More interesting US Currency Facts

For more interesting facts about things Printed on the One Dollar bill, visit Facts About U.S. Money.

• The US government first issued 'paper' money in 1861 to make up for a shortage of coins to help finance the Civil War, because People were hoarding gold and silver coins. 
• The first 'paper' bills were issued in Fractional Currency: 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cent denominations. 

Coins

• A penny costs of 2.41 cents to produce; it costs the U.S. Mint about 11cents to make a nickel and almost 6 cents to make a dime. 
• You can see Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial on the penny.  
• Changing the US one dollar bill for a US one dollar coin would save the US government about $4.4 billion in the next 30 years.

One dollar bill

• One dollar bills make up between 45-48 percent of all bills printed by the U.S. government each year. 
• The average life of a dollar bill is between 18-21 months in circulation. 
•  It is said you can see a spider in the upper left-hand corner of the shield surrounding the 1, while an owl is hidden one each side of the word 'One Dollar' about half way between the number 1 and the letter O in One and R in Dollar. 
• The $1 bill’s famous nickname of “Greenback” originates from the Dollar Bill created by Abraham Lincoln in the late 1800s to finance the Civil War; These notes were printed in green on the back side. 
• Martha Washington is the only woman to have appeared on a U.S. currency note. She appeares on the face of the 1886 and 1891 $1 Silver Certificate and on the back of the $1 Silver Certificate issued in 1896.

Two dollar bill

• In 1963, the $2 bill Federal Reserve Notes were changed by removing “WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND” from the front and adding “IN GOD WE TRUST” to the back. The $2 bill was last issued in 2003.

Five dollar bill

• $5 bills last in circulation for around 15-18 months. 
• The number 172 can be seen on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. 
• The security thread in bills $5 and higher will turn blue if they are held under ultraviolet light 
• You can see 26 of the 50 states listed on the Lincoln Memorial on a five dollar bill.

Ten Dollar Bill

• Ten Dollar Bill was nicknamed a "sawbuck" because the Roman numeral for ten (X) bears resemblance to the legs of a sawbuck.

Twenty dollar bill

• $20 bills last in circulation for approximately 24 months.
• Pocahontas appears on the back of the $20 bill in 1875. 
• The twenty-dollar bill was referred to as a "double-sawbuck" because it is twice the value of a ten-dollar bill. 
• The elm tree on back of the $20 bill near the White House was a real tree, the tree is no longer on the White House grounds due to rain softened ground in 2006. 
• Andrew Jackson preferred coins over 'paper' currency, but appears on the $20 bill.

Fifty dollar bill

• Larger bills ($50, $100) can last in circulation up to 8 years. 
•  The micro printing and security thread found in currency today were first introduced in 1990 on the $50 and $100 bills. 
•  A fifty dollar bill is often called a "Grant" because it features a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant.

Hundred dollar bill

• A $100 bill has many nicknames: C-note, Benjamin, Franklin, Ben, Benjy, Benny. 
• The clock tower of Independence Hall in Philadelphia on the new $100 bill is right twice a day, the time set at 4:10.

Thousand dollar bill

• High-denomination bills ($500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000) are legal tender, but were last printed in 1945 and officially discontinued in July 1969 and would probably have to be "broke" at a bank. 
• In 1969 President Richard Nixon halted the circulation of the high-denomination bills in an effort to fight organized crime. 
• A record $2,255,000 was paid in December of 2006 for an 1890 thousand dollar bill. 
• The United States 1000 dollar bill features General George Gordon Meade, who commanded Union Army troops at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Hundred Thousand dollar bill

• The 100,000 dollar bill was printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1934 and was only used for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. It is the highest denominated note ever produced by the United States.

