Of only TWO places in the U.S. where paper currency is printed, ONE of them can be found in Cow Town (Fort Worth, TX)!  If you called ahead, you were probably advised to arrive 30 minutes prior to your requested tour time to allow for security clearance. As of March, 2008 the last tour starts at 2:00 so you must arrive by 1:30 PM to see a tour. 

This modern facility is located on the far north side of Fort Worth, TX, easy to find.  Visitors are greeted by a huge electronic "neon" sign showing them the way into the visitor parking.  Aside from having the feel of entering a prison (barbed wire security fence), it's a nice, big parking area and huge modern building.   As you approach the small outbuilding, you hear a repeating announcement to leave all cell phones and cameras in your car .  Return to your car then back to the security building for clearance (just like in the airports!) before boarding a bus to the main building.  At the main building you enter into a two-story glassed visitor area staffed by uniformed officers and pleasant tour guides.  You check in and are given a colored sticker for your tour time.  While waiting for them to announce the next tour, you can visit the interactive exhibits (two floors!).  You might be surprised to see that they show so much of the currency making process - from how money is designed, security features to prevent counterfeiting, engraving of the master plates, "growing" the working plates, the three types of printing processes and even how they valuate mutilated money.  Some exhibits have repeating videos showing a close up of the processes which you can't really see on the walking tour.

 When your tour time starts, a friendly guide walks you around so you can view the printing from way above the actual operations through large glass windows.  Their security procedures are evident in the way they confirm the headcount between the two buildings and at waypoints during the tour (no stragglers allowed).  You watch the workers on the various printing and inspection machines.   Even though you're quite a way up from the floor, you can see the bright colors of ink, stacks of notes, inspection screens with magnified bills and such.  The tour guide is not allowed in the production area and only knows what s/he is trained to say but they will answer all questions and are committed to finding out the answer if they don't know.  The production areas look very neat and orderly and the entire faciility is professional and informative .  They even have a fairly well stocked gift shop where you can buy uncut bills as well as souvenirs made with shredded money.  They don't have books on what they show you but their website (www.moneyfactory.gov) covers almost everything you can learn on the tour and exhibits.  Overall this is a great opportunity to learn something you didn't know about paper money in a very clean modern environment.