Bureau of

Engraving and
Printing

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing

(BEP) is a government agency within the
United States Department of the
Treasury that designs and produces a
variety of security products for the United
States government, most notable of
which is Federal Reserve Notes (paper
money) for the Federal Reserve, the
nation's central bank. In addition to paper
currency, the BEP produces Treasury
securities; military commissions and
award certificates; invitations and
admission cards; and many different
types of identification cards, forms, and
other special security documents for a
variety of government agencies. The BEP
does not produce coins; all coinage is
produced by the United States Mint. With
production facilities in Washington, D.C.,
and Fort Worth, Texas, the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing is the largest
producer of government security
documents in the United States.
 Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Seal of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Flag of the U.S. Department of the Treasury

Agency overview

Formed August 29, 1862[1]

Headquarters 300 14th St SW

Washington, D.C.,
U.S.

Employees 2,169 (2006)

Agency executive Leonard R. Olijar,

Director
Parent agency Department of the
Treasury

Website www.bep.gov (http

s://www.bep.gov//)

History

Aerial view of the BEP in

Washington, D.C. circa 1918

United States Souvenir Card

issued by the Bureau of
Engraving and Printing, for the
HAPEX APS 70 exhibition and
84th Annual Convention of the
American Philatelic Society in
1970

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has

its origins in legislation enacted to help
fund the Civil War. In July 1861, Congress
authorized the Secretary of the Treasury
to issue paper currency in lieu of coins
due to the lack of funds needed to
support the conflict. The paper notes
were essentially government IOUs and
were called Demand Notes because they
were payable "on demand" in coin at
certain Treasury facilities. At this time
the government had no facility for the
production of paper money so a private
firm produced the Demand Notes in
sheets of four. These sheets were then
sent to the Treasury Department where
dozens of clerks signed the notes and
scores of workers cut the sheets and
trimmed the notes by hand. The Second
Legal Tender Act (July 11, 1862;
12 Stat. 532 (http://legislink.org/us/stat-
12-532) ) authorized the Treasury
Secretary to engrave and print notes at
the Treasury Department; the design of
which incorporates fine-line engraving,
intricate geometric lathe work patterns, a
Treasury seal, and engraved signatures
to aid in counterfeit deterrence.[2]

Initially, the currency processing

operations in the Treasury were not
formally organized. When Congress
created the Office of Comptroller of the
Currency and National Currency Bureau
in 1863, currency-processing operations
were nominally subordinated to that
agency and designated the "First
Division, National Currency Bureau". For
years, however, the currency operations
were known by various semi-official
labels, such as the "Printing Bureau",
"Small Note Bureau", "Currency
Department", and "Small Note Room". It
was not until 1874 that the "Bureau of
Engraving and Printing" was officially
recognized in congressional legislation
with a specific allocation of operating
funds for the fiscal year of 1875.

From almost the very beginning of its

operations, the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing designed and printed a variety of
products in addition to currency. As early
as 1864, the offices which would later
become the BEP made passports for the
State Department and money orders for
the Post Office Department. Passports
are now produced by the Government
Publishing Office. Other early items
produced by the BEP included various
government debt instruments, such as
interest-bearing notes, refunding
certificates, compound interest Treasury
notes, and bonds. The production of
postage stamps began in 1894, and for
almost the next century the BEP was the
sole producer of postage stamps in the
country.
15th Street SW entrance to the BEP in
Washington, D.C.

13th Street SW entrance to the BEP Annex

in Washington, D.C.
The Bureau's Fort Worth location, with
visitor tours available during business
hours.

Production

Garfield, Issue of 1894

1st postage stamp printed by BEP
Postage stamp production

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing

officially took over production of postage
stamps for the United States government
in July 1894. The first of the works
printed by the BEP was placed on sale on
July 18, 1894, and by the end of the first
year of stamp production, the BEP had
printed and delivered more than
2.1 billion stamps. The United States
Postal Service switched purely to private
postage stamp printers in 2005, ending
111 years of production by the
Bureau.[3][4] Starting in 2011 the United
States Postal Service in-housed all
postage stamp printing services.
Currency production

Federal Reserve $1 note, 2009 issue

Plate capacity on power presses

increased from four to eight notes per
sheet in 1918 in order to meet the greatly
expanded production requirements
related to World War I.

