Cash Back Guarantee: The U.S. Redeems Damaged Bills Because The Dollar Depends On It

Confettied scraps of shredded money blanket a table as a federal employee inspects each piece beneath a magnifying glass. A sliver containing Benjamin Franklin’s face is examined before being placed in a pile with matching fragments.

Meticulously, workers piece together bills, as if solving a jigsaw puzzle. Noting the serial numbers, they deem that this pile of shreds contains value and move on to the next task, peeling apart water-logged bills congealed in a sodden slab, probably recovered from a flood-hit home.

These bills are among about 24,000 claims annually the U.S. Treasury reviews from people seeking reimbursement for their mutilated currency. It redeems an average $30 million a year of that damaged money.