140 Fun Facts About Currency

Which country's currency is the yen?

It became the modern unit in 1871 and is the third most traded currency after the US dollar and the euro.

Sterling, the money of the United Kingdom, holds which record?

Its name goes back to the medieval silver penny, 240 of which made a 'pound of sterlings'.

Since 1971 the pound has been divided into how many pence?

Before decimalisation there were 240 pence to the pound, twelve to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound.

Physical euro coins and banknotes first entered circulation on what date?

The currency had existed only on paper and in bank accounts for three years before that; by March 2002 the old national money was gone.

The name 'euro' was officially adopted in December 1995 at a summit in which city?

It replaced the working name Ecu, on the suggestion of German finance minister Theo Waigel.

The euro sign € is based on which Greek letter?

The two parallel bars are meant to signify stability, and the letter doubles as the first letter of 'Europe'.

In 2026, which currency had the highest value per unit in the world?

One unit bought about $3.23 in 2026, comfortably ahead of the Bahraini dinar; it replaced the Gulf rupee in 1961.

The Swiss franc is legal tender in Switzerland and which other country?

It became Switzerland's unit in 1850, replacing more than 8,000 different coins and notes in circulation.

India adopted a new rupee sign ₹ in 2010, combining a Devanagari consonant with which Latin letter?

Its designer used the letter without its vertical bar and merged it with 'ra'.

What is the base unit of China's renminbi?

Each one is split into 10 jiao and 100 fen, and the People's Bank of China issues it.

Canadians call their one-dollar coin the 'loonie' because of which bird on the reverse?

It replaced the dollar bill in 1987, and the two-dollar coin of 1996 became, inevitably, the 'toonie'.

Modern polymer banknotes were first issued as currency in which country, in 1988?

They were developed with the CSIRO and the University of Melbourne; by 1996 every Australian note was plastic.

The British 50p coin, introduced in 1969, was the world's first coin with how many sides?

Its shape confused people who mistook it for the round 10p and half crown, so it was briefly resisted.

When Australia went decimal in 1966, how many new dollars did each old pound become?

A 1902 committee had recommended decimalisation, but it took another 64 years to happen.

The Coinage Act of 1792 established the US dollar and divided it into how many cents?

It was modelled on the Spanish dollar, which stayed legal tender in the United States until 1857.

The nickname 'greenback' for US bills originally referred to which Civil War-era issue?

Lincoln's government printed their backs in green to finance the war, and the colour stuck.

The Spanish dollar was divided into eight reales, which is why a US 25-cent coin is still nicknamed what?

Each 'bit' was one-eighth of a dollar, so two of them made a quarter.

The dollar sign $ first appears in 1770s business letters referring to which coin?

The 'piece of eight' was the model for the US dollar and for the pesos of the new Latin American republics.

Whose portrait is on the US $100 bill?

He has been there since 1914, and the reverse has shown Independence Hall since 1928.

Since July 1969, what is the largest denomination of US currency in circulation?

The $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes were retired that day, though they remain legal tender.

Which president appears on the US $2 bill?

The reverse shows John Trumbull's painting of the Declaration of Independence; the note was reissued in 1976 after a ten-year gap.

The $2 bill was discontinued in 1966 and returned in what year as a Federal Reserve Note?

Its comeback coincided with the Bicentennial, and it remains rare enough that people wrongly think it has been withdrawn.

'In God We Trust' first appeared on a US coin in 1864. Which coin?

It did not become the official national motto until 1956, when it replaced E pluribus unum.

'In God We Trust' first appeared on a US bill in 1957. Which one?

Congress had made the phrase the national motto the year before.

The average US $1 bill stays in circulation for roughly how long before wearing out?

Its current back design, with the Great Seal and the pyramid, dates from 1935.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing prints US bills in Washington, D.C. and which other city?

It is the largest producer of government security documents in the country, and coins come from the separate US Mint.

The first United States Mint was established in 1792 in which city?

Today coins are struck in Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point, with a bullion depository at Fort Knox.

US Federal Reserve Notes are printed on paper made from what?

That is why a bill survives a trip through the washing machine when a newspaper does not.

Why did the US Mint switch the penny to a zinc core in 1982?

The modern cent weighs 2.5 grams against 3.11 for the old 95% copper version still found in change.

What is the modern US five-cent coin actually made of?