With the redesign of currency in 1929,

the first major change since paper
currency was first issued in 1861, note
design was not only standardized but
note size was also significantly reduced.
Due to this reduction in size, the Bureau
was able to convert from eight-note
printing plates to twelve-note plates. The
redesign effort came about for several
reasons, chief among them a reduction in
paper costs and improved counterfeit
deterrence through better public
recognition of currency features.

A further increase in the number of notes

per sheet was realized in 1952 after
breakthrough developments in the
production of non-offset inks. Beginning
in 1943, the BEP experimented with new
inks that dried faster, therefore obviating
the need to place tissues between sheets
to prevent ink from offsetting to other
sheets. The faster drying ink also
enabled printed sheets of backs to be
kept damp until the faces were printed,
thereby reducing distortion caused by
wetting, drying, and re-wetting of the
paper (sheets needed to be dampened
before each printing).

Three consecutive $2 notes, 2009 issue

By reducing the distortion that increases

proportionally with the size of the sheet
of paper, the Bureau was able to convert
from 12-note printing plates to plates
capable of printing 18 notes in 1952. Five
years later in 1957, the Bureau began
printing currency via the dry intaglio
method that utilizes special paper and
non-offset inks, enabling a further
increase from 18 to 32 notes per sheet.
Since 1968, all currency has been printed
by means of the dry intaglio process,
whereby wetting of the paper prior to
printing is unnecessary. In this process,
fine-line engravings are transferred to
steel plates from which an impression is
made on sheets of distinctive paper. Ink
is applied to a plate containing 32 note
impressions, which is then wiped clean,
leaving ink in the engraved lines. The
plate is pressed against the sheet of
paper with such pressure as to actually
press the paper into the lines of the plate
to pick up the ink. Both faces and backs
are printed in this manner – backs first.
After the faces are printed, the sheets are
then typographically overprinted with
Treasury Seals and serial numbers.

During Fiscal Year 2013, the Bureau

delivered 6.6 billion notes at an average
cost of 10 cents per note.[5]

Locations
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has
two locations: one in Washington, D.C.,
and another in Fort Worth, Texas.
District of Columbia location

The Washington facility consists of two

adjacent buildings. The elder, considered
the main building and located between
14th and 15th streets SW, was
constructed in 1914.[6] The architectural
style of the main building is neoclassical.
It has a steel superstructure with
fireproof concrete, Indiana limestone,
and granite trim exterior. The main
façade of the building faces Raoul
Wallenberg Place (15th St), the Tidal
Basin, and the Jefferson Memorial, with
stone columns spanning the 505-foot
(154 m) length of the building's front. The
building is 296 feet (90 m) deep and 105
feet (32 m) high with four wings that
extend back toward 14th Street. The
building is listed on the U.S. National
Register of Historic Places as Auditor's
Building Complex.

In May 1938, work was completed on an

addition to the Washington, D.C., facility
to accommodate increases in personnel
and production. The annex building, as it
is called, is located on 14th Street,
between C and D streets SW, just
opposite the main building. The building
is 570 feet (170 m) long, 285 feet (87 m)
wide, and made entirely of reinforced
concrete with a limestone façade. The
structure consists of a central backbone
running from 14th Street to 13th Street
with five wings extending north and
south from the backbone.

The Washington, D.C., location offers a

free 30-minute guided tour which
features the various phases of currency
production. Tours may be taken Monday
through Friday. The Bureau is closed for
all federal holidays and the week
between Christmas and New Year's
Day.[7][8]

Fort Worth location

In 1987, construction began on a second

facility in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to
meeting increased production
requirements, a western location was
seen to serve as a contingency operation
in case of emergencies in the DC
metropolitan area; additionally, costs for
transporting currency to Federal Reserve
banks in San Francisco, Dallas, and
Kansas City would be reduced. Currency
production began in December 1990 at
the Fort Worth facility, and the official
dedication took place on April 26, 1991.
Any currency printed at Fort Worth
includes a small "FW", usually located to
the left of the bill's face plate number,
and most also have larger back plate
numbers.[9]
Historic locations

The Bureau moved into its own building

in 1880 with the completion of a facility
at 14th St. and Independence Ave. SW,
now the Sidney Yates Building. An
addition was built on the south side of
the building in 1891. The Bureau
relocated to its present Washington
location, just south of the original
building, in 1914.

