US Bureau of Engraving and Printing

In this day and age, where almost everything is a ripoff or scam — especially the horrendously overpriced and underwhelming Cape Canaveral — finding an activity like a fantastic FREE self-​guided tour of the ‘Money Factory’ in Fort Worth, Texas is a blast of fresh air.
I took my 11 year old son and 6 year old daughter on a school day afternoon and the place was almost empty. We were welcomed by a friendly staff who suggested we do the audio tour on the upper level first, which we did.
Each of us was handed a ‘wand’ which was like an oversized telephone. Throughout the tour, there are numbered signs around the facility. When you touch the corresponding number on your wand and hold it up to your ear, you get a pre-​recorded description of what you are looking at. It was fun and interactive for the kids to sync their wands and hold them to their ears to glean the info.
The process of creating paper currency is pretty fascinating for people of all ages. And watching hundreds of uncut sheets of $ 100 bills being printed, cut and stacked is a lot more exciting than you might think. I also highly recommend the excellent 15 minute movie, which does a great job of breaking down each person’s job in the grand process of creating currency, especially the engravers.
For educational value, entertainment and a lasting memory, a trip to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing can’t be beat.

Great FREE self guided tour to learn how US currency is made! Took my 8 & 12 year old boys and they enjoyed it too. Can NOT take phones or cameras, will go through security, then board a shuttle to take you to the building for the tour. Do the video 1^st as recommended. The wands for the tour are a great resource for a self guided tour. Gift shop is nice too. I love taking pictures to document our vacations, it’s unfortunate that you can’t here.

This is a great place for an educational field trip and, best of all, FREE! I think curious kids would enjoy visiting. I’m a big fan of places that offer you tours of how things are made.
There’s a lot of security and you will get searched before you take a short shuttle trip to the building in the back. The tour is self-​guided and the video was very interesting, explaining the history of the Engraving Bureau. Only printed bills are made here, no coins. I thoroughly enjoyed the history lesson on how printing has changed over the years to combat counterfeit. There’s a small gift shop where you can pick up souvenirs, such as uncirculated or uncut bills. Entire trip will last 45 minutes to an hour. Plenty of parking in the front.
P. S. No mobile phones or weapons (e.g., pocket knives) — leave those in your car locked up. No photos!

This is where the buck starts! The Bureau of Engraving in Fort Worth makes most of the dollars in the world and spends a lot of time to ensure that each bill is ready to buy all the late night junk food or stuff into birthday cards all year long. The factory is located in rural Fort Worth northwest of downtown. Admission is free, but take notice that cell phones, cameras, and other electronic devices are prohibited; this explains the lack of Unilocal pictures!
Once you pass through security, a shuttle will take you to the visitor center. Here you can browse a rather extensive collection of displays and videos then take a self-​guided audio tour of the factory. The tour is the real treat to see sheets of $ 100 dollar «notes» being printed and learn about the entire process.
Make sure to bring your wallets as their is a gift shop in the visitors center selling uncut currency, bags of shredded notes, and other items. Interesting fact, they must buy their own product from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas before they can use it at their own visitors center!
This is a free place to take the family that is pretty interesting. Everyone uses cash and knows the value of the product, so there is an inherent interest among all visitors. Just remember, no free samples!

Great 30 – 45 min free self-​guided tour of the U.S. currency history and the intricate art of manufacturing our country’s dollar bills (everything except 10s and 100s is made here). They said the walk is about a ¼ mile long looking through the glass a floor above the manufacturing area that views the printing & sorting machines and workers.
Leave everything in the car: cell phones, electronic equipment, back packs, cameras, weapons (including knives, pellet guns, mace, etc.), explosives, food, and drinks are prohibited.
The Public Tour and Visitor Center is open Tuesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The last tour walkway entrance is at 4:30 p.m.

