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This chapter provides instructions to U.S. Treasury (Treasury) offices for the accounting and reporting of certain noncash assets. Examples of these assets are coins and coinage metals held by the Bureau of the U.S. Mint (Mint) offices and gold bullion, certificates, or coins held by Federal Reserve Banks (FRBs) for display or in reserve.
The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized by:
Treasury has designated several of its organizational facilities as depositaries to handle public money transactions that cannot be processed by other depositaries and to hold certain monetary assets (for instance, gold, silver, paper currencies, and coins) that must be kept under the direct control of Treasury.
Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) issues regulations, prescribes forms, provides operating procedures, and makes official policy determinations to ensure proper maintenance of balances in Treasury’s General Account (TGA). Fiscal Service updates its central accounting records through the receipt, classification, and processing of each depositary’s accountability report and statement, and Federal agencies’ reporting to Fiscal Service. These records are the basis of Treasury’s reporting on the overall fiscal status of the U.S. Government to the President, the Congress, and the public.
Depositaries—Treasury offices, FRBs or their branches, and commercial banking institutions (domestic, foreign, or in territorial possessions), that are authorized to maintain an account in the name of Treasury to handle public money transactions.
Gold—Treasury-owned bullion held by the Mint offices as custodial reserves. Some FRBs, such as FRB New York (FRB NY), have gold held in monetary reserve or for display purposes. The standard value of gold is set at $42.2222 per fine troy ounce, as mandated by Public Law No. 93-110.
Nonoperating Cash Items—Monetary assets held by Treasury offices and other depositaries for purposes authorized by law or as prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. These items include gold, silver, unclassified counter cash, and unfit paper currency in the custody of Treasury offices.
Other Miscellaneous Assets—Treasury-owned silver held by the Mint, unclassified counter cash, and receivables from General Services Administration (GSA) surplus sales.
Silver—Treasury-owned silver bullion held by the Mint as custodial reserves.
Treasury’s General Account (TGA)—Treasury’s operating account that is maintained by designated depositaries, primarily FRBs and their branches, to handle daily public money transactions. These transactions include deposits of taxes, customs duties, public debt receipts, and other revenues.
U.S. Treasury Offices—Operating units within Treasury that handle transactions that cannot be processed by any other type of depositary. The Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) hold monetary assets that must be kept under the direct control of Treasury.
Unfit Paper Currency—Mutilated paper currency received by BEP from FRBs or the public for replacement. Mutilated paper currency is currency that has been damaged to the extent that half or less of the original note remains, and its condition is such that its value is questionable. Since such currency is taken out of circulation, it is classified as nonoperating cash.
The entities identified below provide reports on nonoperating cash transactions to Fiscal Service for central accounting and reporting purposes.
The Mint maintains the gold and silver custodial reserves of the United States. It has facilities in the following locations:
The Mint Headquarters provides an accountability report detailing monetary assets on hand through a monthly FMS 5693: Statement of Assets and Liabilities (A&L).
BEP prints paper currency and replenishes currency taken out of circulation. BEP receives mutilated paper currency from private citizens, businesses, and FRBs and reports to Fiscal Service on the receipt, destruction, and replenishment of that currency. When BEP approves replacement of unfit currency submitted by members of the public, it issues a restitution check to the remitter. Replacement for unfit currency forwarded by FRBs is accomplished by an accounting entry through the TGA.
BEP also maintains an accountability for uncirculated U.S. notes (paper currency) as mandated by law. BEP restores the balance in this account monthly, based on estimates of the amount of U.S. notes destroyed.
Selected currencies were deemed public debt issues at the time that certain mediums of exchange were initiated. Treasury securities include silver certificates, National Bank notes, gold certificates, fractional currency, and FRB notes. Therefore, when these currencies are destroyed, they effect a decrease in the amount of public debt principal outstanding.
When BEP or the FRBs destroy Treasury securities, Fiscal Service will charge the Public Debt Principal Outstanding account, 20X0500.
When the balance of custodial reserves gold changes, the Federal Reserve Board issues or redeems a corresponding amount of gold certificates. CAB immediately provides a letter to FRB NY to identify these certificate changes. CAB also provides the Federal Reserve Board of Governors with a copy of the “Monthly Statement of Gold and Gold Certificate Fund, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,” which summarizes the monthly certificate activity.
CCB serves as the focal point of management and accounting control over Treasury operating cash and monetary asset reporting. It ensures timely receipt and processing of all depositary reports and reviews and analyzes the Central Summary General Ledger (CSGL) account balances to assure data accuracy and the integrity of the U.S. Government’s fiscal reports.
