100 THINGS // MONEY

• Most banknotes are made from cotton paper with a weight of 80 to 90 grams per square meter. The cotton is sometimes mixed with linen, abaca, or other textile fibres. Generally, the paper used is different from ordinary paper: it is much more resilient, resists wear and tear
• The average life of a banknote is two years
• It does not contain the usual agents that make ordinary paper glow slightly under ultraviolet light. Unlike most printing and writing paper, banknote paper is infused with polyvinyl alcohol or gelatin to give it extra strength. 
• Early Chinese banknotes were printed on paper made of mulberry bark and this fiber is used in Japanese banknote paper today.
• Most banknotes are made using the mould made process in which a watermark and thread is incorporated during the paper forming process. The thread is a simple looking security component found in most banknotes. It is however often rather complex in construction comprising fluorescent, magnetic, metallic and micro print elements. 
• By combining it with watermarking technology the thread can be made to surface periodically on one side only. This is known as windowed thread and further increases the counterfeit resistance of the banknote paper. This process was invented by Portals, part of the De La Rue group in the UK. 
• Other related methods include watermarking to reduce the number of corner folds by strengthening this part of the note, coatings to reduce the accumulation of dirt on the note, and plastic windows in the paper that make it very hard to copy.

 

There are over 60 communities throughout the United States that have their own form of local currency. Some of the more popular places are Ithaca New York, Berkshire Massachusetts and Walt Disney World theme park. California has the most communities with their own currency, including many popular colleges like Berkeley and Santa Barbara.

A Quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, one more than a dime. The reason the mint started using ridges was to prevent counterfeit and devaluing of the coin. At the time, coins were made of precious metals and people would shave the coin’s edges. Merchants had to start weighing the coins to determine the true value since so many coins in circulation were shaved. Now that the mint no longer uses precious metals, they still keep the ridges for the seeing impaired to be able to tell the differences between coins like the dime and penny.

A Penny weighs 3.5 grams which is the average weight of a humming bird. A can of soda has 4 penny’s worth of sugar.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of a $5 bill.

On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the “1” encased in the “shield”. There is a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner of the bill.

America once issued a 5-cent bill during the civil war to combat the coin shortage at the time.

The largest denomination of currency was a $100,000 Series 1934 Gold Certificate note. It was primarily used between banks and not the public. The mint has also used in the past a $500, $1,000, $5,000 and a $10,000 note. And the mint has never created a 1 million dollar note.

If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 50% of the time, but more like 49%. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom. So always pick tails, you have a slightly better chance.

There is more Monopoly money printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world. The amount of money in a Monopoly game is $15,140.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.

The United States Government use to keep its supply of silver at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. It now only keeps on hand enough for minting purposes. The West Point Mint also has the second largest gold depository in the United States.

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.