Money Profiles
Off the top of your head, can you name whose head appears on each of the following pieces of American currency?
Highlight the space next to each coin or bill in order to see the answer.
Spare Change
Penny: Abraham Lincoln
Nickel: Thomas Jefferson
Dime: Franklin Roosevelt
Quarter: George Washington
Half Dollar: John F. Kennedy
Dollar coin (1): Sacagawea
Dollar coin (2): Susan B. Anthony
Dollar coin (3): Dwight Eisenhower
Bills
Dollar bill: George Washington
Two dollar bill: Thomas Jefferson
Five dollar bill: Abe Lincoln
Ten dollar bill: Alexander Hamilton
Twenty dollar bill: Andrew Jackson
Fifty dollar bill: Ulysses S. Grant
One hundred dollar bill: Ben Franklin
There are more bills too. But don’t feel bad if you don’t get these… they are ridiculous.
500 dollar bill: McKinley
1000 dollar bill: Cleveland
5,000 dollar bill: Madison
10,000 dollar bill: Salmon Chase
100,000 dollar bill: Woodrow Wilson
Bonus points to anyone who actually knows the history of the person on the 10,000 dollar bill.
Wasn’t the guy on the $10k bill that fisherman that never gave up?
Salmon Chase was the secretary of treasury during lincoln’s presidency and he was also cheif justice of the supreme court at one point.
I guess the fact that I know that goes to show that my mother’s history obsession has extended to me…. damn
Awesome. Thanks for the learning.
I am ashamed to say I forgot about the Ike dollar and that Grant was on the 50.
I know about 2/3 of them. I quiz my daughters on them for school. I got the 50 and 100 mixed up. Shows how many of those I ever get to see.
You should listen to more Puff Daddy. He has an educational song about the 100 dollar billz.
I missed one on the coins. It’s not my fault, I’ve never seen an Eisenhower one.
I missed one on the small bills. One I should have remembered, but my brain is sleep-deprived.
Didn’t get a single one correct on the large bills, but I’ve never seen any of them so how would I have known?
Can anyone do the British notes? And no, the answer is not “the queen”, I’m talking about the other side ;)
Answers in here somewhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_banknotes
Embarressingly I thought I knew most of them but they turned out to be the old style, not the new ones that were reissued a few years ago.
Interesting fact from that Wiki article: Scottish bank notes are not technically legal tender anywhere. Not even in Scotland.
That is interesting Roland.
Pennies are technically not legal tender here in the States. Don’t know why. Everyone still takes them.
I had this argument once before on the legality of pennies. As far as I’m aware they’re still legal tender. Snopes.com article on the subject: http://www.snopes.com/business/money/pennies.asp
In reference to the article, I really wish shoemakers would sell their wares for jellybeans.
Interesting. Thanks for the link, Becky. I’d never heard the “not legal over 100″ argument, just that they aren’t legal tender anymore (retired or something). But now that I think about it, if they aren’t legal tender then why do they keep minting new ones every year? I doubt coin collectors have that much clout.
I read about the “mill” at one point. It’s a tenth of a cent, and there used to be mill coins back in the day when a movie used to cost a nickel . Somewhere along the way (in the 1960s supposedly) inflation got the better of it, and it was discontinued, BUT in towns when you’re figuring out your taxes, they still refer to it as the mill rate because it simply is the number of mills per dollar of the assessed value of your house that you pay to the man. Also, until 1857, there existed a half cent coin as well. You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)
Wow. I’m learning so much about money.
I vote for the elimination of the penny. round everything to the nearest 5 cents. Think of all the copper and printing expenses as well as he time you spend waiting for the 80 year old woman in front of you to dig out 4 pennies when you are in a hurry. I would gladly give her a nickel just to get out of the way.
Small children love pennies. Would you disappoint all of the darling tiny tots?