web page somewhere.
- ericvsmith 1y agoThat’s actually the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, on 14th St. SW, which is indeed worth visiting. They print the paper bills (among other things). The U.S. Mint produces the coins. I think only the Philadelphia Mint still mints coins, but it’s also worth visiting.
- dhosek 1y agoDenver also mints coins for circulation (mint mark D) and San Francisco does rarely, but mostly does proof sets (legal tender, but generally kept by collectors). Apparently there’s also a newer mint at West Point which uses a W mint mark and also mints coins for circulation.
- gosub100 1y ago20 years ago before there were as many erosions of personal privacy and before I realized how important privacy was, I thought of a similar system to detect counterfeit money. Scan it and upload the serial to a database. If that serial has been registered somewhere else, before a plane could possibly transport it there, flag both registers to inspect that bill. If the serial has already been registered as counterfeit, refuse the currency. If the serial was not issued by the US mint, refuse the currency. This would have the adverse effect of flagging valid currency too, but this could be worked around. I think it would make counterfeit much harder and have very little technical cost, since reading the denom and serial is trivial.
- SchemaLoad 1y agoSame thing can be done to detect fake number plates.
- bboygravity 1y agoThe thing is that only a tiny amount of all money exists as physical bills. So they can track that all they want, it ain't going to make a dent in the total money supply :p
- c249709 1y agoin that case you would have to assume they stacked the money first, measured, then build a box to fit it
- jolt42 1y agoThe only way to verify is open that sucker up and count.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoThey should send all of DOGE to work on this very important problem immediately. /s
- BLKNSLVR 1y agoWhatever happened to the audit of Fort Knox?
- Aurornis 1y agoI also think it’s funny that so many comments assume they would have lax accounting for the extra $500K, or that the artists could have casually asked for another $500K of old bills to use as filler and the request would have been granted. The Fed is extremely rigorous in tracking these things. It isn’t a couple guys in a room playing casually with millions of dollars. Even the retired bills are thoroughly monitored and tracked through their destruction.
- wodenokoto 1y agoThere was a danish artist that got a very large amount of cash to do a similar in spirit artwork. He then named it “take the money and run” and showcased what amounted to an empty frame.
- nemomarx 1y agowasn't he sued by the museum and made to pay it back?
- slumberlust 1y agoSort of. A third party paid it seems.
- ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 1y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_the_Money_and_Run_(artwork) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_the_Money_and_Run_(artwor...
- Dragonai 1y agoThis is so unbelievably funny. Thank you for sharing!
- Dylan16807 1y agoNon uniform in what way? If all the money in the middle is jumbled up and 50% air that's still extremely misleading. And it's not far off the crumpled up newspaper the article threw in as a possibility. The conclusion that something is off is still right in that case.
- hk__2 1y agoSee sibling comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44437004 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44437004
- jjk166 1y agoI mean the math given showing the size for an actual ~$1M cube is substantially smaller is pretty compelling. The author puts forward the explanation that there may be voids in the cube instead of an additional $500k, but that doesn't really address the problem that this isn't the right size for a $1M cube.
- OJFord 1y agoOr why does it even actually need to contain 1M anyway, just do your calculation for cube size, then cover the transparent faces. Filling the middle at all, nevermind completely and accurately, just seems pointless.