139 Fun Facts About Currency

Which country's currency is the yen?

The yen is Japan's currency, adopted in 1871 to replace the feudal-era coinage and originally divided into 100 sen.

Sterling, the money of the United Kingdom, holds which record?

Its name goes back to the medieval silver penny, 240 of which made a 'pound of sterlings'.

Since 1971 the pound has been divided into how many pence?

Before decimalisation there were 240 pence to the pound, twelve to a shilling and twenty shillings to a pound.

Physical euro coins and banknotes first entered circulation on what date?

Euro notes and coins entered circulation on 1 January 2002, three years after the currency launched electronically in 1999; national cash was withdrawn by the end of February 2002.

The name 'euro' was officially adopted in December 1995 at a summit in which city?

The Madrid European Council of December 1995 chose the name 'euro' over the working name ECU, at the suggestion of German finance minister Theo Waigel.

The euro sign € is based on which Greek letter?

The European Commission said the € sign was inspired by the Greek letter epsilon, a nod to the cradle of European civilisation, with two parallel bars signifying stability.

In 2026, which currency had the highest value per unit in the world?

The Kuwaiti dinar, which replaced the Gulf rupee in 1961, bought more than $3 in 2026, comfortably ahead of the Bahraini dinar at about $2.65.

The Swiss franc is legal tender in Switzerland and which other country?

Liechtenstein has used the Swiss franc as legal tender since 1924, when it dropped the Austrian krone after the First World War and tied itself to Switzerland.

India adopted a new rupee sign ₹ in 2010, combining a Devanagari consonant with which Latin letter?

Designer D. Udaya Kumar merged the Devanagari 'ra' with a Latin capital R stripped of its vertical bar; the two horizontal strokes evoke the Indian tricolour.

What is the base unit of China's renminbi?

The yuan is the renminbi's base unit, divided into 10 jiao and 100 fen; its character means 'round', after the silver dollars it replaced.

Canadians call their one-dollar coin the 'loonie' because of which bird on the reverse?

A common loon swims on the reverse of the dollar coin that replaced Canada's paper dollar in 1987, and the nickname 'loonie' stuck almost at once.

Modern polymer banknotes were first issued as currency in which country, in 1988?

They were developed with the CSIRO and the University of Melbourne; by 1996 every Australian note was plastic.

The British 50p coin, introduced in 1969, was the world's first coin with how many sides?

The 50p is a seven-sided equilateral-curve heptagon, a shape with constant width so it rolls through vending machines; it replaced the ten-shilling note in 1969.

When Australia went decimal in 1966, how many new dollars did each old pound become?

Each Australian pound became two dollars, so one dollar equalled ten shillings; a 1902 parliamentary committee had recommended decimalisation 64 years earlier.

Which building appears on the reverse of the US five-cent coin?

Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's Virginia home, has been on the reverse of the Jefferson nickel since 1938, apart from the 2004-05 Westward Journey designs.

The nickname 'greenback' for US bills originally referred to which Civil War-era issue?

The Demand Notes of 1861, printed with green backs to finance the Civil War, earned the nickname, which then passed to the United States Notes of 1862.

The Spanish dollar had eight reales, so what nickname does a US quarter carry?

A 'bit' was one real, an eighth of a Spanish dollar, so a quarter dollar was two bits, a phrase kept alive by 'shave and a haircut, two bits'.

The dollar sign $ first appears in 1770s business letters referring to which coin?

The sign grew out of the handwritten abbreviation 'ps' for pesos, the Spanish American peso or 'piece of eight' that became the model for the US dollar.

Whose portrait is on the US $100 bill?

Benjamin Franklin has appeared on the $100 Federal Reserve Note since the 1914 series, and Independence Hall has been on its reverse since 1928.

Since July 1969, what is the largest denomination of US currency in circulation?

The $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes were retired that day, though they remain legal tender.

Which president appears on the US $2 bill?

Thomas Jefferson fronts the $2 bill, and its reverse shows John Trumbull's painting of the Declaration of Independence being presented to Congress in 1776.

The $2 bill was discontinued in 1966 and returned in what year as a Federal Reserve Note?

