This one is from last year, taken from the April 09 issue of Discover Magazine. Money is a very important topic that people should start learning about once they get into high school to prevent themselves from spending money they don't have. To help, here are facts and history about it. Oh, and remember this qoute- "A fool and his money are one big party".



20 Things You Didn't Know About

MONEY

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1 No escape: As you file your taxes this month, you can take solace in knowing that the ritual dates back almost 5,000 years, to a time when Egyptians started paying taxes in goods and labor.

2 Collecting taxes became a lot easier after Egypt and Mesopotamia began using silver and gold bars as currency, around 2500 B.C.

3 Unfortunately, the invention of money also made theft a lot easier. Consequently, temples became the first banks because they were sturdy, frequently visited, and intimidating to would-be thieves.

4 But did they offer subprime mortgages? By 1750 B.C., Babylonian temple priests had branched out into issuing loans to locals.

5 Back then they didn’t need bailouts. Founded in Italy as a pawnshop in 1472, the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is the world’s oldest surviving bank.

6 Paper money originated in China in the year 910 and amazed Marco Polo when he visited three centuries later. He also noted that the emperor, Kublai Khan, seemed to be printing an awful lot of notes…

7 …which ultimately wrecked the economy. Due to skyrocketing inflation caused by churning out so much money, paper bills had to be abolished in China in the 15th century.

8 Return of the funny money: The expense of the U.S. Civil War inspired the government to introduce paper “greenbacks” in July 1861.

9 All the U.S. coins and bills in general circulation today have a total worth of about $829 billion.

10 Two-thirds of that cash is held overseas.

11 Filthy lucre: In a study last year, researchers found more cocaine residue on U.S. bills than on any other currency. Also found on money: staphylococcus bacteria and fecal matter.

12 That may explain why, for a period around 1916, you could carry your cash to Washington, D.C., to have it washed, ironed, and reissued.

13 The paper used for U.S. bills isn’t made from trees. Rather, it contains 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen.

14 To foil counterfeiters, the latest $5 bill design has an embedded security thread that contains more than 650,000 tiny glass domes. They create an optical illusion that the Mint hopes is almost impossible to duplicate.

15 He left home without it: In 1949 Frank X. McNamara took friends to dinner in New York City but forgot to bring his cash. He vowed never again to be so embarrassed and so created the Diners Club Card, the first credit card.

16 The Diners Club Card was initially made of cardboard. It listed the 14 participating restaurants on the back and had an annual fee of $3.

17 Scottish inventor John Shepherd-Barron built the world’s first true ATM for a Barclay’s Bank in North London in 1967.

18 The machine was based on the concept of a chocolate bar dispenser.

19 Plastic cards did not yet exist, so Shepherd-Barron’s ATM accepted only checks laced with identifying traces of radioactive carbon-14.

20 Once a distinctively radioactive check was detected, customers entered their four-digit PINs. Shepherd-Barron claimed users “would have to eat 136,000 checks” for the radioactivity to have any dangerous effects.

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Well, never knew that bills were made from cotton. You learn something new everyday. Anyone have other facts or info to add?

I dont know about the topic but why is this in this forum?

Ah yes, I was aware of some of these things like the cocaine residue, cotton, and the two-thirds overseas doesn't surprise me. The fecal matter surprised me...good thing I won't be handling money too much for now.

M!cH@3l 001 : Yes, it does seem like it should be somewhere else. I thought the same thing as well. I also thought it would be interesting enough. This is from the Discover magazine site and these facts are "supposed" to be a bit scientific. Which some of them are. Like I mentioned in my first post, I had no idea that bills weren't made from paper, but rather a different material. However, this topic being in this forum is controversial, so I'll give you points for that one. I'll have to choose the right subjects next time.

This is all very interesting.

To be honest, I already knew that paper money was actually made of cotton. But I didn't know the origins of the credit card, nor the fact that taxes started w/ the Egyptians.

Dont worry Cyro I wasnt trying to be mean I was just curious that all. I'm sorry if I came off as mean

eww money has nasty stuff on it. now money is even more disgusting for me to touch

I didn't know about any of this, except I already knew money was made out of cotten.

Learn something new everyday

What, so everybody knew money was made from cotton except me? Damn. Well, I feel ashamed as science geek.

I always Knew money had to have germs and stuff all over it. I also knew alot of these, But the ones I didnt were quite interesting.