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From a 2014 reddit post[0]: > This is actually not a million dollars in singles. It is over $1,000,000. The box was created with the wrong dimensions by the co
by onionisafruit 1y ago
From a 2014 reddit post[0]:
> This is actually not a million dollars in singles. It is over $1,000,000. The box was created with the wrong dimensions by the contractor, but they still decided to fill it, display it, and claim it is $1,000,000.
>
> Source: Tour Guide at the Chicago Fed
[0] https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2f9sp7/one_million_dollars_in_singles/ck7arkb/ https://old.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/2f9sp7/one_million_do...
- dheera 1y ago(a) How do we know there isn't some hollow part inside the cube? (b) Whovever hypothetically got that money would have 37% stolen by the government so they'd be left with about a million anyways. It's effectively a million.
- xboxnolifes 1y agoPeople keep asking (a), but wouldn't that completely defeat the point of the visual representation? That seems like the least likely outcome to me.
- numlock86 1y ago> The box was created with the wrong dimensions by the contractor, but they still decided to fill it This sort of implies that it was cheaper to just go with he extra cash needed than to do a cube with the right dimensions? But then again it's the Fed, so they probably just printed more money. (Which also costs money, though?)
- rmnwski 1y agowhy print it? the illustration of the size of the cube is still valid if unprinted (if it where correct) and it makes it worthless to steal
- echelon_musk 1y agoIf only he had Googled he could have saved himself all the trouble!
- c249709 1y agooof my googling skill so bad I didn't find this
- onionisafruit 1y agoMine either. An LLM found it for me. And I'm glad you didn't find it because that lead to a great post.
- sidewndr46 1y agoThe latest use for AI in 2025: replacing obsolete and non-functional search engines like Google
- keeganpoppen 1y agouhhhh... isn't that the latest use for AI in like 2023?
- IG_Semmelweiss 1y agoCan we confidently say that top engineers have lost the battle with SEO spam ? Or they just gave up ? Or something else ?
- wizzwizz4 1y agoWith Google, at least, it was one division losing the battle with another division. https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-11/417557.pdf https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-11/417557.pdf Searching some terms from this PDF (not in Google) brings up https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/, which has a clearer narrative.
- eru 1y agoThanks for the links, very interesting!
- 1y ago
- RajT88 1y agoThis thread is very informative on your chances of carrying off a heist stealing this cube. Conclusion: Low, unless you're willing to take only a fraction of the face value. Thinking through it though - you might be able to get away with spending the cash overseas, where it will take some time indeed for the money to be under scrutiny by banks to see if the serial numbers are out of circulation. There's then problem of getting the money there without anyone noticing, then there's the problem of what kind of characters you're going to be defrauding overseas. All told - probably a better idea is to use all that cleverness to make a 1.5 million dollars the good old fashioned way: Spending a few years saying, "Nothing from my end" on Zoom calls.
- sharkweek 1y agoVery relevant Key and Peele sketch: https://youtu.be/jgYYOUC10aM?si=YuTT_hR7y9t74mAQ https://youtu.be/jgYYOUC10aM?si=YuTT_hR7y9t74mAQ
- fortran77 1y agoIt shouldn't be a problem spending $1 bills. Nobody scrutinizes them. It'll just take a while.
- Peacefulz 1y agoI wonder how much time it would take to feed all of those singles into laundromat and barcade quarter machines. ;D
- noduerme 1y ago>> you might be able to get away with spending the cash overseas Outside the US is probably the last place you'd want to pass those bills off. Besides the logistical problem of physically getting an enormous stack of $1 bills past customs... there's so much counterfeit US currency out there that the level of caution is extremely high. Just spent a couple weeks in Costa Rica, and USD is not accepted anywhere if it is even slightly torn, worn, or out of date by more than a few years. Maybe you could tip with it, but that's about it.
- rand_r 1y ago> to see if the serial numbers are out of circulation. Cash cannot be invalidated like this. It would ruin the value of all cash since you could no longer trust cash from anyone. Only damaged notes are taken out and replaced by the government.
- viccis 1y agoMan how expensive was that contractor when your art installation requires $1M in cash and all the labor to assemble it, but you can't just tell the contractor to do a new box?
- krisoft 1y ago> can't just tell the contractor to do a new box They can. But if the delivered box meets the ordered specifications they will ask for extra compensation to redo it. That plus cost of shipping back and forth. That plus any possible time pressure around opening of the exhibit. That plus the fact that the Fed can obtain bank notes for less than their face value. (If they are for example voided bank notes. But they can also just order prop money beyond the first layer if they want to keep their museum work and their official business separate. Which very well might be easier for organisational, accounting and security reasons.) Plus nobody wants to admit that they screwed up the box order. All these factors would point towards just stuffing the box with more “banknotes” and pretending that all is well.
- dessimus 1y ago"First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"
- kingstnap 1y agoMaybe they didn't realize it was wrong until they filled it 66% up.
- ftmch 1y agoThey can just print more money.
- eddythompson80 1y agoIt's almost as if the art piece is a commentary on the imagined order of money between humans.
- nosianu 1y ago
- bobbygoodlatte 1y agoSeems pretty on-brand for the Fed As we say in my family: "close enough for government work!"
- mlindner 1y agoSo who am I supposed to believe the personal blog or the reddit post?
- krisoft 1y agoGiven that they are not contradicting, but supporting each other i would suggest to believe both. The blogpost says they counted the pile and it is more than a million dollar. The redit post says that a tour guide says it is more than a million dollar because the box was too big. That is the same information verified two different ways. Why do you feel the need to chose who you believe here?
- swores 1y agoYou can toss a coin on which one to believe, since either way you'd believe the same thing...
- bravesoul2 1y agoIt's a baker's million?
- floydnoel 1y agoa banker's million! new term
- bravesoul2 1y agoMore like mortgage debtor's million
- aspenmayer 1y agoI can only upvote you one time, so I had to add this to my favorites. It’s so rich.