The $2 Federal Reserve Note debuted on 13 April 1976, Jefferson's birthday, for the Bicentennial; it is printed in small runs, so many people wrongly assume it was withdrawn.

'In God We Trust' first appeared on a US coin in 1864. Which coin?

It did not become the official national motto until 1956, when it replaced E pluribus unum.

'In God We Trust' first appeared on a US bill in 1957. Which one?

Congress had made the phrase the national motto the year before.

The average US $1 bill stays in circulation for roughly how long before wearing out?

The Federal Reserve estimates an average $1 note lasts about 6.6 years before it is too worn to use, while a $100 note lasts more than 20 years.

In 1991 the Bureau of Engraving and Printing opened its second currency plant in which city?

The Bureau's Western Currency Facility in Fort Worth, Texas, opened in 1991; notes printed there carry a small 'FW' beside the front plate number.

The first United States Mint was established in 1792 in which city?

The first Mint opened in Philadelphia, then the national capital, under the Coinage Act of 1792, with David Rittenhouse as its first director.

US Federal Reserve Notes are printed on paper made from what?

The paper is 75 percent cotton fibre and 25 percent linen, supplied by Crane & Co., which is why a bill survives the washing machine when newsprint does not.

Why did the US Mint switch the penny to a zinc core in 1982?

The modern cent weighs 2.5 grams against 3.11 for the old 95% copper version still found in change.

What is the modern US five-cent coin actually made of?

The nickel is 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel, a cupronickel alloy used since the Shield nickel of 1866, except for the silver-alloy 'war nickels' of 1942 to 1945.

Which president has appeared on the US dime since 1946?

Franklin D. Roosevelt, founder of the March of Dimes polio charity, went on the dime in 1946, the year after his death; the earlier 'Mercury' dime actually showed Liberty in a winged cap.

The Susan B. Anthony dollar of 1979 flopped mainly because people confused it with which coin?

The Anthony dollar was nearly the same size and colour as the quarter, so the public shunned it; hundreds of millions sat in vaults and production stopped after 1981, with one last run in 1999.

The 'golden dollar' introduced in 2000 gets its colour from a manganese brass cladding and depicts whom?

Sacagawea, the Shoshone guide of the Lewis and Clark expedition, is shown with her infant son in Glenna Goodacre's design; since 2002 the coin has been struck mostly for collectors.

Plans announced in 2016 would put Harriet Tubman on the front of which US bill?

Andrew Jackson, a slaveholder, would move to the back of the note.

A proposed coin to dodge the US debt ceiling relies on a legal quirk about coins in what metal?

A 1996 law lets the Treasury Secretary mint platinum coins in any denomination he chooses, a freedom other coins and notes lack; the trillion-dollar coin idea made headlines in January 2013.

Which ancient Anatolian kingdom minted the earliest coins, made of electrum, in the 7th century BC?

Lydia, in western Anatolia, struck the first electrum coins in the 7th century BC; its last king, Croesus, later issued coins of refined gold and silver.

Numismatists regard jiaozi, which appeared around the 11th century in Chengdu, as the first what?

Jiaozi were the first paper money: promissory notes issued by Chengdu merchants under the Song dynasty, and taken over by the state in the 1020s.

Which shell was the most widely used form of shell money around the world?

Cowrie shells, gathered mainly around the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, served as money from China to West Africa for more than two thousand years.

The giant carved limestone discs used as money on the island of Yap are called what?

Rai stones were quarried on Palau and shipped to Yap; ownership changed by oral agreement rather than by moving them, so even a stone lost at sea kept its value.

What was Slovenia's currency before it adopted the euro in 2007?

Slovenia used the tolar from October 1991, after leaving Yugoslavia, until it adopted the euro on 1 January 2007, the first of the 2004 EU entrants to do so.

By November 1923, one US dollar was worth roughly how many German marks?

The mark hit 4.2 trillion to the dollar in mid-November 1923; the Rentenmark, backed by mortgage bonds, then replaced it at one trillion paper marks to one.

The most extreme hyperinflation ever recorded destroyed which currency in 1946?

