Q 01/05

Which scientist spent 30 years at England's Royal Mint, sending coin counterfeiters to the gallows?

A) Robert Boyle

B) Isaac Newton

C) Christopher Wren

D) Robert Hooke

Answer · why

B) Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton took the post of Warden in 1696 and treated it as detective work, building the case that hanged the serial counterfeiter William Chaloner...

Q 02/05

Which metal makes up 75% of the US five-cent coin, even though the coin is named after another?

A) Zinc

B) Copper

C) Silver

D) Aluminum

Answer · why

B) Copper

Copper outweighs nickel three to one in the coin, a recipe unchanged since 1866 apart from World War II issues that swapped the nickel for silver and ...

Q 03/05

Which Oregon city was named by a coin toss, with Boston as the losing choice?

A) Salem

B) Eugene

C) Corvallis

D) Portland

Answer · why

D) Portland

Portland won because Francis Pettygrove of Portland, Maine, took two of three tosses against Asa Lovejoy of Boston; the 1835 cent they flipped is kept...

Q 04/05

Coins tossed over the shoulder into which Roman landmark are collected and given to charity?

A) Trevi Fountain

B) Fountain of the Four Rivers

C) Triton Fountain

D) Turtle Fountain

Answer · why

A) Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain coins are swept up and donated to the Catholic charity Caritas, and legend says a coin tossed with the right hand over the left shoulde...

Q 05/05

Which president became the first on a circulating US coin in 1909, a century after his birth?

A) George Washington

B) Andrew Jackson

C) Abraham Lincoln

D) Ulysses S. Grant

Answer · why

C) Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln broke a taboo, since presidential portraits had been shunned as too monarchical, and the designer's initials caused such a fuss that t...