Facts You Never Knew About Your Own Money
Jan 22, 2022
You might not think twice about the money you use every day — but you should. There could be some
facts about your bills and coins that might fascinate you.
Do you know what bills are made out of? (Hint: It’s not paper). What about how long the typical bill
stays in circulation? Or even why the government puts out new types of coins so often? Or how much
collectors will pay for rare coins?
From the hidden messages in money to the security features you never noticed, click through to
discover some interesting facts about your money.
Welcome message from author
So there you have a handful of interesting and fun facts about money.
In all seriousness, at the end of the day, you enjoy money because it gives you options in life.
When you stay out of debt and build your savings, you have the option to take an incredible vacation,
work a job you love regardless of the salary, or even retire early.
Transcript
PowerPoint PresentationOverview
You might not think twice about the money you use every day — but you should. There could be some
facts about your bills and coins that might fascinate you.
Do you know what bills are made out of? (Hint: It’s not paper). What about how long the typical bill
stays in circulation? Or even why the government puts out new types of coins so often? Or how much
collectors will pay for rare coins?
From the hidden messages in money to the security features you never noticed, click through to
discover some interesting facts about your money.
$2 bills are often considered unlucky
The $2 bill was first printed in 1862. Interestingly,
$2 notes were considered unlucky and unpopular
throughout most of history.
Trumbull painting “Declaration of Independence” —
sans five of the 47 people who appear in the
original. So, although plenty of conspiracy theories
about money have fixated on the $2 bill, perhaps
the real controversy here is who was left out on
the final design.
drugs on them
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that
85 percent to 95 percent of paper money in
circulation contains traces of cocaine. In Detroit,
Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and a few other major
cities, bills showed traces of cocaine 100 percent
of the time. Compare that to China and Japan,
where the percentage was much lower at only 20
percent and 12 percent, respectively.
A bill’s life expectancy is no longer
than 15 years
After being used on a regular basis, bills wear out
and are taken out of circulation. The $1 bill gets the
most use and typically only lasts about 5.8 years.
However, it’s not the shortest life expectancy for a
bill — that title belongs to the $10 bill, which
surprising only lasts about 4.5 years. The $5 bill also
has a shorter lifespan than the $1 bill, coming in at
5.5 years, whereas the $20 and $50 bills start to
trend upward at 7.9 years and 8.5 years,
respectively. The longest lifespan belongs to the
$100 bill, which lasts an average of 15 years.
Your damaged currency can still be
valuable
If you have money that’s been badly damaged,
don’t be too quick to throw it out. The Bureau of
Engraving and Printing might redeem it at full
value.
more than half of the original note, including any
relevant security feature. Or, you can qualify if you
have less than half but are able to prove how the
note was mutilated and that the missing portions
were destroyed.
banknote engraver
designs belongs to the U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury. However, banknote engravers are the
ones who handle the complex and intricate job of
engraving the money.
If this sounds like your dream job, you better get
started: It takes a 10-year apprenticeship to
become a banknote engraver. But, if that sounds
like too much time, check out these high-paying
finance jobs.
famous faces on coins
We’re so used to seeing portraits and faces on
our currency today. However, early coins
produced by the United States used images of
Liberty and the bald eagle rather than the faces of
prominent figures. That’s because the British used
pictures of the monarchs on their currency, and
having just won their independence, Americans
didn’t want to be reminded of that.
Hold your bills up to the light to see
hidden faces
Hold up your bill to the light, and you’ll see a
second image of the portrait. For example, with
a $100 bill, you can see Benjamin Franklin from
both sides of the bill in the blank space located
on the right side of the portrait.
Security threads on bills glow in
different colors
Embedded security threads are also used to
protect against counterfeiting. If you have a UV
light, hold it up to your bill to see the thread glow.
• On the $5 bill, the thread glows blue.
• On the $10 bill, it glows orange.
• On the $20 bill, it glows green.
• On the $50 bill, it glows yellow.
• On the $100 bill, it glows pink.
Paper money is not made out of
paper
Instead, each bill is a combination of 75 percent
cotton and 25 percent linen.
Two-thirds of all U.S. currency is
held abroad
that between half and two-thirds of the value of
U.S. currency in circulation is held abroad.
There are a number of countries and territories
that use the U.S. dollar as their official currency,
including Ecuador and Guam. So, depending on
where you’re traveling, you might not need to
exchange your currency.
