There have been many compositional changes in the money produced and used in the United States of America since the beginning of this country. Which has more changes paper money or the coins produced in mints? Why so many changes to the coins through history? What ever happened to your half dollars and full dollar coins? Why is paper many composed the way it is, would other substances preform better? What was the money of the original states made of? Why so many changes to the penny, and whats the point it cost more to make than its worth doesn't it? So many questions about chemistry that need to be answered. The bills compared to the coins of the United States of America are so different, but yet both continue to be produced in this …show more content…
Was it because of war and the need of the metals? Was it because the elements that made up the coins were too expensive? Or for some other strange reason? The one cent coin which is now the penny was originally minted in 1787 and was one hundred precent pure copper. It was this composition until 1856 due to a shortage in copper after the war. This coin was eighty eight precent copper and twelve percent nickel. After the civil war the composition change again to ninety five percent copper and five percent zinc. In 1909 the coin slightly changed to ninety five percent copper and five precent zinc and tin. During world war two there was a copper shortage so the coins were zinc-coated steel for a short time. Then the penny’s tin content was removed and it was once again ninety five percent zinc. In 1982 the composition changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper. That composition has remained the same. The first five cent coin was one hundred precent silver. In 1886 the shield nickel was minted and was seventy five precent nickel and twenty five precent copper. The nickel has remained this composition through today. The dime’s original composition was also originally silver. Then the caped bust dime was made in 1809 and was composed of ninety percent silver and ten precent copper. In 1965 the coin was changed to 91.67 precent copper and 8.33 percent nickel. The quarter had the same composition as the
The Penny is a wonderful coin. It might only be worth one cent but that one cent can help people in all sought's of situations. The penny should kept in circulation. There are many people that use the penny still in today’s society.
We should keep the penny because it has history, in fact it was “the first currency authorized by the United States” (Lewis). The penny no longer has the value that it used to have, but it is still necessary to make purchases as accurate as possible. The penny may seem like a waste of time to many Americans because it takes so long for cashiers to make change, forcing people to wait in line, but it is actually worth the time spent. The penny helps with keeping prices a cent lower, and therefore stimulating the economy. The penny is important to many people who need the money and for whom pennies still have value.
Throughout the past decade, costs of everything have skyrocketed. According to Source C, America used to have “five and dime stores;” now its a dollar store. In addition, no one can buy anything with just a penny anymore. The source also made a fair observation that these worthless zinc disks are, “behind chair cushions or at the back of sock drawers next to your old tin-foil ball. Quarters and dimes circulated; pennies disappear because they are literally more trouble than they are worth.” According to a New York Times article, “it takes nearly a dime today to buy what a penny bought back in 1950.” The penny is still stuck in the 1950s while America just keeps moving on. As stated by Mark Lewis in his concept of establishing a bill, “the bill would not ban pennies, but merely discourage their use by establishing a system under which cash transactions would be rounded up or down.” (Source A) This motive will help keep the America exceed and
Barbara Ehrenreich’s book “Nickle and Dimed” she explored a life as having a low wage earning by working several jobs in numerous of different places as she tempted to live off the wage she earned. Even though she had a doctorate in science she is known as a journalist and as well as muckraker. In the novel she states her journey on how she pondered how someone unskilled, uneducated, and untrained workers can survive with the minimum wage incomes. Barbara gave us real life experiences of her personal life as she had witnessed firsthand as her loved ones struggled living minimum wage jobs to provide enough utilities for her family.
When the first Europeans settled in what would become the United States, the need of a currency to make trade easier rapidly arose. Before the US Dollar as we know it, the American Colonies went through several currency systems. Since most settlers were from the United Kingdom, the colonies were under the authority of the crown, and used the British system of pounds, shilling and pence. The use of Spanish dollars was also very widespread, and the name of the country’s official currency comes from this common practice. While the first trades took place with British or Spanish currency or commodities, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first to issue some paper currency, which it denominated in British terms at first, and then in both British and Spanish terms. For the first time in the colonies, a colonial authority delivered a piece of paper, regardless of the Crown’s opinion, which people trusted would be worth money. This was therefore the first fiat currency of the colonies, which would later become the United States of America. In this paper, we will explore the evolution of fiat currency in the United States, and the process that led to the adoption of the US Dollar still in use today. It will cover the period from 1690 to 1863, separated in three parts that correspond to currency evolution: Colonial currency from 1690 to 1775, the Revolution and the first banks from 1775 to 1860, and finally the US Dollar, the Legal Tender Act and the National Banking Act from 1860 onwards.
It has been said that Lincoln was not the first face on the penny, “Benjamin Franklin reportedly designed the first American penny in 1787(Cohen).” Back then the penny was known as “Fugio” and it had an image of a sun and sundial above the message “Mind Your Business.” Also, on the cent appeared a chain with thirteen links, each represents the first colonies established, and on the other side of it was the motto “We Are One”. It was not until 1909 that Teddy Roosevelt introduced the Lincoln cent to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of America’s 16th president birth. Then fifty years later the Lincol...
