Money Facts

In the year 1923, hyperinflation caused the German currency to lose a big chunk of its value.

It became almost completely worthless that people gave it to their children to play with or used it as wallpaper.

Over 90 percent of the bills used in The United States today have trace amounts of cocaine on them.

The Philadelphia Mint is the largest one in the world. It has the ability to make 1.8 million coins per hours, 32 million coins each day, and 13.5 billion coins every year.

If a person has $10 in their pocket and have no debt at all, they are wealthier than 25% of Americans.

Out of The 20 richest women in the world, 19 of them inherited their fortune from either their father or their husband.

The amount of money in each Monopoly game is $15,140. More Monopoly money is printed each year than real money all over the world.

The first credit card was created when a man went out for dinner and he forgot his wallet.

He could not pay for his dinner and was very embarrassed, so he came up with The idea for The credit card.

Oddly enough, even if he had a credit card that day, it would have been home, in his wallet.

The term “paying through the nose” came from the Danes in Ireland. If an Irish taxpayer did not pay their Danish poll tax, they would have their noses slit.

There has only been one woman ever on U.S. currency. Martha Washington was on the $1 Silver Certificate in 1886 and 1891. She was also on the back of The $1 Silver Certificate in 1896.

In order to manufacture a penny, The U.S. pays more than double its worth. It costs 2.4 cents to make one penny.

In total, there is $75 trillion U.S. dollars in the entire world. If this money was distributed to every person on Earth, each person would receive less than $11,000.

The Apple Company earns $300,000 every minute. This equals up to $18,000,000 per hour and $432,000,000 each day.

The most common form of money used in the United States is not coins or bills.

It is actually information that is held in computers at banks and in businesses.

In 2005, The American people spent more than $15 billion on jeans.

In 2011, it was reported that Americans spent over $61.4 billion on their pets.

It is reported that Americans spend more on their pets each year than Germany spends on its entire defense budget.

Drug lord Pablo Escobar was one of the richest men in the world. He has so much cash on hand, that rats ate close to $1 billion of his money every year.

Most people would be upset if a rat ate $5 of their money. Why didn’t he just pay an exterminator?

Studies have shown that paper money can transport the live flu virus for over two weeks.

If Bill Gates were to spend $1 million dollars of his money a day, it would take him 218 years to spend all of his money.

When families inherit money, a new study in The U.S. showed that 2 out of 3 of these family fortunes are lost by the new generation.

Over 47 percent of Americans today say that they cannot afford to pay for an emergency that would cost $400 without selling something or borrowing money from a bank, friend, or family member.

The very first Secretary of The Treasury in The United States was Alexander Hamilton. To honor this, starting during The Civil War, his picture appeared on American money. Today, he is on The $10 bill.

The average American family carries a credit card debt of around $8,000.

The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing has estimated that you would need to fold a bill forward and backwards 4000 times before the bill will tear on its own.

There are over 170 different currencies being used all around the world today.

The average adult in The U.S. has between 8 and 10 credit cards.

About 35 million Americans pay the minimum balance on their credit card bills, while 44 percent pay their entire balance each month.

If a person is homeless, or has no friends or family members to cover their burial expenses, they would be buried by prisoners.

There is a mass grave on Hart Island for these people. These graves hold up to 1000 graves for children and 50 graves for adults.

In 2012, The 100 richest people in the world made enough money, that if they pooled it all, they could end global poverty 4 times over.

When The penny was first minted, they were made out of copper. Today, The mat penny is less than 3% copper, and The rest is made from zinc.

In 1652, The Massachusetts Bay Colony was The first colony to make coins. They also made The first paper money, that was called bills of credit.

The type of Currency that is traded The most in the U.S. dollar.

Right behind The dollar is the euro, the Japanese yen, and the British pound.

In 1785, the dollar bill was officially made the unit of Currency in the United States.

The largest U.S. bill ever printed is the $10,000 bill. It was used until 1945. As of May 30, 2009, there are only 336 of these bills in existence. Salmon P. Chase, the 6th Chief Justice of The United States, is on The bill.

In The 1900’s, cattle, sheep, camels, and other livestock were used for money. These animals were actually the oldest form of Currency in Africa.

Each head of the cattle was called a caput. Most people tried to keep their livestock full of caput or capital. Capital is still a financial term that is used today.

The higher bill denominations, such as $500, $1,000, $5,000 and 10,000 are no longer being circulated. These bills were last printed in 1945, and were discontinued by July 14, 1969. If you can get your hands on these bills, you can still legally use them.

The bills that are in circulation today are the $100, $50, $20, $10, $5, $2 and $1, although The $2 bill is not seen too often.

If you were to stack $1 bills a mile high, you would have $14.5 million dollars.

In 1909, Abraham Lincoln was the first American to be pictured on an American coin. The man who designed the coin added his initials, VDB, and his name was Victor David Brenner. The initials are located on Lincoln’s arm.

