Historic First: Women Signatures on U.S. Currency at Bureau of Engraving and Printing (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: 60 Minutes Overtime Hot off the presses, oh my gosh. We're here in Fort Worth at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Oh, that's fantastic. Wow. Look, that's great. That's my signature. For the first time ever in America's history, two women have their signatures on this. Oh my gosh, look. Here's our money. We were there as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the first woman to hold the position, and Treasurer Lynn Malerba, the first Native American to fill the role, saw their signatures on U.S. money for the first time.

Speaker 2: This is pretty historic to be with the two of you, your names both on these dollar bills and five dollar bills. Well, we've never had two women before on the currency, and I think we're both first in our own right.

Speaker 3: Being the first Secretary of Treasury is an amazing accomplishment, and I am so proud to be working with her, and I'm exceedingly proud to have my name on the money with her.

Speaker 4: This is our engraving department at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Speaker 1: Another woman, Charlene Williams, oversees the production of America's paper money. This is a tool that is used for hand engraving. At the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. We love what we do here, making money. She showed us how the U.S. dollar is created, a process that begins with an order from the Federal Reserve.

Speaker 4: If you are looking at producing a 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, the first stage of the operation is called offset printing. It's where you simultaneously print the back and the face of the sheet at the same time, and then it dries for 72 hours. Then it goes to your plate printing operation, which we refer to as intaglio printing. That's where you have fine line engraving. Intaglio printing really is a staple of United States paper currency. It literally has been in our business for 160 years. It dries for another 72 hours, and then it goes to your face printing, and it dries for another 72 hours. The sheets are then inspected, and then they go to what is called large examining printing equipment. That's the final processing stage of where your Federal Reserve seal, serial numbers, and treasury seal are incorporated onto the final note. At the very end, we end up putting a total of 16,000 notes into a cash pack, which weighs about 37 pounds. A total skid has 40 cash packs on it, and that's what is a finished product that we prepare to be shipped out. But if you want to know how much money we truly have here, it's zero. It's not a dollar until it becomes property of the Federal Reserve Board. Tick,