14 Surprising Money Facts of 2023

What to know about the money you spend every day, your income and your budget? This article reveals 13 money facts you should be aware of. It is a mix of funny, interesting and groundbreaking facts about money, notes and bills.

money facts

1. Pennies used to be a lot more cutting

Benjamin Franklin created America’s first U.S. penny in 1787. It was emblazoned with the slogan: “mind your business.” Ensure you understand these exciting facts regarding the White House you never understood in a history lesson.

2. That eagle was a superstar

The eagle on your cash-on-hand may have an expression. From 1830 to 1836, a particular bird sprang into Philadelphia’s U.S. Mint building so frequently that staffers named him “Peter the Mint Eagle,” watched for him, and allegedly utilized him as a prototype for coin engravings for years to come.

3. Pennies might can bankrupt us

These days, it costs more than just a penny to make a penny. According to the well-known U.S. Mint, it costs the min about 1.7 cents per coin.

4. Your change creates wealth for the TSA 

Change adds up quickly. In 2015, the TSA wrote, accumulating over $700 million in loose change at airport terminal security checkpoints U.S.-wide. They keep it all.

5. Paper money is not necessarily paper

Paper money in the United States is not paper. Instead, it is 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton.

6. Money can be used to ultimately compost

A farm near Delaware mulches over 4 tons of worn-out U.S. Benjamin cash notes into compost every day.

7. Microwave your bill if machine rejecting it

Before a bill tears, it takes about four thousand double-folds.

It takes much fewer folds for a normal vending machine to reject your bill. Still, you can improve that by popping your Washington bills in the microwave for about twenty seconds to crisp them to the right size.

8. Most paper money never gets handed out to public

The ten-dollar bill is the shortest-living note with a lifespan of approximately five years. The longest-living note is the $100 bill, which lasts about fifteen years. 

9. Are $2 bills that unique?

$2 notes are seen as a clear rarity, but, in fact, there are more than one billion of them in circulation. If you want, you can request some of them from most local banks.

10. Printing new money uses nine tons of ink daily

The United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing noted that it uses about nine tons of ink to print nearly thirty million currency notes daily, with a currency value of about 1 billion U.S. dollars.

11. Once upon a time there was a $100,000 bill

The largest note ever printed based on value was the $100,000 Gold Certificate, which was printed from Dec. 1934 through Jan 1935. Those were exclusively used in transactions between the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Banks.

12. The tracks on your quarters fit an important purpose

A normal quarter has exactly 119 grooves around the edge, while a dime has exactly 118 of them. The grooves were added at some time to keep people from rubbing off the coin faces and selling them as simple precious metals.

13. A Carolina farm boy initiated providing Gold for 25 years

The first gold rush within the United States started in wonderful North Carolina in 1803 when a twelve-year-old boy named Conrad Reed found a hefty 17-pound gold nugget right on his father’s farm. This initiated supplying all the blinky gold for the nation’s mints until the year 1829.

14. The Gold Rush is more meaningful than the tech boom is so far

Thanks to the recent tech boom, grocery and rent bills in downtown San Francisco have skyrocketed over 20% above the nationwide average. Still, this is far below the times of the Gold Rush in the 1850s, when inflation and price hikes were even more significant.