It lasted just 20 years and was replaced by the forint, which Hungary still uses.

Before being abandoned in 2009, the Zimbabwean dollar was issued in a banknote of what face value?

The Z$100 trillion note of January 2009, the highest face value Zimbabwe ever printed, bought only a few US dollars; the currency was abandoned that April for the US dollar and rand.

The 'Nixon shock' of August 1971 ended the direct convertibility of the US dollar into what?

Under Bretton Woods foreign governments could convert dollars into gold at $35 an ounce; Nixon called the August 1971 suspension temporary, but convertibility never returned.

Which Master of the Royal Mint set the silver-to-gold rate too low in 1717, putting Britain on a de facto gold standard?

Isaac Newton, Master of the Mint from 1699, set the gold guinea's value too high against silver in 1717, so silver coin drained abroad and Britain drifted onto a gold standard.

Bitcoin's supply is capped at how many coins in total?

Bitcoin's protocol caps supply at 21 million coins; the mining reward halves every 210,000 blocks, so the last fraction should be issued around the year 2140.

Which country adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, then revoked the status in 2025?

El Salvador under President Nayib Bukele made bitcoin legal tender in September 2021, then dropped the status in January 2025 as a condition of a $1.4 billion IMF loan.

The EURion constellation is a pattern of small rings printed on banknotes to do what?

Researcher Markus Kuhn spotted it on a €10 note in 2002 after a Xerox colour copier refused to reproduce it.

The highest-quality counterfeit US banknotes are known by what nickname?

Superdollars, near-perfect $100 forgeries made with intaglio presses and cotton-linen paper like the genuine article, first surfaced in 1989 and have been widely attributed to North Korea.

The earliest known pig-shaped money boxes, from the 12th century, were found on which island?

Terracotta boar-shaped banks, called cèlèngan in Javanese, were made on Java from the 12th century; many were dug up at Trowulan, the Majapahit capital in East Java.

Which UK institution has issued banknotes since 1694 and went fully polymer in 2021?

The Bank of England, founded in 1694, has issued notes ever since; its polymer £50 of June 2021 completed the switch from paper across its four denominations.

At the end of 2024, roughly how many Iranian rials bought one US dollar?

Iranians commonly quote prices in tomans, an older unit worth ten rials, to keep the numbers manageable.

Which currency is the second most traded in the world after the US dollar?

The euro took about 31 percent of global foreign-exchange turnover in the BIS 2022 survey, second only to the dollar, and is also the second-largest reserve currency.

How many EU member states used the euro as their sole legal tender in 2026?

Bulgaria's entry on 1 January 2026, after Croatia in 2023, brought the eurozone to 21 of the 27 EU states; Denmark keeps a Maastricht opt-out.

The ¥ sign is used for the Japanese yen and which other currency?

The Chinese yuan shares the ¥ sign with the yen; both names descend from the same Chinese character, 圓, meaning 'round', after the round silver dollars of the 19th century.

US Federal Reserve Notes are issued under the authority of an act passed in which year?

The Federal Reserve Act of 23 December 1913 created the Federal Reserve and authorised its notes, which first appeared in 1914 and make up almost all US paper money.

United States Notes, the red-seal 'greenbacks' first issued in 1862, were last issued in what year?

The last United States Notes, $100 bills of Series 1966, were released until January 1971, when the Treasury stopped issuing them; they stayed legal tender and trade above face value.

Whose portrait appears on the US $10,000 bill?

Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's Treasury Secretary, is on the $10,000 bill, the largest denomination ever circulated; McKinley, Cleveland and Madison are on the $500, $1,000 and $5,000.

The Buffalo nickel, introduced in 1913, was part of a campaign to do what?

James Earle Fraser's Buffalo nickel belonged to the drive, begun under Theodore Roosevelt, to make American coins more beautiful, following Saint-Gaudens's gold pieces and the Lincoln cent.

The word 'dollar' derives from a silver coin first minted in 1519 in which region?

The Joachimsthaler was struck by the Counts Schlick at Joachimsthal, a silver-mining town in Bohemia (now Jáchymov, Czech Republic); the name shortened to thaler and became 'dollar'.

