140 free Currency trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
60 free currency trivia questions with answers. Sixty questions on currency, split roughly between the United States and the rest of the world. The US currency trivia covers who is on the $2 and $100 bills, when the big denominations were retired, why the penny went to zinc, what a nickel is really made of, the origin of the dollar sign and 'two bits', 'In God We Trust', the Mint, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the dollar coins nobody wanted. The world round takes in the euro's name and symbol, the pound's claim to be the oldest currency in use, the seven-sided 50p, polymer notes, the loonie, the highest-valued unit on Earth, and the disasters: Weimar marks, the Hungarian pengő and Zimbabwe's 100-trillion-dollar note. Older history gets a look too, from Lydian electrum and Song-dynasty paper to cowrie shells, Yap's rai stones and the pig-shaped money boxes of Java. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the currencies, coins and events involved, and the sentence that establishes it is shown under each explanation. Play solo or use it as a money round for a pub quiz or classroom.
30 of 140 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country's currency is the yen?
Japan
It became the modern unit in 1871 and is the third most traded currency after the US dollar and the euro.
Q 02Sterling, the money of the United Kingdom, holds which record?
Oldest still in continuous use
Its name goes back to the medieval silver penny, 240 of which made a 'pound of sterlings'.
Q 03Since 1971 the pound has been divided into how many pence?
100
Before decimalisation there were 240 pence to the pound, twelve to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound.
Q 04Physical euro coins and banknotes first entered circulation on what date?
1 January 2002
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.
Q 05The name 'euro' was officially adopted in December 1995 at a summit in which city?
Madrid
It replaced the working name Ecu, on the suggestion of German finance minister Theo Waigel.
Q 06The euro sign € is based on which Greek letter?
Epsilon
The two parallel bars are meant to signify stability, and the letter doubles as the first letter of 'Europe'.
Q 07In 2026, which currency had the highest value per unit in the world?
Kuwaiti dinar
One unit bought about $3.23 in 2026, comfortably ahead of the Bahraini dinar; it replaced the Gulf rupee in 1961.
Q 08The Swiss franc is legal tender in Switzerland and which other country?
Liechtenstein
It became Switzerland's unit in 1850, replacing more than 8,000 different coins and notes in circulation.
Q 09India adopted a new rupee sign ₹ in 2010, combining a Devanagari consonant with which Latin letter?
R
Its designer used the letter without its vertical bar and merged it with 'ra'.
Q 10What is the base unit of China's renminbi?
Yuan
Each one is split into 10 jiao and 100 fen, and the People's Bank of China issues it.
Q 11Canadians call their one-dollar coin the 'loonie' because of which bird on the reverse?
Common loon
It replaced the dollar bill in 1987, and the two-dollar coin of 1996 became, inevitably, the 'toonie'.
Q 12Modern polymer banknotes were first issued as currency in which country, in 1988?
Australia
They were developed with the CSIRO and the University of Melbourne; by 1996 every Australian note was plastic.
Q 13The British 50p coin, introduced in 1969, was the world's first coin with how many sides?
Seven
Its shape confused people who mistook it for the round 10p and half crown, so it was briefly resisted.
Q 21Which president appears on the US $2 bill?
Thomas Jefferson
The reverse shows John Trumbull's painting of the Declaration of Independence; the note was reissued in 1976 after a ten-year gap.
Q 22The $2 bill was discontinued in 1966 and returned in what year as a Federal Reserve Note?
1976
Its comeback coincided with the Bicentennial, and it remains rare enough that people wrongly think it has been withdrawn.
Q 23'In God We Trust' first appeared on a US coin in 1864. Which coin?
The two-cent piece
It did not become the official national motto until 1956, when it replaced E pluribus unum.
Q 14When Australia went decimal in 1966, how many new dollars did each old pound become?
Two
A 1902 committee had recommended decimalisation, but it took another 64 years to happen.
Q 15The Coinage Act of 1792 established the US dollar and divided it into how many cents?
100
It was modelled on the Spanish dollar, which stayed legal tender in the United States until 1857.
Q 16The nickname 'greenback' for US bills originally referred to which Civil War-era issue?
Demand Notes
Lincoln's government printed their backs in green to finance the war, and the colour stuck.
Q 17The Spanish dollar was divided into eight reales, which is why a US 25-cent coin is still nicknamed what?
Two bits
Each 'bit' was one-eighth of a dollar, so two of them made a quarter.
Q 18The dollar sign $ first appears in 1770s business letters referring to which coin?
The Spanish American peso
The 'piece of eight' was the model for the US dollar and for the pesos of the new Latin American republics.
Q 19Whose portrait is on the US $100 bill?
Benjamin Franklin
He has been there since 1914, and the reverse has shown Independence Hall since 1928.
Q 20Since July 1969, what is the largest denomination of US currency in circulation?
$100
The $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes were retired that day, though they remain legal tender.
Q 24'In God We Trust' first appeared on a US bill in 1957. Which one?
The $1 silver certificate
Congress had made the phrase the national motto the year before.
Q 25The average US $1 bill stays in circulation for roughly how long before wearing out?
About 6.6 years
Its current back design, with the Great Seal and the pyramid, dates from 1935.
Q 26The Bureau of Engraving and Printing prints US bills in Washington, D.C. and which other city?
Fort Worth
It is the largest producer of government security documents in the country, and coins come from the separate US Mint.
Q 27The first United States Mint was established in 1792 in which city?
Philadelphia
Today coins are struck in Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point, with a bullion depository at Fort Knox.
Q 28US Federal Reserve Notes are printed on paper made from what?
Cotton fibre
That is why a bill survives a trip through the washing machine when a newspaper does not.
Q 29Why did the US Mint switch the penny to a zinc core in 1982?
Its metal was worth more than its face value
The modern cent weighs 2.5 grams against 3.11 for the old 95% copper version still found in change.
Q 30What is the modern US five-cent coin actually made of?
75% copper, 25% nickel
Its size and composition have been unchanged since 1866, except for silver 'war nickels' in 1942 to 1945.