Why Are Bills More "Off" than Coins In Striking Accuracy ?

Was wondering....there are tons of bills, even recently printed, where they are not aligned perfectly....borders are uneven, etc.

Striking accuracy seems to be more of a problem for paper printing than for coin striking for some reason. Coin machines seem to line up with accuracies to microns...but printing machines seem to have accuracy problems of a few millimeters which are easily seen to the naked eye.

Even today, with modern technology, you get bills being printed with uneven borders but coins are struck flawelessly.

Why ?

 

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I don't think it's the printing of the bills that causes the issues, I think its more the cutting of the sheets of bills. A coin is in a very confined space when its struck. Bills are several sheets stacked on each other when cut, makes it easier for the sheets to be slightly misaligned when cut.

 

Perhaps the wheels that move the paper through the the printing process slip a bit, or in some cases a lot.

 

It might be the flexibility of the paper versus the rigidity of the metal planchettes.

 

The process also comes into play. Coins are struck in one press, one machine action.

Bills are printed in multiple passes, then cut in a final machine action. More steps, more possibilities for things to get misaligned / go wrong.

Z

 

You must not of heard of Misaligned Die Strikes on all denominations. There are plenty of them in circulation. They are considered flawed.

 

The cutting of the paper might explain why you have the uneven borders.

Not sure why that happens, but it would explain it.

 

A slightly off center second printing, with proper cutting, can also seem like improper cutting. It shows up more on the face of the bill because the back printing is smaller and the smaller margins are not as obvious. Most people don't realize that the printing on the back is actually smaller than the printing on the front.

 

Paper is light and flimsy. Coins are not. It’s not the printing that’s the problem, it’s in the cutting. The BEP cuts more that one sheet at a time. There are bills that are misprinted but they are rarer than coins and the cost of those bills prove it.
Just as coins have common errors do do bills with errors. You just can’t compare paper money with metal money. It’s two completely different processes in two different buildings.

 

That's pretty much what I came here to say. Moving paper with great speed and precision is harder than moving metal with great speed and precision. The folks who dictate the tradeoff between speed and precision on paper money are apparently happier with a certain degree of misalignment than with slower production.