Q 01/05

According to legend, the daughter of a San Francisco Mint chief spent a rare 1894 dime on which treat?

A) Lemonade

B) Root beer

C) Ice cream

D) Peanuts

Answer · why

C) Ice cream

Ice cream is the legend's punchline: only 24 of the dimes were struck, nine are known to survive, and one sold for $1.9 million in 2007.

Q 02/05

A Suffolk farmer's search for which lost tool in 1992 turned up the Hoxne Hoard of nearly 15,000 Roman coins?

A) A hammer

B) A spade

C) A sickle

D) A wrench

Answer · why

A) A hammer

A hammer went missing in a field, and the friend who brought a metal detector to find it uncovered Britain's largest hoard of late Roman gold and silv...

Q 03/05

A 100-kilogram Canadian gold coin called the Big Maple Leaf was stolen in 2017 from a museum in which city?

A) Vienna

B) Ottawa

C) Zurich

D) Berlin

Answer · why

D) Berlin

Berlin's Bode Museum lost the coin in a night raid, and investigators who found gold dust on the thieves' clothes believe it was melted down. Its face...

Q 04/05

On which Pacific island group were giant limestone discs called rai, some too heavy to move, used as money?

A) Fiji

B) Yap

C) Tonga

D) Samoa

Answer · why

B) Yap

Yap islanders tracked each stone's owner by oral history, so a disc could change hands without moving an inch. The largest is 3.6 metres across and we...

Q 05/05

The US Mercury dime of 1916 actually shows which figure, whose winged cap got her mistaken for a Roman god?

A) Columbia

B) Victory

C) Liberty

D) Minerva

Answer · why

C) Liberty

Liberty wears a winged cap on the coin to stand for freedom of thought, but the public saw the messenger god and the wrong name stuck for good.