Currency Strap - Wikipedia

Strip of paper used to bundle currency This article is about a currency packaging device. For the mechanism used to regulate the exchange rate of a given currency, see Currency band.

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A currency card, cash strap, currency band, money band, banknote strap or bill strap is a simple paper device designed to hold a specific denomination and number of banknotes.[1] It can also refer to the bundle itself.[2]

In the United States, the American Bankers Association (ABA) has a standard for both value and color. Note that all bills greater than $2 only come in straps of 100 count. The colors allow for quick accounting, even when the bills are stacked, such as in a vault. Special striped bands are used for straps exclusively containing star notes.

History

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Bundling money together with a simple elastic or paper device is as old as paper currency itself. However, measured and standardized straps are a relatively new idea. For example, until the mid-1970s, the U.S. Federal Reserve counted bills by hand. That is, they employed 55 currency counters whose job it was to count as well as, by touch and feel, authenticate bills.[2] However, as the amount of currency in circulation increased, they found that they needed a more efficient way to count currency. To help the Currency Counting staff keep up, the Bank began strap-sorting the $1 to $20 notes. Straps were visually inspected and weighed against a counterweight equal to the paper mass of 100 genuine U.S. notes. Currency straps have even helped catch the culprits in bank robberies, like the Dunbar Armored Robbery in 1997, after one of the culprits decided to pay a real estate broker with a still-strapped bundle of notes.

ABA Standard (United States)

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Strap Color		BillDenomination	BillCount	StrapTotal Amount	BundleStrap Color		BundleStrap Count	BundleTotal Amount
Blue	$1	100	$100	Blue	10	$1,000
Green	$2	100	$200	Green	10	$2,000
Red	$5	100	$500	Red	10	$5,000
Yellow	$10	100	$1,000	Yellow	10	$10,000
Violet	$20	100	$2,000	Violet	10	$20,000
Brown	$50	100	$5,000	Brown	10	$50,000
Mustard	$100	100	$10,000	Mustard	10	$100,000

As shown in the table above, there are 100 bills in each strap, but only 10 straps in each bundle.

See also

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• Currency packaging
• Currency-counting machine

References

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1. ^ US 3896524, Parker, Warren D., "Bundle binding strap", published 1975-07-29 
2. ^ a b History of Currency Counting at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

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