Where does all that cash go?

BOSTON — When people have too much cash on hand they take it to a bank. But what does a bank with too much money do?

New England banks with money to burn send those megabucks to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

The reserve bank’s primary function is to be a banker for other New England banks — lending money to those that need it and storing funds for those with excess cash, said Edward A. Romkey, an assistant vice president of the bank. It also detects filthy lucre — worn and dirty bills — and takes them out of circulation.

New England banks usually have too much cash during the ski season, summer vacations and Christmas, he said.

“Any time currency use is up, counterfeiting is up. Counterfeiters have seasons, too,” Romkey said. He said the bank sends 200 to 300 fake bills daily to the Secret Service.

The cash that arrives from New England banks is fed into eight Currency Verification and Counting System machines, which process 72,000 greenbacks hourly.

The machines scan the back of each bill much like a supermarket scanner reads a bar code and decide whether it is real and in good enough condition to go back into circulation. Clean bills get counted and shrink-wrapped.

Worn, torn and soiled bills — about $1 million worth daily — are shredded into confetti and handed out to bank visitors.