Where do old banknotes go – Moskovskaya Pravda

Money is the face of the state, says Ibragim Khasbulatov, head of the Cash Center of the Main Directorate of the Bank of Russia for the Central Federal District. And his task is to make this face always look decent. Moreover, Russian banknotes certainly deserve it. Russian money is one of the most secure in the world. In addition, they are very beautiful.

However, there are more mundane, practical arguments. When you put money into an ATM, it scans it, determines the authenticity and denomination, and counts it. The machine method of counting money and determining their authenticity is now used everywhere. There are quite a lot of marks on the bills that are designed specifically for machines, so the money must be clean and whole so that it is easier for machines to process them.

However, cash is constantly in circulation, passing from hand to hand. These hands are not always clean, neat, and adequate. On its way, money falls into scattered, careless, clumsy hands. Someone scribbled a phone number on the clean side of a hundred-dollar piece of paper, someone forgot the bill in the pocket of his pants that ended up in the wash, someone accidentally tore it, and someone completely misused it …

“On average, the life of a hundred-dollar bill is a year,” says Ibragim Khasbulatov. – The five-hundred lives for a year and a half. Of course, the larger the denomination, the longer the money is saved. Five thousandths and two thousandths are in circulation for an average of about five years.

Of course, they try to extend the life of banknotes. They are made from high grade paper. Polymer impregnation has been added to banknotes with a face value of 200 rubles to increase wear resistance – they even feel different from, for example, fifty-ruble and hundred-dollar notes. However, sooner or later they have to be withdrawn from circulation.

We all learned about the water cycle in nature at school. And how is the circulation of banknotes arranged in Russia?

A person receives a salary or withdraws money from an ATM. All these banknotes are beautiful, new, without tears and extraneous inscriptions. Then he goes to the store. A five-thousandth piece of paper is “broken” into thousandths, a thousandth – into hundreds and five hundredths. Large bills settle in the cash register and wait for collection, small ones give change.

From time to time, a cash-in-transit car comes to shops and other outlets in cities, villages and villages of the country. She takes all the cash and takes it to the bank branch. Most banks use correspondent accounts for settlements. In order to credit money to a correspondent account, they must be sent to one of the cash centers of the Bank of Russia.

Moscow cash is transported to the Volokolamsk Highway, one of the largest cash centers in Europe. Here it is counted and sorted. In a large hall behind iron doors and thick glass, several groups of experts work simultaneously. The first stage is acceptance: stacks of money are placed in cassettes. Then – preparation: the wrapper is removed from the packs. And, finally, they are loaded into a special machine, which not only counts the money, but also determines which of them have become unusable. The control over this process is the strictest: cameras scan every square centimeter.

“The machine divides the money into three streams,” says Ibragim Khasbulatov. – The first is banknotes suitable for circulation. They are counted, packaged, the total amount is credited to the correspondent account of the bank that sent them. The second stream is banknotes unfit for circulation – torn, crumpled, inscribed. They immediately fall into special shredders, which turn them into small chips. Finally, the third stream is banknotes that seemed suspicious to the machine. They are checked by our experts.

Why can banknotes be considered doubtful? The first thought that comes to mind is fake! However, counterfeit counterfeit banknotes are only a small part of the dubious ones. Much more often among them come across erased banknotes. And also torn and glued. Sometimes it happens that a bill is glued together from several parts, like a puzzle. Also, the machine is in doubt if a significant fragment of the banknote is damaged.

It is known that all commercial enterprises and organizations are obliged to accept from citizens a banknote with damage – torn, with scuffs, with torn off corners, holes, inscriptions, stamps. In turn, people, having received such a banknote for change or as a payment, have the right to demand its replacement.

The Bank of Russia, as responsible for the worthy person of the country’s financial system, is the final destination for damaged banknotes. By the way, not all cash centers have the right to destroy damaged banknotes. Moscow has such a right.

As already mentioned, all bills that the machine unconditionally recognized as dilapidated are destroyed immediately. Doubtful examine and check. Counterfeit banknotes are handed over to law enforcement agencies. Banknotes recognized as dilapidated are collected, extinguished – five large holes are punched in them – then they are first packed into small spines of one hundred bills each, then ten spines – into a large bundle. They will be destroyed separately, at a stationary banknote shredder. It is launched when there are enough old banknotes.

Bundles – a thousand banknotes each – are thrown onto a conveyor belt. Each such “brick” is sealed in cellophane and properly marked.

The machine starts to work … One and two packs fall from the conveyor onto the shredder knives. The cellophane breaks first, and the bills scatter in all directions. From above, through the glass, they seem to be completely intact …

Knives cut banknotes into thin chips – a millimeter and a half wide, a centimeter long. These shavings rush through the pneumatic pipe to the next hall. This is where the storage is. Gradually, a real storm of ground money rises in it. Then, through other pneumatic pipes, all this chips rush further – under the press. And from under the press – into the machines of the contractor, which has the right to dispose of such waste.

Information about how much money was destroyed, the cash center transmits “upstairs”. Instead of the destroyed money, it is necessary, if necessary, to introduce new ones into circulation.

And thus the money supply in the country remains clean, beautiful and worthy.

People, save your money! This is a document, and any inscription hopelessly spoils it. Our domestic rubles deserve to be treated carefully and accurately.

Yana MAYEVSKAYA.

Photos provided by the Bank of Russia Central Federal District