The dollar officially appeared after the US Congress officially approved it on June 6, 1785 as the country’s currency, but it took a long time for its birth to install and set up printing presses.
After the United States gained independence from Great Britain in 1776 and the ensuing civil war, the young nation finally decided to mint its own currency.
At that time, many coins of the ancient world, such as English, Spanish, German and Dutch coins, circulated in the lands of America.
All large silver coins were called “thaler” or “dollar”, and this name became well-known and established and was taken as the basis for the name of the American currency.
The first US dollars, like the “thaler”, were minted from silver. Mint operations began in 1794, and the Philadelphia Mint was founded in 1792.
On the first silver dollar coin, issued in 1794, there was an image of a woman with flowing hair, symbolizing freedom, as well as 15 six-pointed stars, according to the number of states of that time, and on the other side, an image of a bald eagle and a wreath of olive branches.
That year, 2,000 coins were minted and issued, with 242 of them immediately melted down due to the fact that they turned out to be of very low quality, and the rest of the coins were distributed to members of Congress, the Senate and official guests.
After the minting of silver dollar coins, paper notes appeared at a later time and were green in color. The story of this case is that due to the huge demand, the printing house found that there was more green in its warehouses than others, and therefore millions of green dollar bills were issued. banknotes.
Later this tradition was adopted by the US Department of the Treasury, and for a long time banknotes were printed only in green until 2004, when dollar bills of other colors began to be issued, and the changes affected banknotes in denominations of 10, 20 and 50 US dollars.
As for the American “cent”, it was first minted during the reign of President Benjamin Franklin in 1787, when the Americans felt the need for small currency for exchange, and its value was more expensive than its value, since the US treasury paid for minting 1.7 US cent.
The eagle printed on US coins and dollar bills has a lot to say. The report states that he was real and his name was “Peter the Critical Eagle”.
In the 1830s, an eagle flew over the Philadelphia Mint area and ate scraps that workers tossed into trash cans.
The workers noticed this and tried to teach him to eat meat, but the wild bird soon disappeared, so the artists of the mint decided to draw it, and soon a copy of the “money eagle of Peter” appeared on the American currency.
In addition to this bald eagle and images of presidents and statesmen, the US dollar is decorated with images of the pyramid, the “all-seeing eye”, the number “13”, as well as owls and spiders.
It is mentioned, by the way, that the American currency is not only made of paper, but is also a fabric of linen and cotton, to which synthetic threads are added, while cotton threads make up 75%, which makes them durable and do not quickly deteriorate.
In the United States of America, 35 million banknotes are printed daily, and this consumes 9 tons of multi-colored ink, while the cost of one banknote, regardless of its denomination, is 5.7 cents, and American printing machines work seven days a week, and only one day of rest year on Independence Day.
There are many denominations in modern US dollar issues, ranging from 1 cent to $100, and there are also $500, $1,000, and $10,000 notes, but they are not used in general circulation.
Moreover, the value of these three denominations of dollars is much higher than the face value due to their rarity, and $100,000 notes are still used in the settlement system, exclusively in the Federal Reserve System.
The glory of the US dollar began after World War II, and since then it has become the world’s main reserve currency or the dominant currency. However, in recent years there have been signs that it has begun to partially retreat, and there is little confidence in the dollar, which is printed non-stop to deal with the astronomical US budget deficit.
Source: RT