Its size and composition have been unchanged since 1866, except for silver 'war nickels' in 1942 to 1945.

Which president has appeared on the US dime since 1946?

The coin is the smallest in diameter and thinnest of all US coins; the earlier 'Mercury' dime never actually showed the Roman god.

The Susan B. Anthony dollar of 1979 flopped mainly because people confused it with which coin?

A billion and a half were struck for a demand that never came, and production was suspended after 1981.

The 'golden dollar' introduced in 2000 gets its colour from a manganese brass cladding and depicts whom?

It also failed to catch on with the public and has been minted mostly for collectors since 2002.

Plans announced in 2016 would put Harriet Tubman on the front of which US bill?

Andrew Jackson, a slaveholder, would move to the back of the note.

A proposed coin to dodge the US debt ceiling relies on a legal quirk about coins in what metal?

Paper money and other coinage face quantity limits that platinum coinage does not; the notion made headlines in January 2013.

Which ancient Anatolian kingdom minted the earliest coins, made of electrum, in the 7th century BC?

Electrum is a natural gold-silver alloy; the kingdom's last ruler was the famously wealthy Croesus.

Numismatists regard jiaozi, which appeared around the 11th century in Chengdu, as the first what?

It began as a promissory note issued by private merchants under China's Song dynasty.

Which shell was the most widely used form of shell money around the world?

They were gathered mainly in the Indian Ocean, especially around the Maldives, and traded as far as West Africa.

The giant carved limestone discs used as money on the island of Yap are called what?

Ownership of the largest ones passed by oral history rather than by moving them, so a stone could change hands without leaving its spot.

Which institution was the first in Europe to successfully print its own paper banknotes, in 1696?

The Bank of England had begun issuing notes two years earlier but the Scottish bank got its own printed paper into circulation first.

By November 1923, one US dollar was worth roughly how many German marks?

The Rentenmark, backed by mortgage bonds, ended the chaos, and the printing presses were finally reined in.

The most extreme hyperinflation ever recorded destroyed which currency in 1946?

It lasted just 20 years and was replaced by the forint, which Hungary still uses.

Before being abandoned in 2009, the Zimbabwean dollar was issued in a banknote of what face value?

Worthless at the time, the notes are now popular with collectors, and Zimbabwe legalised the US dollar and South African rand instead.

The 'Nixon shock' of August 1971 ended the direct convertibility of the US dollar into what?

Under Bretton Woods, foreign governments could redeem dollars at $35 an ounce; Nixon said the suspension was temporary, and it never came back.

Which Master of the Royal Mint set the silver-to-gold rate too low in 1717, putting Britain on a de facto gold standard?

Silver coins vanished from circulation as a result, and the world's leading financial power ended up on gold by accident.

Bitcoin's supply is capped at how many coins in total?

The mining reward halves every 210,000 blocks, so the last fraction is expected to be issued around the year 2140.

Which country adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, then revoked the status in 2025?

The white paper that started it all was published in 2008 under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

The EURion constellation is a pattern of small rings printed on banknotes to do what?

Researcher Markus Kuhn spotted it on a €10 note in 2002 after a Xerox colour copier refused to reproduce it.

The highest-quality counterfeit US banknotes are known by what nickname?

During World War II the Nazis ran their own forgery scheme against Britain, Operation Bernhard.

The earliest known pig-shaped money boxes, from the 12th century, were found on which island?

Boar-shaped banks turned up in large numbers at Trowulan, thought to be the capital of the Majapahit Empire.

Which UK institution has issued banknotes since 1694 and went fully polymer in 2021?

Its four denominations run from £5 to £50, and in 2025 it consulted the public on themes for its next series.

At the end of 2024, roughly how many Iranian rials bought one US dollar?

Iranians commonly quote prices in tomans, an older unit worth ten rials, to keep the numbers manageable.

Which currency is the second most traded in the world after the US dollar?

It is also the second-largest reserve currency, with more than €1.3 trillion of notes and coins in circulation.

How many EU member states used the euro as their sole legal tender in 2026?

Bulgaria (2026) and Croatia (2023) were the newest members; Denmark opted out under the Maastricht Treaty.

The UK central bank has printed the pound sign on its notes with how many horizontal bars since 1975?

Either style is acceptable in handwriting; the symbol descends from the L of the Latin libra.

