Getting damaged or burned cash replaced

Paper money damaged in a fire, a flood or by a pet isn't necessarily lost. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) runs a free service that examines damaged bills and pays their value. It gets more than 22,000 requests a year, worth more than $35 million.

Which bills go where

Money that's only dirty, torn, limp, defaced or worn isn't mutilated. It's unfit for circulation, and a bank can exchange it. Don't send it to the BEP.

Mutilated money is damaged so badly that half or less of the bill is left, or its condition makes its value hard to tell. The most common causes are fire, water, chemicals and explosives, damage from animals, insects or rodents, and rotting after being buried. The BEP pays a bill's full value when clearly more than half of it is present and identifiable as U.S. currency, with enough of its security features. It can also pay for a bill with half or less left, if the evidence shows the missing part was completely destroyed.

What you need

• The damaged money, in whatever it was in when it was damaged
• A sturdy box, and cotton for brittle pieces
• Bank account details for an electronic payment
• A printer

Steps

1. 1

   Leave the money as it is

   Disturb the pieces as little as you can. Don't flatten, unroll, fold, tape, glue or laminate them, since that makes the value harder to work out and can get a request denied.

   5 min

2. 2

   Keep it in its container

   If the money was damaged in a purse, a box or another container, leave it in there. If you have to take it out, send the container too, with anything else that was in it.

   5 min

3. 3

   Take out any coins

   Coins and other metal break up paper money in the mail. Take them out carefully and don't send them in the same package. Melted or fused coins go to the U.S. Mint instead.

   5 min

4. 4

   Pack it

   Pack brittle money in cotton and box it as you found it.

   10 min

5. 5

   Fill in BEP Form 5283

   Complete it on the BEP's website before you print it, so you get email updates on the request. Include your bank account details. Payments are made electronically, and a claim of $500 or more must be paid to a U.S. bank account. Go through every page to get a Record Locating Number.

   15 min

6. 6

   Send it

   Mail the box with the signed form to Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Room 344A, 14th and C Streets, SW, Washington, DC 20228. You can also drop it off in person at that facility on weekdays.

   5 min

The wait

Requests are handled in the order they arrive. A standard request generally takes 6 to 36 months, depending on the condition of the money, and the director of the BEP has the final say on every redemption. Missing banking details on the form delay the payment until they're supplied.

A request is refused if it shows a pattern of deliberate damage or an attempt to defraud, or if the fragments can't be identified as U.S. currency.