CCB also prepares and releases the status reports on Treasury-owned gold and the coin and currency outstanding and in circulation.
FRBs and branches hold gold bullion, coins, and/or certificates for display or numismatic purposes. Changes in the FRBs’ monetary asset holdings also are reported to Fiscal Service through the Automated Transcript System (ATS).
The Federal Reserve Board determines and provides allocation amounts by denomination on all Federal Reserve notes, silver certificates, and U.S. notes destroyed by FRBs. On the basis of this allocation, CCB provides notification to the FRBs and BEP for the processing of related accounting entries that affect any currencies removed from or reissued for circulation.
Treasury incurs a liability with the Federal Reserve Board when gold is fully monetized (converted to face value). Treasury’s gold holdings are valued, when acquired, at $42.2222 per fine troy ounce. The Federal Reserve Board, in effect, authorizes the transfer of cash from its account to the TGA when gold certificates are issued. A corresponding decrease to the TGA is made when gold certificates are redeemed.
The Federal Reserve Board also provides CCB with a monthly listing of gold certificates due from Treasury. This list, which identifies the date and the amount of gold purchases and sales, must agree with the value of gold certificate transactions processed by CAB and reported as purchases or sales by the Mint.
The Federal Reserve Board also submits other financial reports to Fiscal Service for report preparation and data review and validation.
The Mint details the amount of gold custodial reserves and miscellaneous assets (silver custodial reserves) on its monthly FMS 5693. The form should be emailed to CCB (see the Contacts page) no later than noon on the last business day of the reporting month. This report identifies the type and quantity of gold bullion included in the Mint gold inventory balance. The stated ounces times the par value of gold ($42.2222) must agree with the cumulative dollar value of gold assets reported. This report also provides the monthly balances of miscellaneous assets (silver bullion).
31 U.S.C. 5117 states “…the amount of outstanding certificates may not be more than the value of the gold held against gold certificates”; therefore, it is important that transactions affecting gold balances effect a corresponding transaction to the gold certificate account for the same date. Therefore, where there is a sale or purchase of gold on any given business day, a corresponding entry for the redemption or issuance of gold certificates is effected for the same date.
CCB uses the FMS 5693 to prepare the Status Report of U.S. Treasury-Owned Gold. Data from the FMS 5693 also is used to calculate the net change of monthly gold inventory held at the Mint. As a result of this calculation, CCB prepares a memo to CAB requesting that FRB NY adjust gold certificates by the net change amount. Appendix 1 provides a sample of the FMS 5693.
The Statement of Transactions (224) is due to Fiscal Service by the third work day after the close of each month. Monetary asset activity is reported on the Statement of Transactions (224) by the following Treasury offices:
Fiscal Service requires that agencies submit the Statement of Transactions (224) on-line through the Central Accounting and Reporting System (CARS) CTA Module (see TFM Volume I, Part 2, Chapter 3300). Appendix 2 provides a sample of the Statement of Transactions (224).
FRBs report activity pertaining to monetary assets through the ATS.
The SF 5515 is used to document decreases to the TGA, reported on depositary transcripts. For monetary asset reporting, FRBs prepare the SF 5515 to support the amount of currency taken out of circulation when it is destroyed by the FRBs. They prepare SF 5515s to charge Fiscal Service’s Agency Location Code (ALC) for the amount of silver certificates destroyed and BEP’s ALC for the amount of Federal Reserve notes destroyed (see Appendix 3).
The SF 215 supports increases to the TGA. When BEP issues checks in return for Federal Reserve notes accepted for destruction, it reports the amount destroyed, by denomination, on its daily Secure Payment System (SPS) wire to FRB Richmond. FRB Richmond prepares an SF 215 for BEP’s ALC 20-18-9002 for this amount. The effect of this entry is to restore funds to the TGA (see Appendix 4).
Each month the Federal Reserve Board provides a report on the FR 44 that summarizes the monthly statements of all FRBs in its system. The summary report, entitled “System Totals (In Dollars)—End of Month ______,” provides the total of notes outstanding by denomination. CCB uses this information to prepare the report on currency outstanding and in circulation.
The Federal Reserve Board sends this monthly report (with the FR 44) to CCB. This summary report identifies the denominations of currency destroyed by FRBs during the month. Based on this data, CCB advises FRB Richmond to charge the TGA for the amount of Treasury securities (silver certificates) and Federal Reserve notes destroyed.
The following public monies accounts (PMS) contain subsidiary data for the CSGL accounts. They correspond to the respective CSGL “A” accounts in Fiscal Services central accounting system (STAR).
