Interesting Facts
Coin Facts
October 20, 2009
• Kettle drums were once used as currency on the island of Aler in Indonesia.
Coin Facts
March 7, 2007
• Since its inception in 1792, the U.S. Mint has produced more than 390 billion coins for circulation.
• Susan B. Anthony and the American Indian guide Sacagawea are the only women honored on circulating coins — and they’re dollars at that!
• The first coin to feature an African-American was the Booker T. Washington memorial half-dollar, minted from 1946 to 1951.
• Lincoln beat Washington to the punch, becoming, in 1909, the first president on a circulating coin.
• The life expectancy of a circulating coin is 30 years. (Paper money usually lasts only 18 months.)
Counterfeit Currency
November 16, 2006
Counterfeit bills are turning up across the country in smaller denominations. In 2005, 85 per cent of fake banknotes passed were 5s, 10s or 20s.
United Kingdom Coin Facts
August 31, 2006
• 1060 A coin was minted in England shaped like a clover. The user could break off any of the four leaves and use them as separate pieces of currency.
• 1694 The Bank of England was founded in 1694 by a Scotsman, William Paterson, and the Bank of Scotland in 1695 by an Englishman, John Holland.
• 1793 The fiver is the longest running denomination of Bank of England note: it was first issued in 1793.
• 1943 The highest value bank note issued by the Bank of England (£1000 denomination) was issued for the last time.
• Farthing In England, a quarter penny was originally known as a fourthing when coins were cut into pieces to make change. "Farthing" is a corruption of the word fourthing.
• Dandiprat Dandiprat was an English coin of the value of three halfpence, coined by Henry VII.
• Gresham's Law The milled edges still found on many coins were originally designed to show that none of the valuable metal had been shaved off the coin. Prior to the use of milled edges, circulating coins suffered from "shaving," a common problem where unscrupulous persons would shave a small amount of precious metal from the edge of a circulating coin. This form of debasement in Tudor England led to the formulation of Gresham's Law. The monarch would have to periodically recall, paying only bullion value of the silver, and re-mint circulating coins.
Facts about the American Penny
August 22, 2006
• The first one-cent coin was struck in 1787 by a private mint. This coin, known as the Fugio cent, was 100% copper and this composition would continue until the mid-1800's. Paul Revere, a noted blacksmith, supplied some of the copper for one-cent coins minted during the early 1790's.
• No one-cent coins were minted in 1815 due to a copper shortage caused by the War of 1812 with Great Britain.
• The Indian cent was first introduced in 1859 and depicted an Indian princess on the obverse. A popular story about its design claims a visiting Indian chief lent the designer's daughter his headdress so she could pose as the Indian princess. Most Indian cents minted during the Civil War went primarily to pay Union soldiers. After the Civil War, in 1864, the composition of the one-cent coin was changed to 95% copper and 5% zinc.
• The one-cent coin was made legal tender by the Coinage Act of 1864.
• In 1909, Abraham Lincoln was the first historical figure to grace a U.S. coin when he was portrayed on the one-cent coin to commemorate his 100th birthday. The Lincoln penny was also the first U.S. cent to include the words "In God We Trust."
• During part of World War II, zinc-coated steel cents were struck due to a copper shortage.
• The Lincoln Memorial was added to the reverse of the one-cent coin by Mint engraver Frank Gasparro in 1959 to mark Lincoln's 150th birthday, making it the first and only coin to have the same person on both sides. If you inspect it carefully, you will see the statue of Lincoln inside the Memorial.
Source: Americans For Common Cents
August 6, 2006
9,200 tons is the combined weight of the replaced coins that the Bank of Greece had to gather and destroy during the transition from drachmas to euros.
800 million euro coins had to be struck by the Hellenic Mint before they were introduced in circulation in 2002, and another 500 million were ordered from abroad (581 million banknotes were also required).
168 consecutive years The Hellenic drachma had been circulating for 168 consecutive years in modern history, until January 1, 2002, when the new European currency was introduced.
6th century BC The King Croesus of Lydians, in Asia Minor, issued the first money of gold -an oblong piece-. Soon the Greeks began minting money in the shape of discs, striking them with detailed high relief. Romans introduced the familiar serrated edges of today's coins as a way to discourage the practice of shaving off thin slices.
Source: Fleur-de-Coin
July 21, 2006
A cubic foot of gold weighs approximately half a ton.
Gold can be made into thread and used in embroidery.
A single gram of gold can be beaten into a sheet of one square metre, or an ounce into 300 square feet.
Gold is so ductile that an ounce of gold can be stretched to a length of over fifty miles or beaten into a sheet to cover a hundred square feet.
The word gold derives from the Old English word 'gelo' meaning yellow.
Source: ATS Bullion LTD
June 13, 2006:
For a time, it was the custom to use eggs as a form of currency in France. Once a year, poverty-stricken clerics and students trudged through the streets of Paris, carrying an egg basket, and collected what they could.
Source: Fleur-de-Coin
June 6, 2006:
Today's bank notes are printed on 100 per cent cotton paper. The paper-making industry has long acknowledged the superior quality of cotton-based paper over woodpulp paper. It is both more durable and more resistant to fading. For these reasons, cotton paper has been used for bank note production for several centuries.
The Bank of Canada's first series of bank notes (1935) was printed on paper made from 75 per cent high-grade flax and 25 per cent cotton. During the Second World War, the composition changed to 25 per cent flax and 75 per cent cotton to conserve linen for the production of uniforms.
The change to 100 per cent cotton came in 1983, to conform with Quebec environmental laws pertaining to the use of flax.
Source: Bank of Canada
May 12, 2006:
The first international convention for coin collectors was held in August 15-18, 1962, in Detroit, Michigan, sponsored by the American Numismatic Association and the Canadian Numismatic Association. Attendance was estimated at 40,000.
The fiver is the longest running denomination of Bank of England note: it was first issued in 1793.
April 27, 2006:
U.S. Coin Facts:
The motto IN GOD WE TRUST first appeared on a U.S. coin in 1864, during the Civil War. In particular, the two-cent piece, first minted in that year, was the first coin with the slogan.
The smallest monetary denomination coin ever issued in the U.S. was the half cent, minted from 1793 through 1857.
Source: about.com
April 1, 2006:
The approximate life of a Canadian bank note is:
$5 - 1-2 years
$10 - 1-2 years
$20 - 2-4 years
$50 - 4-6 years
$100 - 7-9 years
Source: Bank of Canada