Other Fun Facts

• Approx 94% of your cash has viruses and bacteria that can live for up to 17 days.
• Over 90% of your cash also contains traces of cocaine
• $30 billion in Monolpoly money is printed each year. The U.S. government only prints approx $974 million. 
• There is an estimated 1.2 trillion in coin and bills in circulation. The US debt is approx 14 times larger than the amount of currency in circulation, how's that for a credit card bill. 
• Approx 2/3 of US circulated money is held outside the United States. 
• If the Government just printed it's way out of debt, the hyper inflation would make the money worthless similar to 1923 Germany. Germany's money became so worthless it was given to kids to play with and even used as wall paper. 
• The "crack tax" was the name given to the Tennessee tax on illegal drugs. The law passed in January 2005, and applied to illegal substances like cocaine, marijuana, and moonshine. Drug dealers and bootleggers were required to pay taxes anonymously on profits and would receive a stamp to prove their payment. If the dealer was arrested and unable to provide a stamp the state would seek taxes. In 2009 the Tennessee Supreme Court judged that the "Crack Tax" is unconstitutional (because only legitimate employment should owe tax?). 
• North Korea is believed to be the biggest counterfeiter of US currency. 
•  Mr. Eighty Eight evaded capture from the Secret Service for 10 years by only printing about 40 one dollar bills a month and never spending them in the same place twice. His counterfeits were so bad that they even misspelled Washington's name. 
• The richest 1% (one percent) may own nearly half the world's wealth, but nearly half of lottery tickets are purchased by the same 5% of the population. 
• If you have a ten dollar bill in your pocket and no credit debts, then you are wealthier than 25% of Americans. 
• Before paper money, animal skins like deer and elk were used for trade, this might be where the word "buck" to designate a dollar came from. 

Is it illegal to write on a dollar bill

Is it illegal to write on a dollar bill? In my opinion the law says that you cannot deface a banknote if your intent is to render it unfit for circulation (or advertise on it), so basically if you intentionally do something that makes it unusable in a vending machine you are breaking the law.

Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code, is the Actual law pertaining to the topic from which the above opinion was developed.

DEFACEMENT OF CURRENCY:

Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

The above law doesn’t say anything about 'writing' on a dollar bill, but they are also ambiguous terms and it says you can’t do those things with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued. So you are not going to tear a dollar bill, because you could not use it and you'd be out a buck, but a terrorist might want to destroy money for some nefarious purpose. You might however want to write something on it like a phone number, but your intent probably would not be to render it unfit to be spent as you'd be out a buck.
So what purpose might writing on a dollar be considered a crime? If a business bought a lot of one dollar bills and printed a logo or web address: 18 USC Section 475 regards the attachment of advertisement to legal tender.
 
What about having a dollar signed by a celebrity? The United States Department of Treasury’s Bureau of Printing and Engraving discourages writing on money but has had spokes persons and fact sheets that make statements saying it is not necessarily a crime for example to have a celebrity sign a dollar bill. This could be because the bill is not meant to be placed back in circulation, since it would most likely be saved as a celebrity autograph souvenir as well as there would be no intent to make it unusable. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have refused to sign dollar bills, but Bill Clinton, George Bush and some Treasury Secretaries have signed them as well as many many celebrities(check Ebay) .

So is the Where's George and similar websites breaking the law? Probably not as they state "we do not encourage the defacement of US Currency" and do not seem to be the one's actually stamping the bills "We no longer sell any Where's George? rubber stamps.". Also since Wheresgeorge.com has received an estimated 244,300 visits over the last month, if they were breaking the law, you would assume the Secret Service would have already stepped in at some point since the site was officially launched in December 1998.

What about squishing a penny in those souvenir machines? A fraudulent intent is required for the criminal violation, so the act of compressing coins into souvenirs does not appear to be illegal without other factors existing. Since 'you' are making an impression on the coin and a business is not impressing or attaching a business or card or advertisement to the coin no laws seem to be being broke.

By the way if you are a celebrity and want to sign and send me a dollar (or Hundred dollar bill, since I'm not going to tell you what you can or can not write on) you can mail it to PO Box 459, Tolleson, AZ 85353.

Sources:
-FoxNews.com - By Kimberly Schwandt - Published July 05, 2012 - Oak, Harbor, Ohio - President Obama turned down the offer to sign a dollar bill, citing it as a federal offense to write on currency.
-Politifact.com - By Bill Adair - December 19th, 2007 - Des Moines, Iowa - Hillary Clinton was asked by a shopper to autograph a dollar bill. She refused saying it is illegal to sign money.
- Encyclopedia of the Modern Elongated - by Angelo Rosato - Reproduced letter from the Department of the Treasury to Mr. Vance Fowler.
- wheresgeorge.com/faq-rules-privacy.php
- http://www.moneyfactory.gov/historicallegislation.html

United States Secret Service is the department tasked with enforcement of defacement of currency, they are also the agency that deals with counter fit currency.

