MONEY: Paper Money

General Guides

The sites below provide answers to frequently asked questions about U.S. money covering such topics as buying, selling, and redeeming denominations, legal tender status, portraits and designs, production and circulation, facts about individual banknotes, counterfeiting, and collector fact sheets.

Anatomy of a Bill NOVA Online
Part of Secrets of Making Money PBS Online
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/moolah/anatomy.html

Dollars and Cents: Fundamental Facts About U.S. Money
Federal Reserve Bank (Atlanta)
http://www.frbatlanta.org

FAQ's: Currency
U.S. Dept. of the Treasury
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Currency/Pages/default.aspx

Fun Facts on Paper Money
Federal Reserve Bank (San Francisco )
http://www.frbsf.org/federalreserve/money/funfacts.html

U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing
http://www.moneyfactory.gov/

The New Color of Money
U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing
http://www.newmoney.gov/newmoney/default.aspx

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Image :
Woman posed with stack of packages of $1 silver certificates at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington, D.C. [between ca. 1950 and ca. 1969]

History

The History of Money
http://minneapolisfed.org/econed/curric/history.cfm

Colonial Currency
A project of the Robert H. Gore, Jr. Numismatic Endowment, University of Notre Dame, Dept. of Special Collections.
by Louis Jordan
http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCurrency/

The Leslie Brock Center for the Study of Colonial Currency
University of Virginia
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/users/brock/

Theories on the Dollar Sign

There are many theories as to the origin of the dollar sign. None have been "verified," but many feel that the most likely explanation is from the abbreviation pieces of 8 (peso) seen referenced in Spanish currency.

Cajori, Florian. A History of mathematical notations. Chicago, IL: The Open Court Publishing Company [1928-1929]
LC Call Number: QA21.C135 1928
LC Catalog Number: 28024355

Origin of the Dollar Sign
U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing
http://www.moneyfactory.gov/faqlibrary.html

Scroll to the middle of the above FAQ page to locate the information on the origin of the dollar sign.

Origin of the Dollar Sign
by Mark Brader
The English Usage site
http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxorigin.html

The Word "Dollar" and the Dollar Sign $
Origins, History and Geography of Dollar Currencies
by Roy Davies
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/dollar.html

Individual Bills

U.S. Currency (U.S. Bureau of Engraving & Printing)
http://www.moneyfactory.gov/uscurrency.html

United States Dollar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar

U.S. One Dollar Bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._one_dollar_bill

U.S. Two Dollar Bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._two_dollar_bill

U.S. Five Dollar Bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_five_dollar_bill

U.S. Ten Dollar Bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._ten_dollar_bill

U.S. Twenty Dollar Bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._twenty_dollar_bill

U.S. Fifty Dollar Bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._fifty_dollar_bill

U.S. Hundred Dollar Bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._hundred_dollar_bill

Large Denomination bills in U.S. Currency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_denomination_bills_in_U.S._currency