Currencies

Fun Facts About Currencies

• The British pound sterling is the world's oldest currency still in use. Its origins date back over 1,200 years to Anglo-Saxon England, circa 775 AD. It originally represented a pound weight of silver (92.5% pure).
• Coins predated paper money by at least 1,400 years. The first coins (of gold-silver alloy) appeared around 600 BC in modern-day Turkey, while early Chinese paper money was developed about 1,000 years ago to alleviate the burden of carrying heavy copper coins.
• Polymer banknotes (or plastic money) last longer and resist water, dirt, and tearing better than paper ones. They are also more hygienic — money is a major carrier of pathogens due to constant circulation and handling by many people.
• The U.S. dollar symbol ($) is thought to have evolved from a stylized combination of the letters "PS" for peso, where the "P" and "S" were combined, with the "P" simplifying into a stroke through the "S."
• Modern banknotes are full of hidden security features, including microtext and color-shifting ink, as well as raised printing for accessibility.
• In the late-2000s, Zimbabwe experienced extreme hyperinflation, necessitating the issuance of a $100 trillion bill, the world's highest denomination note.
• Some of the smallest physical coins ever made were from ancient Greece. Just a few millimeters in diameter, they were so light they could easily be blown away by the wind.
• While most currencies are decimal, some divide into unusual units based on older systems. Until 1971, for instance, one British pound equaled 20 shillings and one shilling equaled 12 pence. That made one pound worth 240 pence.