A penny costs 2.4 cents to manufacture.
Yes, it costs more than two pennies to make one penny, all so that you can get exact change on a $1.99 candy bar.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing uses 9.7 tons of ink each day.
The United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing (also called the “Money Factory”) has two active facilities from which it prints money today. Together these two facilities use a mind-blowing 9.7 tons of ink per day.
Gambling generates more revenue each year than movies, spectator sports, theme parks, cruise ships and recorded music combined.
That’s right. This $34.6 billion dollar industry runs the table, beating out Tom Cruise, the Dallas Cowboys, Mickey Mouse, a week in the Caribbean and the Rolling Stones. If all those gamblers learned to play the stock market game instead of donating their cash to casino owners, they might actually have won something.
94% of bills are contaminated with bacteria.
Approximately 94% of paper money that moves from hand to hand is riddled with bacteria. One NYU study found 3,000 types of organisms on just 80 $1 bills - including bacteria linked to pneumonia, food poisoning and staph infections.
If money is too filthy to touch, how are you supposed to pay the bills? Consider using a credit card instead. If you’re on time with your payments, you’ll raise your credit score and stave off the common cold!
There is more Monopoly money printed every year than actual cash.
The popular board game prints up to $50 billion of its currency each year. That’s a lot of real estate. By comparison, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing only produced $1.3 billion.
Only 8% of the world’s currency is in physical money.
We live in a digital world, so it’s no surprise that only 8% of all the “money” around the world is physical cash. But no need to rush the bank. The digital dollars in your checking and savings account are as real as the cash in your pocket.
Rats ate $2.1 billion of Pablo Escobar’s loose change.
Infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar had so much extra cash lying around that he lost an astounding $2.1 billion dollars to rats. Since he couldn’t keep his illegal earnings safe in a bank, he stored them in a warehouse, where rats (with expensive taste!) feasted on 10% of his savings every year.
You may not have a billion in spare change, but you likely have some savings stashed away, whether it’s in a box under your bed or your checking account. If you’re smart, you’ll invest this money early so you can maximize its growth.
The largest denomination of U.S. Currency was the $100,000 bill.
The largest bill ever printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was a $100,000 gold certificate, printed in 1934 and 1935. It was used primarily by banks, and was rarely seen by the public eye.
While the U.S. Mint has printed other impractically large bills (from $500 to $10,000), today, the humble $100 is the largest bill in circulation.