Fun Facts related to the Dollar

After 100 years, the Louisiana Purchase was set in gold.... To remember the Louisiana Purchase on its 100th anniversary, the Mint made not one but two gold dollar coins—the first commemorative gold dollars. The dollars were sold at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, held in honor of the Purchase. One of the coins had a picture of President Jefferson on the front, who was in office during the Purchase. The other showed President McKinley, who signed the law that financed the fair just before he was assassinated in 1901.
Ben Franklin made lots of money…but whose?... The design for the Continental Dollar coin that came out during the Revolutionary War was based on a paper dollar designed by Benjamin Franklin. He also found a way to keep crooks from printing phony bills—but that's another Fun Fact.
So you think you know how much a Continental Dollar is worth?... The coins we call "Continental Dollars" are not marked as dollars. Since they were not all made of silver, we guess that the silver ones were worth a dollar, the brass ones worth one pence, and the pewter...who knows?
Two different dollars were both first... Was the first American dollar coin the Continental Dollar of 1776? In that year, we were still fighting a war for independence and had no national mint. The first dollar coin from the United States Mint was made in 1794, almost 20 years later.
It was much too royal for George Washington’s taste.... President Washington, if here today, might be a bit surprised to find himself on the quarter. In considering designs for the first U.S. coins, he and Congress rejected designs picturing him. Why? Too much like monarchy, they said, the very thing from which the United States had rebelled. But in 1899, Washington's image was placed on a U.S. coin—the Lafayette dollar. In 1932, Washington appeared once again on a U.S. coin—the quarter—and still does today.
We used to trade gold, silver, and copper.... A 1792 law directed American money to be made of gold, silver and copper. Gold was used in the $10, $5, and $2.50 pieces. The dollar, half dollar, quarter, dime, and half dime were composed of silver. The cent and half cent were made of copper.
Groove-y edges made them harder to copy.... The dollar, half-dollar, quarter, and 10-cent (dime) denominations were originally produced from precious metals (gold and silver). The reeded edges were created to make sure no one would alter the coins and try to file off the edges to retrieve some of the precious metals.
$10 billion goes a long way.... If you were lucky enough to have 10 billion Sacagawea golden dollars and you spent one every second of every day, guess how long they would last? In exactly 317 years, you would go broke!
Coins last a lot longer than bills.... The life expectancy of a circulating coin is 30 years, while paper money usually only lasts for 18 months. Now you see why using Golden dollars instead of dollar bills makes a lot of sense!
You can hold a Ferris wheel in the palm of your hand... How? It's easier than you might think. So is turning cartwheels with your fingers. Both "Ferris wheel" and "cartwheel" are nicknames for silver dollars!