The government says you’d have to fold a bill
4,000 times before it tears. Can you say task for
a Federal Reserve Bank intern?
There was once a $100,000 currency
Printed in 1934, $100,000 Gold Certificates bearing
a portrait of Woodrow Wilson were used, but only
for official transactions between Federal Reserve
Banks.
The next most counterfeited bill is the $100 bill. In
foreign countries, the US $100 bill is the most
frequently counterfeited.
according to the Coinage Act of 1972, counterfeiting
by Mint employees is punishable by death.
Move to Zimbabwe to be a billionaire
overnight
experienced hyperinflation that peaked in 2008.
Just how bad was the hyperinflation?
At the peak, a single U.S. Dollar was worth
2,621,984,228 Zimbabwe Dollars.
So if you had just a $1 bill and moved to
Zimbabwe, you would be a billionaire.
Unfortunately, a loaf of bread cost 10,487,936,912
Zimbabwe Dollars.
actually physical money
The majority of transactions are all done digitally so
no physical currency exchanges hands.
Think about how often you pay for things with your
credit or debit card, or online using PayPal.
This is why only 8% of currency is physical money.
Apple makes on average over 163$
million a day
If you do the math, that comes to $1 million about
every eight minutes.
So by the time you finish reading this article, Apple
made over $2 million!
Curious where piggy bank
In Old English “pygg” was a type of clay that
was used for making jars and dishes that held
money.
morphed into “piggy bank.”
on Earth
There are over 1.6 million ATMs in the world, and
there is even one in Antarctica.
Friday is the most popular day at the ATM.
Here is another fun banking fact. The average
amount people withdraw is $80.
More than half of lottery tickets sold
are bought by 5% of people
While it is fun to play the lottery once in a while and
dream of a life with $200 million, the reality is we
barely have a chance of winning.
Someone needs to tell these 5% of people that they
could be doing much better financially if they simply
invested the money they used to buy lottery tickets.
Rats like to eat money
And if that last money fact wasn’t crazy enough
for you, how about this one.
Pablo Escobar had so much money in his
warehouse that rats ate roughly $1 billion and it
didn’t matter.
Must be nice to lose that amount of money and
not care.
you have no debt, you are wealthier
than 25% of Americans
In other words, you are wealthier than close to 81
million people.
Many people don’t even know what to say about
this.
Conclusion
So there you have a handful of interesting and fun facts about money.
In all seriousness, at the end of the day, you enjoy money because it gives you options in life.
When you stay out of debt and build your savings, you have the option to take an incredible vacation,
work a job you love regardless of the salary, or even retire early.
You might not think twice about the money you use every day — but you should. There could be some
facts about your bills and coins that might fascinate you.
Do you know what bills are made out of? (Hint: It’s not paper). What about how long the typical bill
stays in circulation? Or even why the government puts out new types of coins so often? Or how much
collectors will pay for rare coins?
From the hidden messages in money to the security features you never noticed, click through to
discover some interesting facts about your money.
$2 bills are often considered unlucky
The $2 bill was first printed in 1862. Interestingly,
$2 notes were considered unlucky and unpopular
throughout most of history.
Trumbull painting “Declaration of Independence” —
sans five of the 47 people who appear in the
original. So, although plenty of conspiracy theories
about money have fixated on the $2 bill, perhaps
the real controversy here is who was left out on
the final design.
drugs on them
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that
85 percent to 95 percent of paper money in
circulation contains traces of cocaine. In Detroit,
Los Angeles, Miami, Boston and a few other major
cities, bills showed traces of cocaine 100 percent
of the time. Compare that to China and Japan,
where the percentage was much lower at only 20
percent and 12 percent, respectively.
A bill’s life expectancy is no longer
than 15 years
After being used on a regular basis, bills wear out
and are taken out of circulation. The $1 bill gets the
most use and typically only lasts about 5.8 years.
However, it’s not the shortest life expectancy for a
bill — that title belongs to the $10 bill, which
surprising only lasts about 4.5 years. The $5 bill also
has a shorter lifespan than the $1 bill, coming in at
5.5 years, whereas the $20 and $50 bills start to
trend upward at 7.9 years and 8.5 years,
respectively. The longest lifespan belongs to the
$100 bill, which lasts an average of 15 years.