During The Civil War, counterfeiting was a huge problem. On July 5, 1865, The Secret Service was created to put a stop to it all. By The end of The Civil War, between 1/3 and ½ of all the bills in circulation were counterfeit.

In 2001, counterfeiters were able to pass off $47.5 million in counterfeit cash in The U.S. While it may seem like a lot, it was only 2 counterfeit bills for every 10,000 genuine bills that passed between hands in America.

The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing roll 37 million bills off The printing press each day. Close to half of them are $1 bills. About 95% of The bills that are printed each day are printed to take The place of bills that are already in circulation.

The bird that is used on The U.S. silver dollar is actually a real bird. Between 1830 and 1836, the men who worked in the mint spent time in The U.S. Mint with a bird who they adopted, and nicknamed Peter.

They decided to use him as a model for the drawings for the coin. When Peter died after injuring his wing in the mint, they decided to have him stuffed. Today, he is on display in the mint’s lobby.

In order to engrave U.S. coins, the engravers need to be very precise. Not only do they need to engrave the coins perfectly, they have to illustrate them backwards. In order to become an engraver, a person needs to have 12 to 15 years of training.

During The Middle Ages, knights did not carry cash with them because they were afraid to be robbed. If they were to stay at an inn, he would stamp the bill into his ring. Later, the innkeeper would take the stamp to the knight for payment.

All coins that are worn down are melted down, to make new coins. Any worn bills are shredded. Some of them are recycled, and made into roof shingles or fire logs. A homeowner’s roof could be worth more than they know.

Today’s coin counting machines can count 2,500 coins per minute. The money counting machines that they use in banks can read the denomination of the bills, they can tell if a bill is fake, and can count 100 bills in four seconds.

There are over 1.6 million ATM’s in the world today. The few people living in Antarctica even have access to an ATM. The day that ATM’s are used The most is on Friday. The average amount of money taken out of an ATM during each transaction is $80.

There are three ways that the government gets money when they need it. First, they can print it. Second, they can borrow it, and third, they can collect taxes every year.

Money has not always been in the form of a bill or a coin. Throughout history, people have used cocoa beans, soap, elephants, animal skins, feathers, bear teeth, and tea tobacco as forms of currency.

The ancient Romans made their coins in the temple of Juno Moneta, who was the goddess of marriage and women. It is from the name Moneta, that we get our words for mint and money. Today, money refers to anything that can be used to pay for a good, service, or to pay a debt.

The first time that the image of a living person was engraved into a coin was on a Roman coin. After winning the war, Julius Caesar’s picture was engraved onto a coin in 44 B.C.

Out of all the countries in the world, The residents of Iceland use credit and debit cards The most. Over 70 percent of all consumer business transactions are done with plastic. In North America, credit and debit cards are only used 39 percent of the time.

In ancient China, anyone who was caught counterfeiting the emperor’s paper Currency would have their hearts cut out. In England, The punishment for counterfeiting was harsh as well. They actually hold the record for the most executions for counterfeiters. In 1817 alone, The British government hanged 313 people for passing around fake currency.

Before actual money was developed and started being printed, people used a bartering system to get what they needed. This is where a person would trade something to get what they need.

It was not uncommon for governments to infuse counterfeit money into their enemy’s currency. They did this so that they could weaken their financial system. During World War II, Germany did it to England. Also, during World War II, the Americans did the same to The Japanese.

The worst stock market crash in history occurred in The United States, and lasted from 1930 through 1932. It was this crash that brought on The Great Depression, where millions of people lost everything.

The words, “In God We Trust” was not always on United States paper bills. It was not until 1963 that the words first started being printed on the bills.

It was the government of Hungary who printed the largest denomination of money. In 1946, they printed a bank note that was worth 100 quintilian pen goes. When written out, the number looks like this: 100,000,000,000,000,000,000.

A $1 bill stays in circulation for just 18 months. A $5 bill stays in circulation for two years. A $10 bill is around for three years.

A $20 bill is in circulation for four years. A $50 and $100 bill stays around for 9 years. Coins are different, they can last in circulation for 30 years.

The early Romans used salt as a form of money. The word “salary” comes from sal, which means salt in Latin.

If you were to put one million $1 bills on a scale, they would weigh 2,048.8 pounds. If you were to weigh one million dollars in $100 bills, it would only weigh 20.4 pounds.

In Old English, pygg was a type of clay. It was used to make dishes and jars that held money. Over time, the term changed from pygg to “piggy bank”, and was then shaped into a cute, little pig.

The Yap Islanders of The Pacific used stones that were shaped like doughnuts for money. Some of The stones were as large as 12 feet across. This is one type of Currency that you couldn’t fit in your wallet.

There are two facilities that house The Bureau of Engraving and Printing. There is one in Forth Worth, Texas and one in Washington D.C. Between the two facilities, 9.7 tons of ink are used each day.

