Friday Fun Facts About Money

Money makes the world go round. We are either complaining that some people have too much of it while others complain they have too little. I guess we’ll never be totally happy about money and how it’s used or not used.

Everyone talks about our debt but it seems we are more interested in growing it than reducing it. We seem to be obsessed about the redistribution of wealth in America and chances are that won’t change any time soon. Here are a few fun facts about the paper and coin we all value so much.

Fun Facts About Money

Talk about big money. The Chinese 1 Kwan measures 9 x 13 inches. That’s going to take a pretty big wallet.
The world’s smallest banknote comes from Morocco and was about the size of a normal postage stamp.
Croesus, the King of Lydia (now part of Turkey), was the first to coin money.
The world’s smallest coin weighed only .002 grams from Nepal and the heaviest was from Sweden weighing in at 43 pounds 7 ¼ ounces.
Egypt got things up and running over 4,500 years ago with the first instance of Bartering. Exchanging goods and services for goods and services.
Paper and coins are not the only forms of money. Things like salt, cocoa beans, grain, cows, shark’s teeth and precious stones were also used over the centuries.
Can’t we all just get along? The wealth required to provide adequate food, water, education, health and housing for everyone in the world for a whole year is equivalent to the amount spent on arms every two weeks worldwide.
Why do coins have grooved edges? In the past coins were made of gold and silver and dishonest people would file some of the precious metal off to steal it.
Think inflation is bad here? Hungry holds the record. In 1946 their 1931 Gold Pengo was worth 130 million trillion paper Pengos. Anyone got an end loader?
The largest check ever written went to the Indian government from the American ambassador in the amount of $1,279,187,490. I hope that included free tech support.
There are haves and have not’s. Half the population of the world earns just 5% of the total wealth of the world.
The estate of billionaire Howard Hughes got his with the largest tax bill ever. The estate had to fork over a hefty $336 million to satisfy the tax bill. Where are those gold Pengo’s when you need them?

Some Final Thoughts

If I could share one important money fact with you today it would be this. Money doesn’t make your life better; it just makes your life easier. Money can’t buy good health, bring loved ones back, or buy love.

Just think, to give every one in the United States a dollar would only take about $315 million dollars. Where do I sign up?