Nancy's Notes

This is fascinating to me, and I hope you enjoy it as well. Having toured the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C., and watched as currency was printed, the following facts are very interesting.

Take out a one dollar bill and look at it. This so-called paper money is in fact not paper at all but rather a cotton and linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibers running through it, making it more like cloth. Certainly you’ve washed one inadvertently and noticed that it doesn’t fall apart. A special blend of ink is used, the contents of which we will never know. (If they would tell us, they would have to kill us.) It is overprinted with symbols and then it is starched to make it water resistant and pressed to give it that nice crisp look.

There has been a great deal of controversy through the years surrounding the enigmatic symbols on the U.S. dollar. For instance, the arrows being held by the eagle on the dollar bill were originally held in the right talon. Symbolically, arrows mean war, and the right side signifies dominance—this was taken by some to mean dominance in war. In fact, the Founding Fathers used these symbols to convey strong messages; however, they have become garbled over the years.

The one dollar bill, with our first president, George Washington, pictured on what I consider to be the front, reverses to show the Great Shield of the United States, which contains:

• The American eagle flying free, holds 13 arrows of war in its non-dominant left talon and an olive branch for peace in its dominant right talon;

• The banner in its beak reads “E Pluribus Unum,” meaning “Out of Many, One;”

• The shield’s horizontal blue band represents Congress uniting the original 13 colonies, represented by 13 red and white vertical stripes;

• The 13 stars above the eagle represent a new nation or a constellation in the universe;

• The pyramid on the left side of the bill represents the young United States, with 13 steps representing the original 13 colonies, and an unfinished top reflecting the growing and expanding the country still had to do; and the “Eye of Providence” at the top represents an all-seeing God;

• The first (bottom) row of the pyramid reads “1776” in Roman numerals;

• The banner below the pyramid reads “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” which means “A New Order of the Ages.” This statement refers to a new form of government or “the beginning of the new American Era;” and finally;

• The phrase above the pyramid, “Annuit Coeptis,” is a Latin phrase that means “Providence Has Favored Our Undertakings.”

The $5, $10, $20, and $50 bills have all been redesigned in the last decade or so, with the Federal Reserve adding color and watermarks to outsmart counterfeiters. But the dollar bill has remained unchanged since 1963. The reason why it’s not been updated, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, is that this denomination “is infrequently counterfeited.” Besides that, the vending-machine industry throws a hissy-fit at any talk of redesigning the bill. Just imagine how many vending machines would have to be reworked if the the dollar bill changed.

The last change made to the dollar bill was the addition of the line, “In God We Trust,” which was added in 1963. This phrase began to appear on all U.S. currency following a law passed by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, making it the country’s official motto.

While we associate our nation’s first president with the $1 bill, his was not actually the first face to appear on the currency. That honor went to Salmon P. Chase, whose face was on the country’s first $1 note, issued in 1862 during the Civil War. As Secretary of the Treasury at the time, Chase also happened to be the man who was designing the country’s first bank notes. His vanity project lasted until 1869, the year George Washington’s face took the place of Chase.

The Federal Reserve spends about 5.5 cents to produce every $1 bill (a much better deal than the 2.06 cents it costs to produce a penny!). While the $2 bill carries the same price tag, the bills get costlier from there. The $5 bill costs 11.4 cents, the $10 costs 11.1 cents, and the $20 bill costs 11.5 cents to produce.