Over time, several types of Currency has been used. One of the strangest is the cowry. It is the shell of a sea snail. These shells were very durable and very colorful, which made them so popular in many civilizations around the world. The cowry was also the longest and most widely used form of Currency in history.

The first coins that had their actual value printed on them were minted in 600 B.C. In ancient Lydia, which is known today as Turkey. These coins were made of a metal called electrum. It was an alloy of gold and silver.

The first U.S. Mint was created on April 2, 1792 by congress. After it was built, it started circulating coins in March 1793. If anyone working in the mint decided to make fake coins, or if they were to steal the real ones during their shift, they would be punished by death.

In 2002, a study was performed on the dollar bills in circulation. The study found that 94 percent of the bills tested contained germs that could cause disease.

The United States has a debt that is 10 times larger than all of The United States dollars that are being circulated today, which is worth $1.2 trillion.

Before there was paper money, Americans used elk bucks the way that they use money today. Since this was considered money at the time, the term buck, stuck.

The Office of Currency Stands will replace damaged money if it is turned in properly. According to The standards, if a person can present at least 51 percent of the bill, it can be replaced. Each year.

The U.S. Treasury handles over 30,000 claims. They redeem an average of $30 million worth of mutilated Currency each year.

The first form of paper money was created in China, 1,400 years ago. Since then, other countries caught on the ease of making and carrying paper money, and eventually, they all followed suit.

There has never been an African American person pictured on paper money in The U.S. There were, however, commemorative coins created in the 1940’s, with the images of George Washington Carver, Booker T. Washington, and Jackie Robinson. Also, four African American men and one African American woman served as The Treasurer of The United States. Each of their signatures appears on paper bills.

The first depository was built in 1936. It holds 4,578 metric tons of gold. The New York Fed is larger than Fort Knox, and hold 7,000 metric tons. Between The two, they hold 7.5 percent of all gold that has ever been refined.

The country with the worst inflation is Zimbabwe. In 2008, the country experienced 6.5 sextillion percent inflation.

If the government were to change The U.S. $1 bill for a $1 coin, it would save The U.S. $4.4 billion over 30 years.

The most expensive man made object ever built is not a skyscraper, it is The International Space Station. It cost over $150 billion to build.

If you were given $10 billion in one dollar bills, and you spent one bill every second of the day, it would take you 317 years to spend all of it.

The person who holds the record for appearing on Currency more than any person in the world is Queen Elizabeth II. Her portrait appears on The Currency in more than 30 countries.

U.S. Currency is not made of paper, it is actually made of fabric. It is made up of 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen.

It also has tiny blue and red synthetic fibers. Each of them are different lengths, and they are distributed evenly throughout the bills. If the bills were made out of paper, they wouldn’t last long, and they would easily fall apart.

A man from California, named Walter Cavanagh has more credit cards than anyone in the world. The man, who is also known as “Mr. Plastic Fantastic, has over 13,000 credit cards. He keeps his cards in the world’s largest wallet, which is 250 feet long.

Many Americans call their money cash. The word comes from the ancient Chinese. They would carry their coins in bundles on strings. When a person had a bundle of coins that equaled 100, it was called one cash.

Most people believe that the first dollar bill had a George Washington on it. This is not true. The actual first dollar had a portrait of Salmon P. Chase. He was The U.S. Secretary of The Treasury in The United States in 1962.

There are a few different slang words to describe the dollar bill. Some of these include, Washington, clam, buck, single, and greenback.

The only numbers that are printed on a United States coin are the numbers for the year that it was minted. The U.S. $1 bill contains the number 1, eight times. The other numbers on the dollar bill is its individual serial number.

The first dollar bill was larger than it is today. It was made smaller starting in 1929. Today, the dollar bill is 2.625 inches from the top to the bottom, and it is 6.125 inches from left to right.

If you look at a dollar bill, and you see “FW” printed on it, it means that that bill was printed in Fort Worth, Texas. If there is no “FW” on the bill, it means that it was printed in Washington, D.C.

Nobody really knows why money is green, however, it is speculated that the color is green because it was the easiest ink to find when the money was first produced.

The exact ingredients that are used in the ink are kept secret. This is so to prevent counterfeiting.

The pyramid on The Great Seal of The bill is unfinished. The U.S. government has never said why. Many people speculate that the reason is that it represents that America is always growing.

The number 13 is represented several times on The U.S. dollar bill. There are 13 leaves in the olive branch, 13 arrows, 13 stars, and 13 stripes in the shield.

The number 13 is so significant on the bill because it represents The 13 original colonies that formed The United States.

The eagle on the dollar bill is not just there for decoration. It actually has meaning. The eagle is holding an olive branch, which is a symbol of peace.

The eagle faces the olive branch to signify that America is always striving for peace. It holds an arrow in its right talon, which Stands for war.