*I am not a lawyer, above is my opinion on the law and should not be taken as legal advice.

Deciphering the mysteries of history in a dollar bill

How much is a dollar worth?

 

Each bill costs the government about 7 cents to print. You cannot trade in a dollar bill to the government for gold or any other commodity, so technically the dollar bill has no value other than that which a nation's citizens agree the bill is worth to each other.

The worth of US currency is related to a decree by the government that a dollar bill is legal tender for all debts public and private. This means if someone attempts to pay a debt using US dollars, the person being paid must accept the currency as a form of payment or the government will not recognize the debt. However, there does not seem to be Federal statute that mandates a private businesses must accept cash as a form of payment. Private businesses are free to refuse cash as payment for goods unless there is a State law which says otherwise.

Click here for more Interesting facts about US Currency

Worth the paper printed on?

 

US bills are made from a blend of linen and cotton with red and blue silk fibers woven into the currency. Us 'paper' money is not made from pressed wood fiber or common paper. This is why dollar bills don't fall apart in the washing machine like receipts when left in your pocket.

The Great Seal of the United States

 

The back of the dollar bill features the both sides of 'The Great Seal of the United States' designed in 1782. This seal was designed by the Founding Fathers, the first of three groups consisted of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Two other groups were involved before the final design was approved by the US Congress. The unfinished pyramid, was not part of the Franklin, Adams and Jefferson proposed design.

 

Bald Eagle

 

An animal native to America was to become the nation's symbol: In its talons the eagle holds 13 arrows and olive branches with 13 leaves, signifying war and peace.

Annuit Coeptis

 

1 of the 3 Latin phrases printed on the back of the dollar bill; Annuit Coeptis translates as "God has favored our undertakings". Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and other the Founding Fathers believed that it was God's will behind the birth of the United States and that not one man alone but a group of people with the help of God can do great things.

Novus Ordo Seclorum

 

Another of the 3 Latin phrases printed on the back of the bill; translates as "New order of the ages". Charles Thomson, who was involved in the design of The Great Seal of the United States, suggested the phrase to signify "the new American Era" which began in 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

E Pluribus Unum

 

Another of the 3 Latin phrases, E Pluribus Unum translates as "Out of many, one": The 13 colonies unified to form one nation under god.

MDCCLXXVI at the bottom of the pyramid

 

MDCCLXXVI are Roman numerals for the year 1776. Adding the Roman numeral series (M/1000, D/500, C/100, C/100, L/50, X/10, X/10, V/5, I/1) under the pyramid together and you get 1776; the year the 'new American Era' began.

Unfinished pyramid with a glowing eye

 

The 'Eye of Providence' is a visual representation of the phrase Annuit Coeptis (God has favored our undertakings), the Founding Father's ideal that God looked upon the new nation with favor.

Charles Thomson believed the pyramid represented strength and endurance (time). Though he did not explain the unfinished state; the pyramid stops at 13 steps which is the number of the original colonies. Many believe the it being unfinished at 13 to signify our nation was unfinished and would grow.

Thirteen colonies (or states) came together to form the United States of  America and he number 13 is represented in many places on the dollar bill.

-The Bald Eagle is holding an olive branch in its right talon with 13 leaves standing for peace.

-In the left talon, the Eagle is holding 13 arrows signifying war.

-The shield over the Eagle's chest has 13 bars and over the Eagle's head, there are 13 stars.

-E Pluribus Unum, on the scroll hanging from the eagle's beak has 13 letters.

-The phrase Annuit Coeptis also has 13 letters

On the front of a dollar, the letter inside the black seal identifies the Federal Reserve bank which placed the order and the letter corresponds to the black number that is printed four times on the face of the bill.

A/1 = Boston

B/2 = New York City

C/3 = Philadelphia

D/4 = Cleveland

E/5 = Richmond, Va.

F/6 = Atlanta

G/7= Chicago

H/8 = St. Louis

I/9= Minneapolis

J/10 = Kansas City

K/11 = Dallas

L/12 = San Francisco.