Your damaged currency can still be
valuable
If you have money that’s been badly damaged,
don’t be too quick to throw it out. The Bureau of
Engraving and Printing might redeem it at full
value.
more than half of the original note, including any
relevant security feature. Or, you can qualify if you
have less than half but are able to prove how the
note was mutilated and that the missing portions
were destroyed.
banknote engraver
designs belongs to the U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury. However, banknote engravers are the
ones who handle the complex and intricate job of
engraving the money.
If this sounds like your dream job, you better get
started: It takes a 10-year apprenticeship to
become a banknote engraver. But, if that sounds
like too much time, check out these high-paying
finance jobs.
famous faces on coins
We’re so used to seeing portraits and faces on
our currency today. However, early coins
produced by the United States used images of
Liberty and the bald eagle rather than the faces of
prominent figures. That’s because the British used
pictures of the monarchs on their currency, and
having just won their independence, Americans
didn’t want to be reminded of that.
Hold your bills up to the light to see
hidden faces
Hold up your bill to the light, and you’ll see a
second image of the portrait. For example, with
a $100 bill, you can see Benjamin Franklin from
both sides of the bill in the blank space located
on the right side of the portrait.
Security threads on bills glow in
different colors
Embedded security threads are also used to
protect against counterfeiting. If you have a UV
light, hold it up to your bill to see the thread glow.
• On the $5 bill, the thread glows blue.
• On the $10 bill, it glows orange.
• On the $20 bill, it glows green.
• On the $50 bill, it glows yellow.
• On the $100 bill, it glows pink.
Paper money is not made out of
paper
Instead, each bill is a combination of 75 percent
cotton and 25 percent linen.
Two-thirds of all U.S. currency is
held abroad
that between half and two-thirds of the value of
U.S. currency in circulation is held abroad.
There are a number of countries and territories
that use the U.S. dollar as their official currency,
including Ecuador and Guam. So, depending on
where you’re traveling, you might not need to
exchange your currency.
The government says you’d have to fold a bill
4,000 times before it tears. Can you say task for
a Federal Reserve Bank intern?
There was once a $100,000 currency
Printed in 1934, $100,000 Gold Certificates bearing
a portrait of Woodrow Wilson were used, but only
for official transactions between Federal Reserve
Banks.
The next most counterfeited bill is the $100 bill. In
foreign countries, the US $100 bill is the most
frequently counterfeited.
according to the Coinage Act of 1972, counterfeiting
by Mint employees is punishable by death.
Move to Zimbabwe to be a billionaire
overnight
experienced hyperinflation that peaked in 2008.
Just how bad was the hyperinflation?
At the peak, a single U.S. Dollar was worth
2,621,984,228 Zimbabwe Dollars.
So if you had just a $1 bill and moved to
Zimbabwe, you would be a billionaire.
Unfortunately, a loaf of bread cost 10,487,936,912
Zimbabwe Dollars.
actually physical money
The majority of transactions are all done digitally so
no physical currency exchanges hands.
Think about how often you pay for things with your
credit or debit card, or online using PayPal.
This is why only 8% of currency is physical money.
Apple makes on average over 163$
million a day
If you do the math, that comes to $1 million about
every eight minutes.
So by the time you finish reading this article, Apple
made over $2 million!
Curious where piggy bank
In Old English “pygg” was a type of clay that
was used for making jars and dishes that held
money.
morphed into “piggy bank.”
on Earth
There are over 1.6 million ATMs in the world, and
there is even one in Antarctica.
Friday is the most popular day at the ATM.
Here is another fun banking fact. The average
amount people withdraw is $80.
More than half of lottery tickets sold
are bought by 5% of people
While it is fun to play the lottery once in a while and
dream of a life with $200 million, the reality is we
barely have a chance of winning.
Someone needs to tell these 5% of people that they
could be doing much better financially if they simply
invested the money they used to buy lottery tickets.
Rats like to eat money
And if that last money fact wasn’t crazy enough
for you, how about this one.
Pablo Escobar had so much money in his
warehouse that rats ate roughly $1 billion and it
didn’t matter.
Must be nice to lose that amount of money and
not care.
you have no debt, you are wealthier
than 25% of Americans
In other words, you are wealthier than close to 81
million people.
Many people don’t even know what to say about
this.
Conclusion
So there you have a handful of interesting and fun facts about money.
In all seriousness, at the end of the day, you enjoy money because it gives you options in life.
When you stay out of debt and build your savings, you have the option to take an incredible vacation,
work a job you love regardless of the salary, or even retire early.
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