The 'L' abbreviation for the British pound comes from which Latin word?

Libra was the Roman pound weight, which is why the pound sign is a stylised L.

South Africa's currency takes its name from which geographical feature?

Rand is Afrikaans for ridge; the Witwatersrand is where most of South Africa's gold was found.

Poland's currency name, the złoty, is a form of which Polish adjective?

Złoty is the Polish adjective 'golden', from złoto, gold; its subunit, the grosz, comes from the groschen and is a cognate of the English groat.

Hungary's forint is named after gold coins minted from 1252 in which Italian city?

Florence began striking the gold fiorino d'oro in 1252, bearing the city's lily; it also gave its name to the florins of Britain and the Netherlands.

Botswana's currency, the pula, literally means what in Setswana?

Rain is scarce in the Kalahari nation, so the word doubles as a term for blessing or fortune.

Guatemala's currency is named after which national symbol?

The quetzal is a bird, the resplendent quetzal, whose long green tail feathers served as currency among the ancient Maya; it is Guatemala's national bird.

Bulgaria's lev and Romania's leu both take their names from which animal?

Lev and leu both mean 'lion', after the lion on the Dutch leeuwendaalder thaler that circulated in the Balkans; Bulgaria retired the lev for the euro on 1 January 2026.

Costa Rica's colón is named after which historical figure?

Cristóbal Colón is the Spanish name of Christopher Columbus, who reached Costa Rica's Caribbean coast in 1502; El Salvador also used a colón until it adopted the US dollar in 2001.

Panama's balboa honours a Spanish explorer famous for reaching which body of water?

Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the isthmus in 1513 and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the Americas; Panama has used the US dollar beside the balboa since 1904.

Honduras's lempira is named after a 16th-century leader of which indigenous people?

Lempira was a Lenca chieftain who led resistance to the Spanish in the 1530s and died fighting them; he remains Honduras's national hero.

Peru's sol replaced which currency in 1991?

The inti was named after the Inca sun god, and 'sol' also means sun in Spanish, so the theme carried on.

Which country's currency is the birr?

The birr is Ethiopia's currency, issued by the National Bank of Ethiopia; Eritrea used it too until replacing it with the nakfa in 1997 after independence.

Bhutan's ngultrum is pegged at parity to which currency?

The ngultrum, introduced in 1974, is pegged one-to-one to the Indian rupee, and Indian rupees circulate freely in Bhutan alongside it.

Nigeria's naira replaced which currency at the start of 1973?

The changeover was made at a rate of one pound to two naira, and Shehu Shagari launched it as finance minister.

Vietnam's currency, the đồng, is the Sino-Vietnamese word for which metal?

Đồng is the Sino-Vietnamese word for copper, written with the character 銅, after the copper cash coins once strung together; Vietnam's unified đồng dates from 1978.

The Spanish word 'peso', used for many Latin American currencies, literally means what?

The name first referred to pesos oro and pesos plata, gold and silver weights.

The Brazilian currency launched in 1994 replaced which unit at 2,750 to one?

One real was worth 2,750 cruzeiros reais at launch, capping a run of currency swaps during hyperinflation.

One theory holds that 'ruble' comes from a Russian verb meaning what?

The verb rubit' means 'to cut or chop', and a ruble was thought to be a piece chopped from a silver grivna bar.

Which ancient Indian grammarian wrote of the 'rūpya', the root of the word rupee?

Pāṇini's grammar, the Aṣṭādhyāyī, uses rūpya for a stamped silver coin, the root of 'rupee'; Chanakya's Arthashastra later wrote of rūpyarūpa silver coins.

Delegates from how many Allied countries attended the 1944 Bretton Woods conference?

Delegates from 44 Allied nations met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944, while the war was still being fought.

How many regional Federal Reserve Banks make up the US central banking system?

Twelve regional Reserve Banks, from Boston to San Francisco, each serve a numbered district, and the letter in a dollar bill's seal shows which one issued it.

Which city does NOT host one of the four active US Mint coin-producing facilities?

New Orleans had a branch mint from 1838 to 1909; the four mints striking coins in the 2020s are Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco and West Point.