Money makes exchange much easier, because people can trade their goods for money and use the money to buy other things. In the Bible money was silver or gold, a precious metal, and America was on a gold standard throughout most of her history. In 1933 we shifted to a silver standard and in 1968 our silver certificates were replaced with Federal Reserve Notes (Remy, 2008). Today’s paper money is not backed by anything except the government’s promise that it is good. Money with no precious metal backing allows the central government to spend more than it collects in taxes, because the Federal Reserve Board can print new money, thus increasing the money supply, anytime there is a need. This is what causes inflation and is one way that the Federal Reserve Board has overstepped Biblical principles in economic policy. Greg Anthony writes that “one of the Biblical signs of a nation backsliding is the condition of its currency and the degree of honesty in its weights and measures” (Anthony, 1988, p. 28). When the money supply is increased, either through printing more money or credit-expansion, the purchasing power of the dollar falls, and businesses must increase the prices they charge to keep up with their own higher costs. Inflation encourages debt, deceives people about pay increases and future wealth accumulations, is a hidden theft tax, and decreases capital available for
Many of Americans view the every day penny as only one cent that carries only little to no value, which is why they wind-up stashed away at the back of drawers. What most people don’t have a clue is the value it once held back in the days where a can of coke was about one cent. Our very own citizens who once fought battles and came home scarred knew that the penny wasn’t just one cent, it was the blood shed, their fallen brothers, and the never ending tears that symbolized one single Lincoln. Pennies are worth more than their currency, they are the history of our home and the beginning of where we stand today.
In America’s modern day economy, the penny is very useless and irrelevant in our society today. As source C states, “The time has come to abolish the outdated, almost worthless, bothersome, and wasteful penny.” There is not one item that can be purchased with a penny anymore (Source C). As source C states, “it takes nearly a dime to buy what a penny bought back in 1950.” Stores such as the Dollar Store prove how the cheapest items you can purchase are with only a dollar, not a cent. Pennies are shoved out of the economic picture by credit cards and because of the modern-day technology, there are even self-service machines that help convert coins into paper money (Source B). Furthermore, pennies are easily tossed into piggy banks or appear behind chair cushions. It is not used the same way as it was before.
By many aspects the one dollar note will just be a symbol of America and the American wealth, however we will see that it can convey way more than that. First and foremost, the one dollar note, is something judged to be common knowledge, everybody can approximately see what it looks like and they will not look in depth of what can be one of the most symbolic items of the United States of America. First printed in 1863, the dollar note was here to represent an abstract, yet know by everyone, money. Before then, coins were just the symbolic way of representing money.
I have given a detailed speech on why pennies are not worth it, yet, the next day, I declared my love for the shiny coin when I found a stray on the ground. “I’m one cent richer,” I exclaimed. My love for the penny is something I have in common with many Americans. The penny-lovers might be thinking, "We can't get rid of the penny! We're Americans. See, there's Honest Abe Lincoln. He deserves his place here immortalized on this coin." I share this sentiment, but Lincoln still has the five dollar bill and the Lincoln Memorial. On the other hand, the penny is bad for the environment (Mining creates pollution.), dangerous to people and pets (It is 97% zinc.), and essentially useless to the consumer in
Roosevelt cut the dollar’s ties with gold in order to allow the government to pump money into the economy and lower interest rates. This was ultimately to help get the U.S. get out of the Great Depression and deter people from cashing deposits and depleting the gold supply. In 1946 a majority of the world’s central bankers met to create a new global monetary system that would facilitate international trade, known as the Bretton Woods System. This allowed governments to sell their gold to the U.S. treasury, which at the time controlled two thirds of the worlds gold, at a set price of $35/ounce. There was a transition from gold being the base reserve currency as the U.S. dollar gained momentum and became the international reserve currency being linked to the price of gold. The U.S. dollar was chosen since the U.S. economy was the global leader in manufacturing and held the majority of the world’s gold and was the only currency still backed by gold. Being the reserve currency meant that other countries would maintain a healthy supply of dollars creating a stronger demand and helping support its
Larger cities were now producing gold and silver coins at this time. Some coins actually used a type of visual pun, for example, a rose for the city Rhodes because the Greek word for rose is rhodon. They soon began using the name of the issuing city on the coin. The wealthier the city, the finer the coin. Syracuse has had a Decadrachm. This coin is actually the finest coin of the ancient world. Throughout this period coinage became similar and also recognizable.
Paper money is more complex. From 1900 through 1971 (with the exception of during World War I), the US dollar was backed by gold, meaning its value was legally defined by a certain weight of the metal. That ended in 1971, when Richard Nixon shocked the world by breaking the link to gold and allowing the dollar’s value to be determined by trading in the foreign exchange markets. The dollar is valuable not because it’s as good as gold, but because you can buy goods and services produced in the United States with it—and, crucially, it’s the only form the US government will accept for tax payments. Among the Federal Reserve’s many functions is allowing the issuance of just the right quantity of dollars—enough to keep the wheels of commerce well greased without slipping into a hyperinflationary crisis.
The gold standard broke down during WWI, as major belligerents resorted to inflationary finance. Governments effectively suspended the gold standard during World War I and financed part of their massive military expenditures by printing money. Further, labor forces and productive capacity were reduced sharply through war losses. As a result, price levels were higher everywhere at the war’s conclusion in 1918. Several countries experienced runaway inflation as their governments attempted to aid the reconstruction process through public expenditures. These governments financed their purchases simply by printing the money they needed, as they sometimes had during the war. The result was a sharp rise in money supplies and price levels. Most countries had lost gold while some had gained it. So, Gold Exchange Standard was put into force from 1925 to