Chicago Fed Visitors Center

10/18/06

This center is all about money, but it won't cost you any.

by Elisa Kronish at Citysearch

Overview
The Chicago Fed is one of 12 regional branches of the Federal Reserve System. Its new visitors' center offers a peek at how the Fed affects the money-spending public. Through a series of videos, interactive games and more, it describes what the Federal Reserve does, the history of money and banking in the United States, the evolution of money, and how the Fed adjusts interest rates to influence the economy.

The Draw
Learn about check processing, bank supervision and monetary policy. Stand on top of a glassed-in pit of coins and play at being Federal Reserve Chairman with an interactive computer game. See whether you can spot fake currency in the "Counterfeit Quiz." Did you know that the Fed turns up about 50 counterfeits a day? Or that the bank has an average of $6 billion in cash in its vaults on any given day? Don't miss the Million-Dollar Cube--it weighs more than 2,000 pounds and represents $1 million in bills.