How much money does Scrooge have in his money bin

Dwight Decker deckerd at agcs.com
Sun Apr 3 02:38:45 CEST 1994


Years and years ago, I wrote a semi-serious article on this
subject for The Comics Journal. I figured out the volume of
three cubic acres, then arbitrarily assumed that the pennies,
nickels, and dimes balanced the 50-cent pieces, silver 
dollars, and bills of various denominations so that the mass
of money averaged out to so many quarters (the American 25-cent
piece). That is, I assumed the bin to be filled with stacks of
quarters (less ten feet or so between the top of each column
and the ceiling). This was, I admit, a completely arbitrary
assumption, and Scrooge's sheaves of banknotes probably
increased the actual amount considerably.  However, I could
weigh a quarter and measure its diameter and width, and
calculate from there for a figure that might be suggestive.
I've long since forgotten my actual results, but I think I
discovered that Scrooge has more money in the bin than is
actually in circulation in the entire United States. The
weight of all that money also had serious implications for
the money-bin floor.  A further complication was that about
1964 or so, the price of silver rose to the point that the
silver content of dimes and quarters was worth more than the
face value, so the government switched from silver coinage
to cheaper metals.  The old silver coins have virtually
disappeared from circulation and are now worth several times
face value to collectors and dealers.  No doubt a large part
of Scrooge's hoard includes the old silver coins and so would
be worth more than face value.
	This is all speculative nonsense, of course, and when the
article appeared, several people complained about my arbitrary
assumption that the money bin could be thought of as containing
nothing but quarters.  I didn't mean for it to be taken
seriously; I just needed a firm peg to hang the calculations on.
Oddly enough, a couple of years after the article appeared, I got
a check out of nowhere from a French comics magazine that had
translated and printed it...

--Dwight Decker




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