Even though it’s referred to as “paper” money, most of the material used to produce U.S. banknotes is actually cotton. And with raw cotton costs at a 140-year high, it’s costing more money to print money.

In just two years, the average cost of producing a single banknote has risen from $.064 to $.096 per bill. Considering that more than 6 billion new notes were printed last year, that’s a cost difference of nearly $200 million.

As we reported last week, the Government Accountability Office has once again advised the government that it could ultimately save billions by taking dollar bills out of circulation and replacing them with dollar coins which last significantly longer than the average banknote.

Cotton prices drive up cost of dollar bills [ChicagoBreakingBusiness.com]

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