Future locations

On April 27, 2022, Maryland Governor

Larry Hogan announced that the BEP
would move from their historic
Washington, D.C. location to Beltsville,
MD at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Beltsville Agricultural
Research Center (BARC). The U.S.
Department of Treasury was transferred
ownership of 114 acres within BARC
from the Department of Agriculture for a
future facility estimated to be completed
in early 2027.[10]

BEP Police

A Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Police (BEP) patrol car.

The Bureau operates a police

department, the Bureau of Engraving and
Printing Police Force, that protects BEP
personnel and facilities. The BEP Police
are responsible for enforcing federal and
local laws, Treasury Department rules
and regulations, Washington, DC Criminal
Code through a Memorandum of
Understanding, and Texas Criminal
Code.[11] In 2004, 234 Police officers
were employed.[12]

See also
US Treasury specimen book
Charles R. Chickering, chief stamp
designer for BEP
Federal Reserve System
 Title 31 of the Code of Federal
Regulations
United States Mint Police
United States Treasury Police
Who's Minding the Mint?, a 1967 film
with the D.C. Bureau of Engraving and
Printing as its setting

References
1. Treasury.gov (http://www.treasury.gov/off
ices/treasurer/bep-overview.shtml)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
071226153257/http://www.treasury.gov/
offices/treasurer/bep-overview.shtml)
December 26, 2007, at the Wayback
Machine
2. "U.S. Currency" (https://www.moneyfactor
y.gov/uscurrency/history.html) . Bureau
of Engraving and Printing U.S. Department
of the Treasury. Retrieved March 29, 2017.
3. McAllister, Bill (13 June 2005). "After 111
Years, Postage Stamps Go Private" (http
s://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co
ntent/article/2005/06/12/AR2005061201
253.html) . Washington Post. Retrieved
9 April 2012.
4. "2005 Comprehensive Statement on
Postal Operations" (http://about.usps.co
m/strategic-planning/cs05/chp2-014.htm
l) . USPS. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
5. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. "Annual
Production Figures" (http://www.bep.trea
s.gov/uscurrency/annualproductionfigure
s.html) Archived (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20110827125657/http://www.bep.
treas.gov/uscurrency/annualproductionfi
gures.html) 2011-08-27 at the Wayback
Machine, referenced 2014-03-11.
6. Latimer, Louise Payson (1924). Your
Washington and Mine (https://archive.or
g/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.262169) .
Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 162.
7. "Washington, D.C. -- Places To Tour --
Bureau of Engraving and Printing" (http://t
ourofdc.org/tours/BureauOfEngravingAnd
Printing/) .
 8. "Bureau of Engraving and Printing" (http
s://www.yelp.com/biz/federal-bureau-of-p
rinting-and-engraving-washington) . Yelp.
8 November 2015.
9. "USPaperMoney.Info: Features of Current
Notes" (http://www.uspapermoney.info/g
eneral/note.html) .
10. "Governor Hogan Announces U.S. Bureau
Of Engraving And Printing Moves Forward
With New Production Facility In Maryland"
(https://governor.maryland.gov/2022/04/
27/governor-hogan-announces-u-s-bureau
-of-engraving-and-printing-moves-forward-
with-new-production-facility-in-marylan
d/) . Governor of Maryland. Retrieved
2022-04-28.
11. Dempsey, John S.; Forst, Linda S. (2009).
An Introduction to Policing (https://books.
google.com/books?id=uajZhTYdmVsC&p
g=PA63) . Cengage Learning. p. 63.
ISBN 978-1435480537.
12. Reaves, Brian A. (July 2006). "Federal Law
Enforcement Officers, 2004" (https://ww
w.prisonpolicy.org/scans/bjs/fleo04.pdf)
(PDF). Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
200826174830/https://www.prisonpolicy.
org/scans/bjs/fleo04.pdf) (PDF) from the
original on 2020-08-26.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media
related to Bureau of Engraving and
Printing.
 Official website (https://www.bep.go
v/)
BEP Annual Production Figures (http
s://www.bep.gov/resources/productio
nannual.html)
BEP Monthly Production Figures (http
s://www.bep.gov/resources/productio
nmonthly.html)
BEP production figures broken down
by month, as well as some other
currency-related articles (http://www.u
spapermoney.info/)

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