Check Yuletide Wrapping Paper! It May Be $1 Bills

MIAMI — Warning! Check carefully before throwing out that wrapping paper. The dollar bills on it could be real.

Maus & Hoffman clothing stores in southern Florida have been wrapping holiday gifts in uncut sheets of 32 genuine $1 bills for eight years. And co-owner William Maus Jr. has grown accustomed to a familiar lament.

He said many a gift recipient complains: “O my God, I didn’t know it was real!” And that’s usually after Christmas, he added, which means it’s been ripped open or thrown away.”

Some people ignore or simply don’t believe the store’s “WARNING” sticker attached to each package wrapped with the dollar bills.

The store sells the sheets for $55--$23 over face value--and only to customers who make a purchase.

But the sheets are familiar holiday fare at stores throughout the nation, said Leah Akbar, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington.

Bureau visitors can buy the sheets in presses of 32, 16 and four $1 bills. They’re also available by mail and sell for $47, $28 and $10.25, respectively.

Akbar said the price includes handling and shipping and that any profit goes toward paying workers at the bureau gift center in Washington. Delivery takes eight to 10 weeks.

The address for mail-order bills is Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Public Sales, Room 602-11A, Washington, D.C. 20228.