On the ground floor of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing

This entry was updated on October 27, 2011 to add photos.

Yesterday I got the tour of a lifetime at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving in Washington, D.C.

I had an appointment at 10:00 a.m. I expected it to last 90 minutes. This was not the public tour, but a “Distinguished Guest” tour. It was led by a delightful young man named Kevin Nance who gives tours to senators, congressmen, the Secretary of the Treasury… and me.

I had arranged the tour through the Director, Larry Felix, who is very supportive of graphic arts education. He came to Cal Poly last year to speak to our students about the Bureau, and about the process of printing currency.

The tour began with a visit to the office of Letter and Script Engraver Dixie March. Dixie is the person who engraves the words into the plates that make money. She can make THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA look as glorious as anyone ever has. Every time you take a piece of paper money out of your wallet, you are looking at her work.

I was attracted immediately to a ruling machine that stood on a rolling stand in her office. “I have one of these!” I exclaimed, “…but I don’t know how to use it.”

At first I think she might have thought me crazy. I do have one of them – it’s located in the Shakespeare Press Museum at Cal Poly. A former student and I attempted to figure it out a year ago, and we got pretty close. Dixie gave me a thorough demonstration of her machine, and now I can make another attempt at using it when I get a chance.

Dixie March, Letter and Script Engraver at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at her ruling machine. She was showing me how it works so I can learn how to use the one I have access to in the museum at Cal Poly.

On Dixie’s work table was one nickel sheet that contained 32 images of the U.S. one-dollar bill. She demonstrated how she checks it for imperfections, making microscopic corrections with microscopic tools – tools she makes herself. When the plate is complete, it is chrome plated and prepared to run on one of the Bureau’s gravure presses. These plates last only about 800,000 impressions, a result of the abrasive paper and special inks used for currency printing.

After leaving Dixie’s office we were taken to the office where components of currency engravings are combined on a huge hand-cranked machine called a Transfer Press to make composite plates. These machines, some dating to the 19th century, are used to make the master plates that are used to make the 32-up plates for printing. The process of putting together elements of a banknote on these machines is called siderography.

The Bureau is an example of art-meets-manufacturing. There are numerous people in the building whose 19th century skills are known to only a few dozen craftsmen and women in the world. There are also experts in precision machining, quality control, machine vision systems, and mass production. It’s unlike any printing plant I have ever visited.

In the rooms that followed, my tour took me to the offset platemaking department, to the offset press, and ultimately to the gravure press, the numbering and packing department, and the shipping area.

In a delightful photo-op, I had my photo taken, holding $1.2 million in freshly packed $100 bills. On the wall in the press room is a sign that says, “Free Samples – Tomorrow.”

What a burden! This is me with $1.2 million in freshly-printed $100 notes. It was fun to handle that much money. They made me give it back.

The photos above were taken by Bureau Photographer Thomas M. Jefferson. Director Felix assigned him to accompany me and my family on the tour.

This is Bureau photographer Thomas M. Jefferson and me at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Oh yes! I’m writing a new book. That book will be available in 2012, and I will crow about it here. You will not fail to notice.

Click below to get on my mailing list. I’ll let you know when the book is printed – target date March, 2012.

About Brian Lawler

Brian Lawler is an Emeritus Professor of Graphic Communication at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and was a Guest Professor at Hochschule München from September, 2021 to September, 2022. He writes about graphic arts processes and technologies for various industry publications, and on his blog, The Blognosticator.
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3 Responses to On the ground floor of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing

  1. Hi, i read your blog from time to time and i own a
    similar one and i was just curious if you get a loot off spam feedback?
    If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can advise?

    I get so much lately it’s driving me mad so any support is
    very much appreciated.

  2. Skyler says:

    Hi Brian, my name is Skyler. I’m a calligrapher and lettering artist who has been obsessed with engraving for a while but have had a REALLY HARD TIME finding out about any lettering artists who do engraving anymore. I am happy I found this blog. I was wondering if you knew any more about the lining machine Dixie March is using or if she has an email or anything? I just found out about Christopher Madden and am planning on taking a class from him in a couple months. I think I’m finally stepping in the right direction. Just thought I might ask if you knew any other resources for this art form. Thank you!

    dixie march

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