Some people may find this a little slow and boring. I loved it. A quick trip thru security and a shuttle bus to the plant. No electronics of any kind. Leave it in the car. A short movie about money and then a self guided tour with a audio wand. Takes about an hour or so and you will see money from plain paper to ready for your wallet. There is a whole lot more to it than you would think. A finished bill takes about a month to make. Did I mention the tour is FREE! You will probably see what they call a «stack» of $ 100’s. A stack is 64 million dollars! I’ll take 2 please.

It was a pleasure taking a first time trip to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), Fort Worth as Purple tour group. The website contains good details on the tours. Upon arrival with 3 kids, we found the security staff to be very nice and courteous. The bus driver was welcoming and so were the staff who welcomed us in the exhibit area.
We experienced an unpleasant welcome from our tour guide:
1. Immediately after entering through the door inside the elevated walkway she yelled at the visitor that they need to be in there close to her and not around the corner.
– There are much better and polite way to communicate this.
– Her providing a guideline of complacency before the tour would be nice.
2. She kept on walking backward, which looked very awkward and it definitely felt like the visitors may be a group of thugs planning mischief.
– I recommend you provide a second guide, if you fell the need to have the group in sight at all times.
– Also making someone walking backward is hazardous for the employer.
– We also crossed a group with a Spanish speaking guide, who walked forward, talking to his group by looking over his shoulder, as they walked passed by.
3. The elevated walkway seems to be about 8 feet wide and some guests felt like looking through the same window little bit longer, that she just finished talking about. The guide told them they they need to be looking through this side of the glass pane!
– This happened in the pallet packing area, which operates once a day and was not manned at that time. The other side had the wide printing, cutting view which seemed more appealing.
– Again, there are much better and polite way to communicate this, if it is so important to look through the same window the guide is talking about.
4. I asked her if our 5 years old can take a restroom break and she said that you will be escorted out and cannot come back. This shocked the child, probably because of the harshness and surprise, where no one ever gave such a complicated answer to the call of the nature. I asked our 5 year old to try to hold and he agreed to it.
– I myself was dumbfounded by the response. I was hoping our guide was nicer to kids and at least finish the sentence by saying that you sure can join the next (Orange) group that starts in 20 minutes.
– As a first time visitor, we did not realize that there may not be any restroom access from the elevated walkway. It would be nice for someone to remind that before the tour starts.
5. I do not recall our guide announcing her name or did not see any visible name-​tag.
It is extremely nice to open a facility of such a high importance to public tour at no costs. I thank the BEP Plant Manager and executives for accomodating this. I like to bring to your attention that it is crucial for anyone representing to do this important job is in the best of their behavior.

I highly recommend visiting. The orientation film was quite professional and very informative. They have a free self-​guided tour of the facility, explaining how notes are produced and when it becomes money. We found it to be a very pleasant and educational experience. And the staff (even the security guards) were very friendly and helpful.

Security is on high alert! Obviously there is a lot of security here, to the point of you cannot even bring your cell phone in.
That aside, this place was a great tour. Self tour through the facility using a hand held guide. You move from station to station as you follow the bouncing ball of how money is printed.
Lots to learn fro all ages.

The tour is interesting, and free! They have different exhibits so it’s ok to visit more than once. Just read up on what you’re allowed to bring in

All three of our kids LOVED the tour, as did my husband– and it’s a sweet bonus that it’s 100% free! You can go as fast or as slow as you’d like from section to section of the tour, and the people working on the floor below regularly waved up/​acknowledged us, all making it more fun for my 5 and 6 year olds. Even the short movie was informative. Would recommend to anyone!

I’ve been here twice and both times it was great! It doesn’t cost anything and everyone is so friendly. There is a cool treasure hunt for the kids, a movie that everyone will enjoy and you get to see them make the real money!

