12 More Interesting Facts About Money – Part 2

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. A Penny weighs 2.5 grams which is the average weight of a humming bird. A can of soda has 4 penny’s worth of sugar.
4. All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of a $5 bill.
5. 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.
6. America once issued a 5-cent bill during the civil war to combat the coin shortage at the time.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.
11. 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.
12. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

Sources: FTC.gov, usmint.gov and other various company and government websites.

This article is the second of many in a series of Interesting Money Articles posted weekly in our Interesting Money Section. Here is the first 12 Amazing Facts about Money article.