15 Rich Facts About Old Money

The world’s oldest known coin is the Lydian Lion, dating from 600 BCE. It only has a design on one side, was created in what is now Turkey, and was worth around a full month’s wages at the time. 

Paper money was first used in China in the seventh century. Almost a thousand years would pass before Europe also developed the ability to make it rain. 

In the 1700s, the Bank of England issued partly-incomplete notes — the pound sign and the first digit were there, but the rest had to be handwritten and signed by the chief cashier (whose signature is still on banknotes today). 

In 1739, Benjamin Franklin began experimenting with anti-forgery measures on banknotes, including incredibly intricate, hard-to-copy nature prints made from real leaves.

Until the 18th century, in Britain, most people went their whole lives without touching a banknote — the minimum sum available was £50, and the average income was less than £20 per year, so a banknote was some fancy, fancy shit. 

The first $2 note is older than the United States of America: The first ones were issued on June 25, 1775. 

The first coin officially minted as United States currency was the 1792 Half Cent, produced in Philadelphia as part of the passing of the Coinage Act, which declared that the U.S. dollar was now the country’s standard monetary unit.

Starting in the 1850s, the U.S. Mint issued both three-cent and $3 coins. Three-cent stamps were common at the time, and these were intended to make their purchase more straightforward. This didn’t last long, because it was stupid. 

The reason U.S. banknotes are green is to combat forgery — early photographic technology was much better at copying black and white, so green was added in 1861. By the time notes were fully standardized in 1929, green meant money. 

Between 1862 and 1876, America had notes worth fractions of a dollar. Known as “shinplasters,” they came in 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50 cent denominations — the high price of metal meant low-denomination coins cost more than their value. 

The 1886 Martha Washington One Dollar Certificate is the only time a woman has been the subject of the primary portrait on a U.S. banknote. 

A 1933 U.S. coin, the Saint-Gaudens Gold Double Eagle, sold in 2002 for nearly $8 million. The end of the gold standard meant they never entered circulation and were immediately melted down, but a few were pocketed by mint workers.

The highest denomination note, in terms of sheer big-ass numbers, was in Hungary in 1946 during hyperinflation. Hundred-quintillion dollar notes were in circulation, while sextilion dollar notes were printed but never circulated.

Britain had a truly baffling system. Two farthings made a ha’penny, two ha’pennies a penny, 12 pennies a shilling, 20 shillings a pound and 21 shillings a guinea. One penny was shorted to 1d, and a pound had 240 pennies. 

If you’re up to some kind of criminal nefariousness demanding bags of cash, you want Hong Kong dollars. The HK$1,000 note is the highest-value note in wide circulation, always worth US$128 as the currencies are linked.