| Share the Wealth
When a dollar is worth more than a buck
During a recent teacher workshop at the Atlanta Fed's Nashville Branch, Cornersville High School teacher Debra Crable shared a creative holiday gift-giving idea.
Debra gives each of her students a plastic sleeve containing a $1 bill along with historical information and facts about the bill. Many of her students return to visit her years later, Debra noted, and they tell her that they still have that dollar bill! Clearly, the sentimental value of her gift is worth more to Debra's students than the bill itself.
If you'd like to try this idea, here are a few interesting facts to include with the $1 bill. (These and other facts about money are available from the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing [BEP] and the Atlanta Fed's brochure Dollars and Cents: Fundamental Facts about U.S. Money.)
Federal Reserve Districts
- $1 notes make up about 45 percent of U.S. currency printed by the BEP.
- George Washington's portrait was first used on $1 notes on Series 1869 United States Notes.
- The first currency note to include the Great Seal of the United States as part of the design was the $1 Silver Certificate, Series 1935. The seal has appeared on the reverse (green) side of all $1 notes since then.
- Until July 1929 U.S. currency was 7.42 inches by 3.13 inches. Currency printed since 1929 is 6.14 inches by 2.61 inches, a size easier to handle and less expensive to produce.
- The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department, produces currency for the Federal Reserve System to replace damaged or worn notes or to support economic growth. Federal Reserve Banks issue currency according to the need in their districts. The district letter and number of the issuing Reserve Bank (see the table) appear in separate places on the face of a $1 note.
Special thanks to Debra Crable for sharing her successful classroom practice with others.
By Jackie Morgan, economic and financial education specialist, Nashville Branch