The ¥ sign is used for the Japanese yen and which other currency?

Both words come from the same Chinese character meaning 'round'.

US Federal Reserve Notes are issued under the authority of an act passed in which year?

The first nationally accepted notes came from Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, chartered in 1791.

United States Notes, the red-seal 'greenbacks' first issued in 1862, were last issued in what year?

They now trade above face value as collectors' items, though they remain legal tender.

What type of note first carried the current one-dollar reverse with the Great Seal, in 1935?

One-dollar bills were silver certificates until 1963, when the note first appeared as a Federal Reserve Note.

The Buffalo nickel, introduced in 1913, was part of a campaign to do what?

It gave way to the Jefferson design in 1938, which is still on the coin today.

The word 'dollar' derives from a silver coin first minted in 1519 in which region?

The Joachimsthaler was named for the mining town of Joachimsthal, and shortened to thaler, then dollar.

The 'L' abbreviation for the British pound comes from which Latin word?

Libra was the Roman pound weight, which is why the pound sign is a stylised L.

South Africa's rand takes its name from which geographical feature?

Rand is Afrikaans for ridge; the Witwatersrand is where most of South Africa's gold was found.

Poland's currency name, the złoty, is a form of which Polish adjective?

Its subunit, the grosz, comes from the groschen and is a cognate of the English groat.

Hungary's forint is named after gold coins minted from 1252 in which Italian city?

The fiorino d'oro also gave its name to the florin used in Britain and the Netherlands.

Botswana's currency, the pula, literally means what in Setswana?

Rain is scarce in the Kalahari nation, so the word doubles as a term for blessing or fortune.

Guatemala's currency is named after which national symbol?

The resplendent quetzal's tail feathers were themselves used as currency in ancient Mayan culture.

Bulgaria's lev and Romania's leu both take their names from which animal?

Bulgaria retired the lev when it joined the eurozone on 1 January 2026.

Costa Rica's colón is named after which historical figure?

Cristóbal Colón is the Spanish form of the explorer's name; El Salvador also used a colón until 2001.

Panama's balboa honours a Spanish explorer famous for reaching which body of water?

The balboa circulates alongside the US dollar, which Panama has used since the early 20th century.

Honduras's lempira is named after a 16th-century leader of which indigenous people?

Lempira led resistance against the Spanish conquistadors and remains a national folk hero.

Peru's sol replaced which currency in 1991?

The inti was named after the Inca sun god, and 'sol' also means sun in Spanish, so the theme carried on.

Ghana's cedi takes its name from the Akan word for what?

Cowries were used as money in what is now Ghana long before the modern currency was launched.

Bhutan's ngultrum is pegged at parity to which currency?

Bhutan's earliest currency was the chetrum, mostly silver half-rupees, after coins from the Cooch Behar mint stopped circulating.

Nigeria's naira replaced which currency at the start of 1973?

The changeover was made at a rate of one pound to two naira, and Shehu Shagari launched it as finance minister.

Vietnam's currency, the đồng, is the Sino-Vietnamese word for which metal?

In 2026 the dong ranked as the third-lowest valued currency unit in the world, behind only the Iranian rial and Lebanese pound.

The Spanish word 'peso', used for many Latin American currencies, literally means what?

The name first referred to pesos oro and pesos plata, gold and silver weights.

The Brazilian currency launched in 1994 replaced which unit at 2,750 to one?

One real was worth 2,750 cruzeiros reais at launch, capping a run of currency swaps during hyperinflation.

One theory holds that 'ruble' comes from a Russian verb meaning what?

A ruble was thought to be a piece hacked from a silver grivna bar.

Which ancient Indian grammarian wrote of the 'rūpya', the root of the word rupee?

Chanakya's Arthashastra later mentioned silver coins as rūpyarūpa.

Delegates from how many Allied countries attended the 1944 Bretton Woods conference?

They met at the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire while the war was still being fought.

How many regional Federal Reserve Banks make up the US central banking system?

They regulate privately owned commercial banks and provide banking services to the federal government.

Which city does NOT host one of the four active US Mint coin-producing facilities?

New Orleans once had a branch mint, but today only Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point strike coins.

What was the first general-circulation coin of the United States, produced in 1787?

It was based on the Continental dollar and predates the Philadelphia Mint itself.