Handy dandy way to tell if you’ll like this place:
(1) When watching «Duck Tales» as a child, did you enjoy the scenes of Uncle Scrooge McDuck in his cash vault?
(2) Do you like the concept of money?
(3) Would you like to see it made right in front of your face?
(4) Do you know whose portrait is on what denomination of coin and bill?
Answer key:
1 Yes answer: You will be pleased to tour this place. Please proceed.
2 Yes answers: You will be giddy to tour this place. Please proceed — but hold hands with your tour buddy. And, no running.
3 or 4 Yes answers: You will be hyperventilating with joy after watching the introductory movie. We’ll need you to sign this medical waiver before letting you go further.
Before entering the facility, you will have to go through security — then take a shuttle bus from the security area to the main building. NO electronics are allowed: no phones, no cameras, nothing electronic so leave it in your car to save you the trouble. No backpacks, either.
The Bureau is open for free self-​guided tours and is the only facility outside of Washington, DC to make currency. Located about 13 miles northwest of downtown, it supplies all of the paper bills for the Union west of the Mississippi (denote by a small «FW» on the front of paper currency: go look) and Fort Worth lobbied hard to get it located here back in 1990.
After the movie, you are handed a wand that narrates as you move around the second-​level stations of the facility. Looking through the windows, you see all of the workers printing, inspecting, measuring, bundling, and packaging millions of dollars. Some of them will look up and wave at you. It makes sense that, after a while, the thought of being surrounded by millions of dollars wears off to them.
The full tour circuit will take you about 90 minutes including the exhibit halls that tell the history of US money, the Bureau, and some of the equipment. Enough without being overwhelming.
I don’t know how you answered the earlier quiz but let’s just say that I had to sit down at several points during the tour. Luckily, I didn’t need a paper bag but I also left with a big smile on my face.

Drove down to Ft Worth to see how how great this museum really was and had an amazing time.
I came on a weekday and besides us, there were probably only three other cars. We hopped onto the bus that contained only us and they drove us over to the bureau.
We made it in time for the brief video and then got a audio device that we used on our self paced tour. It was interesting how our money was made and cute how the workers would wave at you as you watched them work. Afterwards we went to the gift shop which had interesting stuff but nothing that I wanted to buy.
To top it all off, the tour was free so I would say well worth the money but since it was free, defiantly worth checking out.

The irony of this cash printing facility is that it’s completely free! I guess what’s a few measly bucks from the public when billions are printed every day (methinks).
The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing should be visited by anyone in Dallas/​Ft. Worth interested in money; that covers just above everyone. This is an interesting view of how cash is made and tracked.
No need to schedule an appointment. Just pop over and enjoy a free tour which begin about every 30 minutes. At the end of the tour, you even get deposited at a gift shop which has a lotta currency-​related gift items — for the big banker in you.
What’s almost as interesting is the security you need to go though to even enter the place. I’m not going to comment further, but it’s like a show in itself. Do yourself a favor and leave all electronic devices in your car.
To my surprise, at the end of the tour, they’ll hand out free hot and fresh $ 100 bills as souvenirs — but you have to tell the tour guide the code word to get it… and the code word is «Cash Cow.» Just tell the guide that phrase and you’ll be sitting pretty with a crisp c note. (Or at least this is what I’ve heard.)
If you have small kids, I’d suggest 10 and up – or it might not hold their interest.

Meh …
It was OK, and interesting as far as museums go. We watched a film that felt like it was a PBS show before the «tour»… OK only because there weren’t any commercials in it.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but walking around the top looking down at the people working made me feel like I was watching a human version of a zoo… and made me think how much it would suck to work with a bunch of people watching you all day long … the audio equipment was crap, we couldn’t hear what the guide was saying … the snippets I did hear was a basic regurgitation of what I watched in the movie beforehand so I don’t feel like I missed anything … except commercials.
The history of money was fairly interesting, but the history of printing was actually quite cool.
I thought tax money (my tax money) paid for this place so … why is everything so expensive in the gift shop? Do they really need to turn a profit on things they bought with money I GAVE them? I guess they have cool stuff but seriously check these prices out (
), they also sell coffee cups for something like $ 10 each … EACH.
Buy from EBay or Amazon instead.