What was the first general-circulation coin of the United States, produced in 1787?

The Fugio cent of 1787, with its sundial and 'Mind Your Business' motto attributed to Benjamin Franklin, was struck under contract before the Philadelphia Mint existed.

Which historic document was stored at Fort Knox for safekeeping during World War II?

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were moved from Washington to the Fort Knox bullion depository in December 1941, joining a Gutenberg Bible and Lincoln Cathedral's Magna Carta.

In an ISO 4217 code like GBP or JPY, what do the first two letters represent?

The first two letters are the issuing country's ISO 3166 code, so GBP is Great Britain plus Pound and JPY is Japan plus Yen; the third letter is usually the unit's initial.

Which country is home to the world's oldest surviving central bank, founded in 1668?

Sweden's Riksbank was founded in 1668 from the wreck of Stockholms Banco and is the world's oldest surviving central bank, a quarter-century older than the Bank of England.

Stockholms Banco, the first European bank to print banknotes, was founded by whom?

Johan Palmstruch founded Stockholms Banco in 1657 and issued Europe's first printed banknotes in 1661; over-issue sank the bank by 1668 and his death sentence was commuted to prison.

The first cash machine was installed in June 1967 at a Barclays branch in which London area?

The De La Rue machine designed by John Shepherd-Barron opened at Barclays' Enfield Town branch on 27 June 1967; actor Reg Varney made the first withdrawal.

Which animal appears on the reverse of South Africa's Krugerrand gold coin?

The springbok, shown pronking in Coert Steynberg's design, has been on the Krugerrand's reverse since the coin's 1967 debut, opposite Paul Kruger's portrait.

How was the release sequence of the 50 State quarters (1999–2008) decided?

Mint director Philip Diehl's suggestion won over a cautious Delaware congressman, so Delaware came first.

The Lincoln cent debuted in 1909 to mark what?

Victor David Brenner designed the portrait and the original wheat-stalk reverse used until 1958.

Which sculptor designed the original Washington quarter, first struck in 1932?

John Flanagan's portrait, based on Houdon's bust of Washington, was chosen by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon over Laura Gardin Fraser's design for the 1932 bicentennial quarter.

Striking of the Kennedy half dollar began in which month of 1964?

Using Gilroy Roberts's portrait and Frank Gasparro's presidential-seal reverse, already modelled for a Kennedy medal, the Mint struck the first halves in January 1964, about two months after the assassination.

The guinea, England's first machine-struck gold coin, was originally worth how many shillings?

Rising gold prices later pushed its value up, at times to as high as thirty shillings.

The Spanish dollar remained legal tender in the United States until an act passed in what year?

The Coinage Act of 1857 ended the legal-tender status of the Spanish dollar and other foreign coins, 65 years after the Coinage Act of 1792 had modelled the US dollar on it.

Purple wampum beads were made from the shell of which animal?

The purple beads came from the quahog clam's shell and the white ones from the channeled whelk; 'wampum' comes from a Narragansett word for white shell beads.

Which publication has published the Big Mac Index since 1986?

The Economist's Pam Woodall introduced the index in September 1986 as a light-hearted guide to purchasing-power parity, comparing the burger's price across countries.

Gresham's law is named after a financier who served under which English dynasty?

Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-79) was financial agent to the Tudor monarchs Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I; economist Henry Dunning Macleod attached his name to the law in the 19th century.

Bitcoin's white paper was published in 2008 under which pseudonym?

Satoshi Nakamoto published 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' on 31 October 2008 and mined the genesis block on 3 January 2009; the identity behind the name is unknown.

When the IMF created Special Drawing Rights in 1969, each was worth how much gold?

One SDR was defined as 0.888671 grams of fine gold, exactly one US dollar at $35 an ounce; since 1974 the SDR has been valued on a basket of currencies reviewed every five years.

When the CFA franc was created in 1945, what did 'CFA' stand for?

CFA meant Colonies françaises d'Afrique when the franc was created on 26 December 1945; it was reread as Communauté française d'Afrique in 1958 and later as Communauté financière africaine.

Which structures appear on the reverse of every euro banknote?