Which historic document was stored at Fort Knox for safekeeping during World War II?

The vault also held a Gutenberg Bible and a copy of Magna Carta for the duration.

In an ISO 4217 code like GBP or JPY, what do the first two letters represent?

The third letter is usually the initial of the currency's main unit, so USD is US plus Dollar.

Which country is home to the world's oldest surviving central bank, founded in 1668?

The Riksbank is also the third-oldest bank of any kind still in continuous operation.

Stockholms Banco, the first European bank to print banknotes, was founded by whom?

It began printing notes in 1661 but was liquidated just six years later after financial trouble.

The first cash machine was installed in June 1967 at a Barclays branch in which London area?

John Shepherd-Barron's team at printing firm De La Rue is credited with the invention.

Which animal appears on the reverse of South Africa's Krugerrand gold coin?

First minted in 1967 to market South African gold, the coin pairs the pronking antelope with Paul Kruger's portrait.

How was the release sequence of the 50 State quarters (1999–2008) decided?

Mint director Philip Diehl's suggestion won over a cautious Delaware congressman, so Delaware came first.

The Lincoln cent debuted in 1909 to mark what?

Victor David Brenner designed the portrait and the original wheat-stalk reverse used until 1958.

Which sculptor designed the original Washington quarter, first struck in 1932?

The bicentennial committee had wanted a Washington half dollar, but the design ended up on the quarter.

Striking of the Kennedy half dollar began in which month of 1964?

Existing works by Mint sculptors Gilroy Roberts and Frank Gasparro let dies be prepared quickly after the assassination.

The guinea, England's first machine-struck gold coin, was originally worth how many shillings?

Rising gold prices later pushed its value up, at times to as high as thirty shillings.

The Spanish dollar remained legal tender in the United States until an act passed in what year?

The original US dollar was based on this silver piece of eight, worth eight reales.

Wampum beads were originally made from the shell of which animal?

White beads from the channeled whelk were later included; wampum comes from a word meaning white strings of shell beads.

Which publication has published the Big Mac Index since 1986?

Pam Woodall introduced it as a semi-humorous way to make purchasing-power parity digestible.

Gresham's law is named after a financier who served under which English dynasty?

Economist Henry Dunning Macleod coined the name in 1857, long after Sir Thomas Gresham's death.

Bitcoin's white paper was published in 2008 under which pseudonym?

The bitcoin.org domain was registered on 18 August 2008, and the currency went live in 2009.

When the IMF created Special Drawing Rights in 1969, each was worth how much gold?

That was roughly one US dollar at the time; today the SDR is valued on a basket of currencies reviewed every five years.

When the CFA franc was created in 1945, what did 'CFA' stand for?

The letters were reinterpreted in 1958 and again after independence, but the abbreviation stayed.

Which structures appear on the reverse of every euro banknote?

The obverse shows windows or gateways; all are stylised so no real landmark favours one country.

Robert Kalina, who designed the euro banknotes, worked for the central bank of which country?

His entry was selected on 3 December 1996, five years before the notes entered circulation.

Which euro banknote denomination is absent from the Europa series over crime concerns?

The ECB decided to permanently stop producing it, though existing notes remain legal tender.

The common side of euro coins was designed by Luc Luycx of which country's mint?

Each member state designs its own national side, but Luycx's map-of-Europe design is shared by all.

In which German city is the European Central Bank headquartered?

It occupied the Eurotower before moving into its purpose-built seat.

Rome introduced the denarius as its standard silver coin during which conflict?

It lasted from around 211 BC until Gordian III's reign, when the antoninianus gradually replaced it.

Which modern currency name survives from the Roman denarius?

Dinars are used today in countries from Serbia to Kuwait, Iraq and Algeria.

An ancient Greek drachma was originally a fistful of how many obols?

Obols were metal spits originally used for roasting lamb, so a drachma was literally a grasp of them.

The gold ducat, later known as the sequin, originated in 1284 in which city?

It contained about 3.5 grams of nearly pure gold and was accepted across Europe for centuries.

Constantine the Great's gold solidus was struck at how many coins to a Roman pound?

Each coin weighed about 4.5 grams, and the solidus later doubled as a unit of weight.

On what date did Australia switch from pounds to dollars?

Each old pound became two dollars, so one new dollar was worth ten shillings.

