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Expanded Information
Financial Fun Facts
• American money is made at one of 5 different mints across the country: West Point, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Fort Knox, Kentucky; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California.
• Hold a Ferris wheel in your hand or turn a cartwheel with your fingers! It’s easier than you might think. Both “Ferris wheel” and “cartwheel” are nicknames for silver dollars!
• Closed due to rain. Back in 1825 you couldn’t visit the Philadelphia Mint when it was raining! The rules stated that “visitors may be admitted by permission of an officer to see the various operations of the Mint on all working days except Saturdays and rainy days.”
• Coins or Cutlery? Legend has it that Martha Washington donated the silverware from her table to make the nation’s first currency.
• The word “money” is named after the Roman goddess of warning, Moneta. Apparently the cackling of geese in the capitol where reserves of money were kept alerted the town’s people against potential thieves.
• Thomas Jefferson, who appears on the current U.S. nickel, liked to count by 10s. He was the first president to back the use of the decimal money system that we use today.
What comes around goes around!
Currency is a term for a country’s money that is in circulation. Paper money is printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and coins are minted at several U.S. Mints around the country. The United States Treasury Department ships the money to the 12 Federal Reserve Banks that are spread throughout the U.S. These banks then distribute the cash to commercial banks and other institutions where people keep their money. Customers withdraw cash from banks and spend it on gas, food, books and so on. Eventually the stores deposit the bills back into the bank and the process begins again.
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