Money - How Much Do You Really Know About Greenbacks?

It is something we see everyday, we all want and never seem to have enough of.

It is money.

And although it is seldom far from out thoughts, there are still several interesting facts that you may not be aware of about our American currency.

For instance, did you know that the very first American paper money was designed by none other than good old Paul Revere? Fact is, he never did make a midnight ride to shout that the British were coming (that myth is from poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow written in 1860) but he did create and print a 12-pence note for the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1776.

And, did you know that a penny can be divided into 10 mills? Yes, you can "officially" make change for a penny, though you would be very hard pressed to find a mill anywhere today. However you see a reminder of this practice every single day and probably never knew it. Mills are still used at the gas station where the prices are still expressed as $2.799 for instance.

Mills were much more popular back in the 19th century when a penny was worth just a bit more than it is today. Remember that 5 mills or a ha'penny (half penny) was given to the old man in a Christmas Carol.

While British and American dollars and pennies are divided into 10 pieces, Spanish dollars are divided into 8 equal parts, or the "pieces of eight" we hear in so many bad pirate movies. Our founding Fathers chose to forsake the British monetary system during the revolution (remember we were at war with them.) Hence the use of the Spanish "Dollar" and not the British "Pound." However, we obviously kept the 1 in 10 system of making change.

Which brings us to the most interesting fact of all. Why we use the "s" with a line through it, "$", to represent dollars.

It all started with the Spanish word for dollar, peso, and continues with classic American laziness.

Peso is traditionally abbreviated as "PS." As Americans adopted this to mean the American dollar the two letters started to be written closer and closer together, until they effective lay right on top of one another and the hump of the "P" disappeared completely - "$."

By the way it costs 6 cents to print each bill and there are about 37 million bills printed every year.

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