Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vocal bomb Here. Let's say you get a little forgetful and leave your day planner with tickets to a baseball game and two hundred dollars in cash on the roof of your car, and that day planner just happens to fall off at a railroad crossing. Everything gets bangled when the four or five freight train goes barreling through the crossing. The baseball tickets are gone, the planner is a lost cause, and all that's left of
the cash is it chewed up twenty dollar bill. You can't possibly use it, can you? Or can you? Most damaged US cash, whether it's shredded by a train, damaged in a flood, or even if your dog eats it, is covered through the U. S. Department of Treasuries Bureau of Engraving and Printing or b EP, and specifically their Mutilated Currency Redemption Service. But it takes a lot for a bank note to be considered mutilated. Bills that are dirty, limp defaced, torn, or otherwise more than one half intact
don't go far enough. The b e P two finds mutilated currency as bills that have been quote severely damaged to the extent that its value is questionable or security features are missing. That means that the twenty dollar bill from our railroad example is simply torn. It's no problem, get out the tape and spend away. But let's say you find a cache of cash buried in your yard.
I mean that happens all the time, right. The bills have deteriorated to the point that security features such as the water marks, color shifting, inc security thread, or three D security ribbon are no longer visible or have been destroyed. Now things are a little more complicated in cases like this. Again, this happens all the time, right. You'd have to submit what's called a mutilated currency claim to the b EP. It's basically a letter describing how the currency got damaged.
You'd include its estimated value and other contact information, including your banking information. You also need to send the money to the b EP, where they will examine it. This process can take anywhere from six months to three years, depending on how complicated the case and how damaged the currency. The Treasury Department has guidelines on its website about how to package up the cash for shipping. But in general you'll need to send it in the exact same condition
you found it. If the currency was flat, to keep it that way. If it was in a roll, don't try to straighten it. One caveat defaced coins shouldn't be sent with paper currency coins go to the U. S. Mint for evaluation and are not redeemable for cash value, only the value of the metal. So how much can you get back for your damaged cash? That depends on
what the b EP examiner finds. Treasury Department regulations state that US currency can be exchanged for full value if more than fifty of the bill is identifiable as US currency and enough of any relevant security features remain, or I or less of the bill is present, and Treasury examiners are convinced that the missing portions have been destroy The U. S. Treasury Department handles about thirty thousand mutilated currency claims annually, valued at more than thirty million dollars.
The most common causes for damaged currency are fire, water, exposure to chemicals and explosives, damage from rodents, animals, or insects, and deterioration or petrification from burial. Today's episode was written by Patty Resmussen and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff
is production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of other topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com and for more podcasts from my heart radio, I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.