The U.S. Treasury Miscellaneous Assets account reflects the value of silver bullion.
|U.S. Treasury Miscellaneous Assets||2080-1012||20A1012|
U.S. Treasury Owned Gold accounts include transactions affecting the acquisition and sale of gold bullion. Gold is always booked in the asset accounts 2080-1053 and CSGL account 20A1053 at the par value of $42.2222 per fine troy ounce.
|U.S. Treasury Owned Gold||2080-1053||20A1053|
These accounts reflect BEP’s accountability for unfit currency on hand. Confirmed mutilated currency is represented by CSGL account 20A1040. The balance in CSGL account 20A1227 reflects the amount of unconfirmed mutilated currency. The total balance of CSGL account 20A1040 should equal the balance reflected in the monthly BEP report 2506: Analysis of Cash Balances On Hand As of (Date).
|Mutilated Paper Currency Held by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing||N/A||20A1040|
|Cash Accountability for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing||N/A||20A1227|
The following transactions provide reporting procedures for the transfer, receipt, destruction, and replacement of unfit paper currency. Currency is destroyed by BEP’s Office of Currency Standards and FRBs.
When an FRB forwards mutilated paper currency to BEP for destruction, the FRB also prepares a debit voucher (SF 5515) reflecting BEP’s ALC 20-13-9002. CASHLINK II reports the debit voucher on its daily transcript and sends the credit memorandum copies of the SF 5515, along with the mutilated currency, to BEP.
After receipt of the debit voucher and the mutilated currency, BEP reports a summary transaction amount on its monthly Statement of Transactions (224), as follows:
If the amount reported on the SF 5515 does not agree with the mutilated currency received from the FRB, BEP contacts the respective FRB and requests an adjusting entry to increase or decrease the original SF 5515 amount.
After BEP examines the paper notes received from the public and determines that the customer is entitled to replacement of the currency, it prepares and processes an SF 1166, Voucher and Schedule for Payment, for its ALC 20-13-9002. This authorizes a check payment for the customer.
BEP reports the total amount of the SF 1166 payments confirmed, as paid by Fiscal Service, on its Statement of Transactions (224), as follows:
On the days BEP destroys currency, it reports the amount destroyed, by denomination, on its daily SPS wire to FRB Richmond.
Upon receipt of BEP’s SPS wire, FRB Richmond processes an SF 215 on the daily transcript for BEP’s ALC 20-13-9002 for the amount of destroyed currency. It forwards the confirmed and memorandum copies of the SF 215 to BEP.
BEP reports the amount of the SF 215 (currency destroyed) as follows on its Statement of Transactions (224):
BEP also initiates an Intra-governmental Payment and Collection (IPAC) billing to Fiscal Service via the Government On-Line Accounting Link Information Access System II (GOALS II) for all Treasury securities destroyed by BEP. It reports on its Statement of Transactions (224) as follows:
Fiscal Service reports the debit side of the IPAC billing on its Statement of Transactions (224) for ALC 20-55-0860 to the Public Debt Principal account, 20X0500, for the amount of Treasury securities destroyed.
CCB authorizes FRB Richmond to charge the TGA for the amount of U.S. notes and silver certificates redeemed and destroyed by the FRBs.
Upon receipt of CCB’s administrative memo, FRB Richmond processes an SF 5515 debit voucher for Fiscal Service’s ALC 20-55-0860 for the amount of U.S. notes and silver certificates destroyed. FRB Richmond includes these two amounts on its daily transcript. It forwards the confirmed and memorandum copies of the respective SF 5515s to Fiscal Service.
The following transactions are guidelines for the Mint’s reporting to Fiscal Service for activity related to the purchase of coinage metals, establishing accountability for minted coins, and reporting the transfer or sale of these assets.
In addition to the accounts described in Section 5035, the Mint also uses the following accounts for reporting monetary asset transactions to Fiscal Service:
For coins shipped to cashiers and seigniorage is realized, on its Statement of Transactions (224), the Mint:
To obtain forms, contact Fiscal Service Property and Supply Section at:
Property and Supply Section
Bureau of the Fiscal Service
Department of the Treasury
3361-L 75th Avenue
Landover, MD 20785
Direct general inquiries concerning this chapter to:
Cash Control Branch
Cash Accounting Division
Bureau of the Fiscal Service
Department of the Treasury
3700 East West Highway, Room 525E
Hyattsville, MD 20782
|1||FMS 5693||Statement of Assets and Liabilities|
|2||Statement of Transactions (224)||Statement of Transactions|
|3||SF 5515||Debit Voucher|
|4||SF 215||Deposit Ticket|
Appendices are available in the PDF version only.