What does a stack of a million dollars really look like?

By Rob Cockerham | May 27, 2011

Inspired by the "How much is Inside a Million Dollars" article. Brittany went the extra mile and added an extra layer of authenticity to the project, providing photos of actual bills.

If you recall, the largest denomination of money in the US are the $100 bills. If you want to get one million dollars cash into a small package, your best bet is by stacking 10,000 of the $100 bills.

Like most bills, $100s come from the bank wrapped in bundles of 100 bills ($10,000 bundles).

Of course, $1 bills are the same size as $100s, so Brittany's pictures below will accurately indicate the mass of one million dollars.

Each of these sizeable plastic bags holds 1,000 bills. This could be a million dollars on a DVD rack.

This is what a million dollars on a bedspread looks like.

A million dollars in hundreds would be the same size and weight, and that would be the minimum size of one million dollars U.S.

If you want your million in unmarked 5s and 10s, the pile would have to be ten to 20 times larger than this.

Only 8,000 bills will fit in a plastic shopping bag, and it will probably rip if you try to lift it.

If the bills are ones, this is $8,000.

If the bills are hundreds, this is $800,000.

A million dollars will fit inside a microwave oven.

Inside the microwave is the last place that thieves look. Unfortunately, when they do look in there, it is because they stole the microwave and are checking out their haul in an abandoned warehouse in Bell Flower.

A Nintendo Game Cube is about the same size as two 1,000 bill bundles.

1,000 bills is a stack 10 centimeters thick... if it's packed tightly.

Loosely packed, the money expanded to about 150% of that size.

Getting a good height estimate was nearly impossible, due to the springy nature of the bills. Also because the stack kept falling over.

A million dollars in a washing machine.

A million dollars in the refrigerator.

I was thrilled to get these photos from Brittany. I hope they help you better comprehend how big a million dollars is. Maybe that's important?