Fed’s $1M Cube Actually Holds $1.55M

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s cube labeled as $1,000,000 actually contains 102 × 8 × 19 bundles of $1 bills, totaling $1,550,400.

Calvin Liang built a simple web tool called Dot Counter to click and count items in images to verify the cube’s contents.

Peeling away one outer layer of bundles reduces the total to approximately $1,020,000, close to a true cube shape.

At a 2% annual inflation target, the cube’s $1,550,400 will be worth $1,000,000 in about 22 years.

A more accurate $1 million cube could be built with 90 bundles per stack in a 7 × 16 layout, totaling $1,008,000.