Sizewise Money Stack

What it is for

"A million dollars" sounds huge, but what does it look like in cash? The Money Stack turns an amount into a pile of US dollar notes, euro notes or notes of your own size. It is a good way to make budgets, ransom scenes in films, lottery jackpots or national debts tangible.

The tool counts the notes, then gives the stack height, the mass, the volume, the area the notes cover when laid side by side and the number of EUR-pallets they fill. It compares the stack with a real object of similar height from the Sizewise library.

It is not a financial tool and knows nothing about exchange rates or which notes are actually in circulation.

Worked example

With the default 1 million in $100 notes the summary reads: $1 million in $100 notes is 10 000 notes, a stack 1.09 m high weighing 10 kg. The metrics add a volume of 0.0113 m³ and one EUR-pallet. Laid flat side by side the notes cover 103 m², 0.0146 of an international football pitch, and the pallet holds 91 notes per layer.

Try 1 billion instead: 10,000,000 notes, a stack 1.09 km high — about 1.1 times Angel Falls (979 m) — weighing 10 tonnes and filling 13 EUR-pallets loaded 1 m high. At 1 trillion the stack reaches 1,090 km and weighs 10,000 tonnes.

For euros the example uses half a million in €50 notes with a thickness of 0.11 mm: 10,000 notes, 1.1 m high. The mass shows not published.

How to read the result

• Notes is the amount divided by the note value, rounded up.
• Stack height is notes × thickness, as if every note lay flat on top of the next.
• Mass uses about 1 g per US note. For euros it is unknown unless you enter a mass for your own notes.
• EUR-pallets packs the notes on the 1.2 × 0.8 m pallet deck in the best row pattern and stacks them to the load height you set.
• Compared with lists the nearest object, the football-pitch area and the pallets in plain sentences.

Tips and common mistakes

• Amounts can be written as 250000, 2.5 million, 1e12 or 1 trillion.
• US notes all share one size: 6.14 × 2.61 inches, 0.0043 inches thick (U.S. Currency Education Program, Bureau of Engraving and Printing). A one-mile stack holds 14.7 million notes, which matches their "more than 14.5 million".
• The European Central Bank publishes euro note sizes but no thickness or mass. The 0.11 mm default is an assumption the result labels as such — change it if you have a better figure.
• For other currencies choose your own notes and enter length, width, thickness and, if you know it, the mass.
• Real bundles are not perfectly flat; a real pile is a little higher than the calculated one.

FAQ

How heavy is a million dollars?

In $100 notes about 10 kg; in $1 notes about a tonne.

Why is the euro mass "not published"?

The ECB does not publish it, and the tool does not guess. Enter your own value as custom notes if you need one.

Does the note value change the size?

Not for US notes. Euro notes grow with their value, from 120 × 62 mm (€5) to 160 × 82 mm (€500).

Can I see it next to other objects?

Yes. The Money view in Sizewise draws the stack beside the nearest object at one true scale.