My 42 million dollar trip to the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City

LukeMarshall

I was in the area on business and was looking at attractions I could squeeze in. I saw the federal reserve bank had a money exhibit and decided to check it out.

It was a lovely day as I arrived at the bank two bronze statues positioned at the entrance greeted me.

Right inside before the guards and metal detectors I got a picture of this signage

First up, the man himself… Woodrow Wilson, the president who signed the federal reserve act in 1913. Here is a picture of him and his medal.

Next I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pick up this 1959 dated San Francisco good delivery Gold bar… it was heavy. Also according to my calculations it’s worth over 1 million dollars - cool.

They had some other neat displays including the American women quarters , I got this image to show a lady maya that I work with - she thought it was neat.

Speaking of women, I liked this display of the first woman guards at the bank - don’t mess with Betty Dixon!

Lastly in that section, they had this counterfeit gold $1 coin which looked to be pretty good fake meant to fool collectors.

I then went over to admire the Harry S. Truman collection. It was setup like “these are the coins that would have circulated when _______ was president.

Here is Trumans bronze medal on display

Some early Silver flowing hair and Bust coinage

And some early gold as well…

I always liked the look of this design, which is hideous in my opinion.

The Gobrecht dollar was pleasing to see, it’s one of my favorites

They had a first year liberty double Eagle with honest wear and a minty 1861 double Eagle in the case as well

Franklin Roosevelt’s case looked pretty cool as it encompasses many of the commemorative half dollars - the case had more eye appeal than the coins as most had blackish toning.

Theodore Roosevelt’s case had 3 commemorative gold dollars which I liked.

They even had a 1907 high relief St. Gaudens which is always a treat.

Lastly on the coin front, here are a few pretty pennies for the penny lady who does great reviews here…

Moving on to paper, this one was my favorite… check out that serial number

The $5000 bill was on display as well as the $10,000 note in gold

It was neat to see the largest denomination note as well

So we saw a gold bar worth a million and a coin and paper money collection I would insure for another million, where is the rest…. Here it is 40 million in modern paper on display

You can read about how they shred money which is a great segue to my final stop.

A free pouch of said money shreads which excited my inner child (tape not included)

Hope y’all enjoyed, there are more things on display but I didn’t wanna ruin the whole thing In case you decide to visit.
That plus the area where you could see into the vault was no photography but they did have ROVs that put pallets into a self put away rack… I watched ‘em for a little bit.

Cheers,
-Luke

lermish

Really neat, thank you!

pcgscacgold

Very cool. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. Those displays are outstanding.

johnny9434

Nice. I'd love to have that $5, 000 note

WAYNEAS

I really enjoyed the tour.
Thanks for sharing.
Wayne

jesbroken

Thank you for a most enjoyable post.
Jim

AZDAVY

Thanks for sharing Luke.

mattniss

Thanks for sharing!

LukeMarshall

My Pleasure Sharing !!

Seeing the reviews here are always a treat so since I had the opportunity to do one I figured I'd go for it.

Namvet69

Great pics, felt like I was right there with you. Peace Roy

shortnock

Nice writing, mightyfine photos. Thanks for sharing.

golden

I wonder about the tacks used to hold the coins. Are they causing damage?

LukeMarshall

@golden said:
I wonder about the tacks used to hold the coins. Are they causing damage?

Most of the coins were held in place using a wire encompassed by a plastic sheath to avoid scratching the coins , except the Wilson Medal, looks like the tip of the plastic was cut to length exposing the sharp metal under, and if you look at the obverse bottom right, I can see some damage

The other thing I forgot to point out which I thought hilarious, is look at all the pinholes at the bottom of the $100,000 Bill - They must have had it pinned to a corkboard in the back for a while before putting on public display!

CRHer700

I have lifted that same gold bar, ironically before I got into coin collecting, and thus I payed no attention to any of the coins except the modern "brass" dollars! I did think the shredded money was cool, I still have some somewhere. They made the bags smaller I guess.

alaura22

Very cool, thanks for posting

pointfivezero

Thanks for the post. My bi-annual family reunion is near KC and I make it a point stop at the Federal Reserve on each trip. Quite a sleeper that’s easily overlooked.

Tim

allnewsanchor

What an adventure, lucky Luke! A former journalism intern of mine works at the FRB in St Louis. Not sure if it has a display. I've never asked her. Also never asked her to send me some shreds. Maybe I should...

jfriedm56

Great pictures and fantastic tour. Wonderful display of high denomination paper currency most don’t know exists! Thanks for the tour Luke. Zack.

BLUEJAYWAY

Thank you for the tour. They really should get better holders for the HST medal.

Glen2022

No free samples?

Mark

For 8 months I worked as a visiting scholar at the KC Fed in the mid 1980s. I got to see the currency shredder in action. They would put a large stack of currency in the machine, which would then work through the stack counting the number of notes (to determine the total value) while simultaneously checking each note to determine if it was too worn to be reissued. Those that were deemed unfit were immediately shredded and a small puff of shredded paper flashed though a glass pipe into the waste bin.

At the time they also had public tours of the vault. You would enter through a room with glass on all four sides. The entry door and the exit door could not be opened at the same time. Once the tour group was in, the entry door would close and a guard on the other side of the glass would open the exit door for the tour to begin. The Fed moved to a different building sometime after I left and I doubt they offer these tours anymore. But, back then whenever I had friends visit me in KC, we'd go on the tour together.

Mark

LukeMarshall

Thanks for sharing @Mark , that is a great addition to the thread and it makes sense that if they shred 4 million a day in unfit currency that it would be more of an automated process.

When I was watching the money sorting and vault action I saw a tour of about 5 people walking back there.

I went to the receptionist and asked if I could go into the vault for the tour and she said they don't do that.
I asked about the people back there and she said they are probably VIPs which will get the vault tour from time to time.

Copperindian

Great report - appreciate you sharing! Plus, all the pics; what an experience your trip must have been!

pmh1nic

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Enjoyed the tour.

RobertScotLover

Most enjoyable

littlebear

Quite awesome!

jedm

Super report! Thanks for creating the post. I went there a few years back and enjoyed it also.