Fun Facts About Money

Counterfeit Currency

By the end of the Civil War, between one-third and one-half of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit. On July 5, 1865, the Secret Service was created under the U.S. Treasury Department. In less than a decade, counterfeiting was sharply reduced. In the past ten years the breakdown of denominations counterfeited has changed dramatically. The total of known $50 and $100 notes counterfeited has increased by sixty percent. The total number of fifty and one hundred dollar notes passed and seized in 1980 was 777,957. The total number of fifty and one hundred dollar notes passed and seized in 1990 was 1,240,840. In 1990, thirty-six percent of the dollar value of known counterfeit currency passed in the U.S. was produced overseas, particularly in Colombia, Italy, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Bangkok. One hundred and thirty-nine domestic counterfeit operations and eighteen foreign counterfeit operations were suppressed in 1990.

History of Paper Money

1690 - The Massachusetts Bay Colony issued the first paper money in the colonies which would later form the United States.

1775 - American colonists issued paper currency for the Continental Congress to finance the Revolutionary War. The notes were backed by the "anticipation" of tax revenues. Without solid backing and easily counterfeited, the notes quickly became devalued, giving rise to the phrase "not worth a continental."

1781 - To support the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress chartered the Bank of North America in Philadelphia as the nation's first "real" bank.

1791 - After adoption of the Constitution in 1789, Congress chartered the first Bank of the United States until 1811 and authorized it to issue paper bank notes to eliminate confusion and simplify trade. The bank served as the U.S. Treasury's fiscal agent, thus performing the first central bank functions.

1861 - On the brink of bankruptcy and pressed to finance the Civil War, Congress authorized the United States Treasury to issue paper money for the first time in the form of non-interest bearing Treasury Notes call Demand Notes.

1865 - Gold Certificates were issued by the Department of the Treasury against gold coin and bullion deposits and were circulated until 1933.

1877 - The Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing started printing all U.S. currency.

1913 - After the financial panics of 1893 and 1907, the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was passed. It created the Federal Reserve System as the nation's central bank to regulate the flow of money and credit for economic stability and growth. The system was authorized to issue Federal Reserve Notes, now the only U.S. currency produced.

1929 - Currency was reduced in size by twenty-five percent and standardized with uniform portraits on the faces and emblems and monuments on the backs.

1990 - A security thread and microprinting were introduced in $50 and $100 notes to deter counterfeiting by technologically advanced copiers and printers.

1996 - Additional security features are added to a newly redesigned $100 Federal Reserve note. The note incorporates both familiar and new features, while remaining recognizably American. Redesigned lower denominations are being introduced at the rate of about one denomination per year.

1997 - The new $50 bill is introduced. The second note to be redesigned to include new security features, the reverse side also includes an enlarged number 50 in the lower right-hand corner to aid the low-vision community.

Printing of Currency

Since October 1, 1877, all U.S. currency has been printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which started out as a six person operation using steam powered presses in the basement of the Department of Treasury. Now, 2,300 Bureau employees occupy twenty-five acres of floor space in two Washington, D.C. buildings. The Treasury also operates a satellite printing plant in Ft. Worth, Texas. Currency and stamps are designed, engraved, and printed twenty-four hours a day on thirty high speed presses. In 1990, at a cost of 2.6 cents each, over seven billion notes worth about $82 billion were produced for circulation by the Federal Reserve System. Ninety-five percent will replace unfit notes and five percent will support economic growth. At any one time, $200 million in notes may be in production. Notes produced in 2002 were the $1 note, 41% of production time; the $5 note, 19%; $10 notes, 16%; $20 note, 15%; and $100 note, 9%. No $2 or $50 notes were printed in 2002.

In 1929, U.S. currency was standardized with uniform portraits on the faces and emblems and monuments on the backs.