How many commercial banks are licensed to issue Hong Kong dollar banknotes?

HSBC, Bank of China and Standard Chartered each print their own designs in matching denominations.

Switzerland's first Federal Coinage Act, which introduced the franc, was passed in what year?

Before that, more than 8,000 different coins and notes circulated among the cantons.

The krona replaced the riksdaler at par as a result of which 1870s agreement?

The union fixed 2,480 kronor to a kilogram of gold and lasted until the First World War.

Denmark rejected the euro in a referendum held in which year?

The krone remains pegged closely to the euro through the ERM II mechanism instead.

The Nordic currency names krona, krone and króna all derive from the Latin word for what?

Iceland's króna was formerly divided into 100 aurar.

The Egyptian pound, introduced in 1834, replaced which currency?

The piastre survives as the pound's subunit, with 100 to a pound.

Which institution issues the renminbi?

Mandarin speakers typically say mao instead of jiao for the tenth-of-a-yuan unit.

Venezuela's August 2018 redenomination swapped 100,000 bolívares fuertes for one of what?

A second swap in 2021 knocked off six more zeros to create the digital bolívar.

Bank of Japan was formally founded in October of which year?

Finance minister Matsukata Masayoshi proposed it that March, and it remains headquartered in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

Which bird replaced Britannia on the reverse of the British farthing in 1937?

A farthing was worth a quarter of an old penny, or 1/960 of a pound.

Whose initials appear beside the date on Britain's St George and the Dragon gold coin?

His Saint George and the Dragon design has been struck since 1817 and is also used on other gold coins.

Which country decimalised its currency on the same day as the UK, 15 February 1971?

Banks in both countries closed for four days beforehand to convert account balances from £sd.

The British sixpence, nicknamed the 'tanner', was first minted during whose reign?

First struck in 1551, it circulated until 1980, worth 2.5 new pence after decimalisation.

Which US circulating coin is the smallest in diameter and the thinnest?

It measures 17.91 mm across and 1.35 mm thick, and its 1792 ancestor was spelled 'disme'.

How many cents were in the Philadelphia Mint's first circulating batch of March 1793?

The one-cent coin was then produced for circulation every year until 2025.

Federal Reserve Notes switched to the modern small-note format with which series?

Notes had been printed in large format since Series 1914, the year after the Federal Reserve Act.

Between 1953 and 1962, South Korea's currency was called what?

The names won, yuan and yen all derive from the Spanish-American silver dollar and mean round.

In Mesopotamian temples, a fixed quantity of which staple served as a unit of account?

Accounting records from Mesopotamia go back more than 7,000 years, well before coinage.

Israel's new shekel replaced the hyperinflated old shekel in 1986 at what ratio?

The ₪ sign fuses the first Hebrew letters of 'shekel' and 'hadash' (new); before 1980 Israel used the Israeli pound.

Which animal appears on the reverse of Canada's two-dollar 'toonie'?

The bi-metallic coin arrived in 1996 and is built to last 20 years, versus about one year for the paper $2 bill it replaced.

The Thai baht was originally known to foreigners by what name, printed on banknotes until 1925?

Like the pound, the baht began as a unit of weight, defined as 15 grams of silver.

Which 1871 act introduced Japan's modern monetary system and defined the yen in gold?

The yen was set at 1.5 grams of gold and divided into 100 sen or 1,000 rin, replacing Tokugawa coins and feudal paper money.

What does the 'N' in the Mexican peso's ISO code MXN stand for?

The code changed from MXP after the 1993 revaluation; the peso is now the most traded currency in Latin America.

Which Sanskrit word, meaning 'wrought silver', gives Indonesia's rupiah its name?

Bank Indonesia's digital currency effort, Project Garuda, continues the name, while proposals to drop three zeroes have stalled.

The first Turkish lira of 1923 replaced a currency named after which empire?

Atatürk's portrait went on banknotes from 1926, was swapped for İsmet İnönü after his death, and then restored for every later issue.

Roughly how many first Turkish lira bought one US dollar in 2005, just before the redenomination?

The second lira lopped six zeroes off; since 2018 the currency has again been in crisis.

In what year did Indonesia's rupiah float, falling to about Rp16,800 per dollar the following June?

It was the Asian financial crisis; the rupiah had already been redenominated 1,000 to 1 back in 1965.