The obverse shows windows or gateways; all are stylised so no real landmark favours one country.

Robert Kalina, who designed the euro banknotes, worked for the central bank of which country?

Robert Kalina was a designer at the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Austria's central bank; his 'Ages and Styles of Europe' entry won the 1996 competition.

Which euro banknote denomination is absent from the Europa series over crime concerns?

The ECB decided in 2016 to drop the €500 from the Europa series over its use in money laundering and crime; issuance ended in 2019 and existing notes stayed legal tender.

The common side of euro coins was designed by Luc Luycx of which country's mint?

Each member state designs its own national side, but Luycx's map-of-Europe design is shared by all.

In which German city is the European Central Bank headquartered?

The ECB has been in Frankfurt since its founding in 1998, first in the Eurotower and from 2014 in a purpose-built twin-tower headquarters in the Ostend district.

Rome introduced the denarius as its standard silver coin during which conflict?

The denarius was introduced around 211 BC, during the Second Punic War against Hannibal, and remained Rome's main silver coin until the antoninianus displaced it in the 3rd century AD.

Which modern currency name survives from the Roman denarius?

The dinar takes its name from the denarius, via the Islamic gold dinar first struck by the Umayyads in the 690s; it survives in Serbia, Kuwait, Iraq and Algeria.

An ancient Greek drachma was originally a fistful of how many obols?

A drachma, from the Greek for 'a grasp', was six obols; the obol was originally an iron roasting spit, and six spits made a handful.

The gold ducat, later known as the sequin, originated in 1284 in which city?

Venice first struck the gold ducat in 1284 under Doge Giovanni Dandolo; at about 3.5 grams of nearly pure gold it was accepted across Europe for centuries and was later called the zecchino or sequin.

Constantine the Great's gold solidus was struck at how many coins to a Roman pound?

Constantine struck the solidus at 72 to the Roman pound from about 309, giving each coin roughly 4.5 grams of gold; it held that standard for some seven centuries.

On what date did Australia switch from pounds to dollars?

Australia's 'C-Day' was 14 February 1966, chosen for a quiet period after Christmas; the new unit was called the dollar after a public outcry sank the proposed name 'royal'.

How many commercial banks are licensed to issue Hong Kong dollar banknotes?

Three banks, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong), issue notes under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, each with its own designs in matching denominations.

Switzerland's first Federal Coinage Act, which introduced the franc, was passed in what year?

The Federal Coinage Act of 7 May 1850 made the franc Switzerland's single currency, two years after the 1848 federal constitution gave the Confederation the sole right to coin money.

The krona replaced the riksdaler at par as a result of which 1870s agreement?

The Scandinavian Monetary Union of 1873 put Sweden and Denmark (Norway from 1875) on a shared gold krona, 2,480 kronor to a kilogram of gold; it broke up during the First World War.

Denmark rejected the euro in a referendum held in which year?

Danes voted 53 percent against joining the euro on 28 September 2000; the krone has instead been pegged to the euro within ERM II since 1999.

Which currency did Finland use before adopting the euro in 2002?

Finland's markka, introduced in 1860 under Russian rule, gave way to the euro in 2002 at 5.94573 markkaa to one; Finland was the only Nordic state to join the euro then.

The Egyptian pound, introduced in 1834, replaced which currency?

The piastre survives as the pound's subunit, with 100 to a pound.

Which institution issues the renminbi?

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, has issued the renminbi since 1 December 1948, before the People's Republic was proclaimed; the Bank of China is a state-owned commercial bank.

Venezuela's August 2018 redenomination swapped 100,000 bolívares fuertes for one of what?

The bolívar soberano, or sovereign bolívar, replaced the bolívar fuerte at 100,000 to one on 20 August 2018; a 2021 swap then cut six more zeros to create the bolívar digital.

Bank of Japan was formally founded in October of which year?

The Bank of Japan opened on 10 October 1882 under the Bank of Japan Act of June that year, on the proposal of finance minister Matsukata Masayoshi; its head office is in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

Which bird replaced Britannia on the reverse of the British farthing in 1937?

