Why does it cost more to make a 20 dollar bill than a 1 dollar bill but it costs around the same to make a 20 and a 100 dollar bill?
In: Economics
It depends on the security features present in them.
Security features are going to cost money to implement. Every one of them will make it more expensive to make the bill, but it will also make it more expensive for someone to try and forge a fake one.
Once you’ve made a $1 bill cost more than $1 to forge a fake, you’re done. There’s no profit in making fakes of it.
The larger value bills require more security to get that cost to forge up high enough that there isn’t a lot of value in trying to forge it.
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The higher denomination bills have more technology embedded in them to prevent counterfeiting than does the one dollar bill.
The extra technology adds to the expense.
According to the [FRB](https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm), it costs 2.8 cents per $1 bill, 5.3c per $20, and 8.6c per $100.
So, if you meant US currency and that information is correct, the cost isn’t “around the same”.
The cost of making money is just like the cost of making any product: you have research and development of the product, you have to figure out the process of making it which includes buying a lot of tooling and equipment, and then you have to purchase all the raw materials to actually produce the product. More complex products, like the $100 bill, will have a more complex manufacturing process which drives up the cost due to having to buy special equipment. They will also have more raw material inputs than a $1 bill, so that also adds to the cost.
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