Great place… don’t have to wait in long lines for a ticket just to come back for a tour later in the afternoon as you would do in DC.
If you’re ever curious on how money is made… and have a free afternoon — great place to go. No admission fees.

Yeah, this is a pretty cool place. On our visit (couple weeks ago) they were working on the new 100s. Pretty cool seeing all that paper. Amazing the amount of work it takes to make our paper money. For a free tour, it is worth the trip!
So the BEP is basically four parts:
1. A remote parking lot (to the north of the main entrance) and security check. You park several hundred yards from the factory, clear security (be sure to check the web site, or the other reviews here, for do’s and dont’s), then board a small bus that runs you to the factory.
2. Next you are put into a color group (and given a colored sticker to wear) that determines when you see the introductory video (you can slip in anytime though) and start the walking tour (this part seems to be more strict on being in the right color group). The video is a good introduction, but the tour is where it’s at.
3. The walking tour is where you traverse the elevated viewing areas, watching the various (and numerous) steps in the process of making money. We had a small group of school kids in our group, and I thought this would be bad… But the kids were well behaved and actually asked some good questions.
4. The museum and gift shop: Both are very good. Museum is very informative with a lot of interactive displays. Gift shop has some cool stuff, like full, half, and quarter sheets of uncut money and «lucky money» (bills who’s serial numbers have a lot of eights). The bags of shredded currency also seemed to be a popular item (though I think they should give small bags of this stuff away for free).
By the end of your visit, you’ll know more about paper currency than you would have thought possible, including why green was the color of choice in the beginning, and why it’s still used today.
One last bit of trivia: All bills printed in Fort Worth have a little «FW» somewhere on the front (by some other tiny letters and numbers, something to do with which machines and plates were used to make that bill). It varies by denomination. On ones and fives it’s in the lower right corner (up and to the left of the «1» or «5»). On the (new) ten, it’s above and to the right of the picture of Hamilton. On the (new) twenty, it’s in the upper right corner (just below the «20»). On the (old) hundred it’s below and to the right of the picture of Franklin. On the new 100 (see pictures), it looks like it’s going to be in the upper right corner (by the lower right of the «100», to the left of the tiny «H1» — It’s not on this «specimen»).

I’ve tried to visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for years. This is where they print U.S. dollars, and that’s exciting! The main one is in Washington, D.C. and the other is in Ft. Worth. I’ve visited the one in DC at least five times trying to get in for a tour, but somehow they were never open for tours when I went. Well, my wait is over. I visited the one in Ft. Worth yesterday, where the tour schedule is clearly posted online, and there’s no outside wait.
I got there at 1:55 and just barely made it into the last tour of the day. You’re not allowed to bring cameras, cell phones, or other electronics, which is a shame, but understandable. The tour takes about half an hour, and you’re on an elevated walkway, looking down to the floor where they print money. It basically just looks like any factory, except that they’re printing sweet, sweet cash. They show and explain the whole process, including the security features in the new bills. After the tour, you’re free to roam around and view educational displays at your own pace.
There’s also a gift shop where you can buy things like slightly imperfect bills that have been shredded, or sheets of real money that you can cut at home.
The tour is free, and it’s very cool for children and adults alike. In fact, it’s probably more fun for adults, since they have more of a grasp on the value of money. Highly recommended!

It’s easy for me to get geeked up over a tour like this. You actually see millions of dollars being produced in real time almost as fast as Washington DC is spending it. Pallets of money.
It takes a while to pass through security to insure you have no weapons, cell phones, cameras, recording devices and such. The tour takes you on an elevated, enclosed walkway suspended over the production area. The tour lasts about 45 minutes. You are then free to self tour presentations on the history and the minutia of currency production. A gift shop offers expensive souvenirs.
Boring for most. But worth a look-​see.