Harold Wilson Parker's wren replaced Britannia on the farthing from 1937 and stayed until the coin, worth a quarter of an old penny, was demonetised at the end of 1960.

Whose initials appear beside the date on Britain's St George and the Dragon gold coin?

Benedetto Pistrucci's St George and the Dragon first appeared on the sovereign in 1817, and his initials 'B.P.' sit in the exergue beside the date on sovereigns and other gold coins.

Which country decimalised its currency on the same day as the UK, 15 February 1971?

Ireland's Decimal Day was also 15 February 1971, since the Irish pound was then at par with sterling; banks in both countries closed for four days beforehand to convert balances.

The British sixpence, nicknamed the 'tanner', was first minted during whose reign?

The sixpence was first struck in 1551 under the boy king Edward VI as part of a new fine-silver coinage; it circulated until 1980, worth 2.5 new pence after decimalisation.

Which US circulating coin is the smallest in diameter and the thinnest?

The dime is 17.91 mm across and 1.35 mm thick, smaller and thinner than the 19.05 mm cent; its 1792 ancestor was spelled 'disme'.

How many cents were in the Philadelphia Mint's first circulating batch of March 1793?

The Mint's first delivery, on 1 March 1793, was 11,178 copper Chain cents designed by Henry Voigt; the chain on the reverse was criticised as a symbol of bondage and soon replaced.

Federal Reserve Notes switched to the modern small-note format with which series?

Series 1928 introduced the small-size notes, issued from July 1929, which standardised portraits by denomination; earlier Federal Reserve Notes from Series 1914 were the larger 'horse blankets'.

Between 1953 and 1962, South Korea's currency was called what?

The hwan replaced the first won in February 1953 at 100 won to one hwan, and was itself replaced by the second won in June 1962 at 10 hwan to the won.

In Mesopotamian temples, a fixed quantity of which staple served as a unit of account?

Barley was the unit of account: the shekel began as a weight of barley, and temple scribes reckoned wages and rations in barley measures long before coins existed.

Israel's new shekel replaced the hyperinflated old shekel in 1986 at what ratio?

The ₪ sign fuses the first Hebrew letters of 'shekel' and 'hadash' (new); before 1980 Israel used the Israeli pound.

Which animal appears on the reverse of Canada's two-dollar 'toonie'?

Brent Townsend's polar bear on an ice floe is on the reverse of the bi-metallic toonie, introduced in February 1996 to replace the paper $2 bill, which lasted about a year in circulation.

The Thai baht was originally known to foreigners by what name, printed on banknotes until 1925?

Tical was the Western name for the baht, a unit of weight of about 15 grams of silver; Siam's banknotes carried 'tical' in English until 1925, when 'baht' took over.

Which 1871 act introduced Japan's modern monetary system and defined the yen in gold?

The New Currency Act of 1871 set the yen at 1.5 grams of gold, divided into 100 sen or 1,000 rin, replacing Tokugawa coins and the feudal domains' paper money.

What does the 'N' in the Mexican peso's ISO code MXN stand for?

The 1993 nuevo peso dropped three zeros from the old peso, and its ISO code MXN, N for nuevo, was kept when the word 'nuevo' was dropped from the currency's name in 1996.

Which country's currency is the ringgit?

The ringgit is Malaysia's currency, replacing the Malaya and British Borneo dollar in 1967; the word means 'jagged' in Malay, after the milled edges of the Spanish dollars once used there.

The first Turkish lira of 1923 replaced a currency named after which empire?

The Turkish lira replaced the Ottoman lira at par after the republic was proclaimed in 1923; the first republican banknotes, issued in 1927, carried Atatürk's portrait.

Roughly how many first Turkish lira bought one US dollar at the end of 2004?

About 1,350,000 old lira bought a dollar in late December 2004; the new lira of 1 January 2005 dropped six zeros, so the rate became roughly 1.35.

In what year did Indonesia's rupiah float, falling to about Rp16,800 per dollar the following June?

Bank Indonesia abandoned the rupiah's managed band on 14 August 1997 amid the Asian financial crisis; the currency sank from about Rp2,400 to around Rp16,800 per dollar by June 1998.