Money has been around ever since people began to trade things with one another. At first it was sea shells, stones, or other little trinkets. Eventually it turned into various types of metals such as gold. Over time that gold became coins and paper money. While the history of currency is extremely interesting, that is not the sole topic of today’s list. We are going to have a look at some extremely intriguing facts about money. For example, did you know that one penny costs 2.4 pennies to produce? Or did you know that North Korea is the top counterfeiter of United States currency? Actually, on the topic of counterfeit currency, one of the ways to spot a counterfeit bill is to look for something that is too good. That’s right, the authorities often identify counterfeit bills as a result of their perfection. When we speak of currency though, we’re not just talking about bank notes. We are also talking about newer forms of payment like credit cards and virtual currency. In this list we are going to go over all of it. So, get ready because these are 25 little known facts about money and currency!
90% of US dollars carry traces of cocaine
If you thought carrying traces of cocaine was bad, the Southern Medical Journal found traces of fecal matter on 94% of dollar bills tested
All the US coins and dollar bills in circulation today are worth about $1.2 trillion
66% of all US cash is held overseas by foreign governments and individuals
1,400 years ago China created the first paper money
Switching US 1 dollar bills from paper to coins would save the government nearly $4.5 billion over the next 30 years
Every year, more monopoly money is printed than real money
Moving past simple bank notes, throughout the world US wealth accounts for $75 trillion. If this were to be evenly distributed among every person on Earth, we would all have $11,000
North Korea is the largest counterfeiter of US currency
If you have $10 in your wallet and no debt then you are wealthier than one quarter of Americans
If Bill Gates spent $1 million every day, it would take him 218 years to spend all of his money
You’ve probably never seen money in this form before? Check out these 25 extremely cool examples of money origami.