10 Bizarre Facts About Money You've Definitely Never Heard Of

Money. It makes the world go round.

And makes most of us pretty miserable in the process. After all, between phone bills, cable packages, rent, health insurance, food, and pet expenses, that nonsense adds up! More and more, all of that stuff is done online, leading to this bizarre phenomenon when money seems like a more amorphous thing than literal, physical dollars and cents.

Most of the time these days, we just watch that number in our checking account dwindle. But did you ever stop to think about how weird money is? Like, "Here, we invented these little pieces of paper that you have to exchange with people to feed yourself and live." I get it and all, but it's still pretty odd if you ask me. Anyway, want to know what's even weirder? These 20 facts about money that you probably never knew about.








1. One bill weighs 1 gram and 454 bills equal one pound. This means if you have $1 million in singles, it would weigh over 1 ton! A suitcase of $1 million in $100 bills weighs over 20 pounds!
Speaking of $100 bills, close to 80% of the U.S. currency is in $100 bills. The odd thing is I rarely see a $100 bill, not to mention most places I go have signs saying they no longer accept them.

2. The Federal Reserve is missing 2/3 of the $100 bills they printed. They counted up all of the $100 bills there are in banks, cash registers, etc. and found that close to 2/3 of the $100 bills are unaccounted for. In other words, they are most likely overseas.

Conspiracy theorists are on the case and blaming The Illuminati!

3. The most counterfeited denomination of money is the $20 bill. The next most counterfeited bill is the $100 bill.

In foreign countries, the US $100 bill is the most frequently counterfeited. And since we are on the topic of counterfeiting, according to the Coinage Act of 1972, counterfeiting by Mint employees is punishable by death

4. North Korea is the largest counterfeiter. North Korea has mastered the art of counterfeiting U.S. currency, specializing in a perfect replica of our $50 and $100 bills.

Their fakes are so impressive that they are referred to as “superdollars,” and require specialized equipment at the Federal Reserve to be detected.

As of 2009, an estimated $45 million worth of these fake bills have been identified.

5. Emerich Juettner was a pro at counterfeiting. Actually, he was horrible at counterfeiting but was smart in how and when he spent his fake bills.

He worked his scam by counterfeiting $1 bills and made just enough to survive. As a result, it took the U.S. Secret Service 10 years to catch him. And when they did, he only spent 4 months in prison.

The best part of this money fact is that a film was made about Emerich Juettner and his counterfeiting ways, which ended up making him more money than he made from counterfeiting.

6. The typical lifespan of a $1 bill is just 18 months. While the lifespan of a $100 bill is close to 9 years. And you thought dogs aged fast!

Here is a total breakdown:

$1 bill: 18 months

$5 bill: 2 years

$10 bill: 3 years

$20 bill: 4 years

$50 bill: 9 years

$100 bill: 9 years

Coins: 30 years

7. You can make your worn out money crisp again. It takes about 4,000 double folds (first forward and then backward) before a bill will tear.

You can restore the life of your bill somewhat by ironing it.

8. Money is recycled when worn out. Worn out coins are melted down and used to make new coins. Worn out bills are shredded, recycled, and then made into roof shingles or fireplace logs.

9. Money is dirty. We’ve all heard how dirty money is and how reportedly there are traces of cocaine on 90% of paper money, but did you know that money is dirtier than a household toilet?

How about the fact that the flu virus can live on a bill for up to 17 days! Note to self, stop putting money in your mouth when in a hurry at the checkout line!

10. The Secret Service was originally made to fight counterfeiting. In July of 1865, the U.S. Secret Service was created during the Civil War to fight counterfeiting.

Counterfeiting was a huge problem back then, and by the end of the war between 1/3 and 1/2 of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit.

11. Before the Federal Reserve in 1913, each bank printed its own money. Oh to be a bank employee in 1910! I’d have suits made out of $100 bills. No wonder the rich would light their cigars with $100s!

12. Germans used money as wallpaper. After World War I, hyperinflation wreaked havoc on the German currency, causing it to lose almost all of its value.

As a result, people would give money to kids to play with, and many people used it as wallpaper.

13. Move to Zimbabwe to be a billionaire overnight. Around the start of the 2000s, Zimbabwe experienced hyperinflation that peaked in 2008.

Just how bad was the hyperinflation? At the peak, a single U.S. Dollar was worth 2,621,984,228 Zimbabwe Dollars. So if you had just a $1 bill and moved to Zimbabwe, you would be a billionaire.

Unfortunately, a loaf of bread cost 10,487,936,912 Zimbabwe dollars

14. The ink used to print money is high tech. So high tech that it has trackable, magnetic, and color changing properties.

15. The blue ribbon in $100 bills dances. The blue ribbon woven through the new hundred dollar bill contains thousands of micro lenses that give the appearance of the Liberty Bell dancing.