as a phrase, 'dead presidents' is used for US paper currency--well, except for Hamilton and Franklin. today I learned of one more exception: Salmon P. Chase. he was Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, and as a wartime exigency, he reluctantly instituted paper currency. he was originally pictured on the 1-dollar bill and was known as Old Mr. Greenbacks until some years later when, now Chief Justice, he ruled that paper currency was unconstitutional! he later appeared on the $10,000 dollar-buck note, which was last printed in 1946.
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/19990420.html
Geez, how could anybody name their kid Salmon?? Yuck!
1.) Where did the phrase dead presidents come from? Also, it seems pretty inaccurate, considering that a third of the most common denominations do NOT have presidents on them.
2.) From the link: Salmon P. Chase is one of only three non-presidents to be commemorated on cash money. Why do we say cash money? What other kind of money, or cash for that matter, is there? What about people in other countries? Do you-all say this?
Any medium of exchange is "money", e.g. cheques, bills of exchange, money orders, yadda, yadda. Cash is merely the fiat currency, i.e. the one declared by the state to be so. Cash is the most easily "negotiated" currency, because its nominal value and status are given by legislative fiat.
HTH
Always an interesting subject, cash! When I was young we used the word to refer to coins specifically, and I still tend to use it that way which often confuses people.
Cash – n. any of various Asian coins of small denomination, especially a copper and lead coin with a square hole in its center. From Portuguese caixa, from Tamil kacu, a small coin.
In old Chinese currency 1000cash = 100 candareens = 10 maces = 1 tale
Presumably the ‘tale’ has connections with the Greek ‘talent’ (a unit of money) referred to in Jesus’ parable of the talents.
The possibility of a tale/talent connection never occurred to me.
The Greek is talanton -- originally a balance, or in the plural a pair of scales. Then a weight (particularly of gold) and then the amount of money.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?E24413625Bingley
Interesting again. The 'tale' was also used as a measure of weight of gold and silver. Certainly appears to be a connection between the two. Then again, I am using modern English to represent the sound of the Chinese word and of the Greek word, so what does that really tell us?
Interesting, then, that the silver currency used in Europe from the 13th century onwards was called "thalers", a short form of the name of the village where the silver was mined. This in due course and with the appropriate vowel and consonant shifts, became ... tahdah! the dollar.
When in Philippines, we referred to paper U.S.A. dollars as "green" because of the color on one side of the bills to distinguish it from the Philippine paper currency which was also called cash.
Any active military among us or recent retireees who can tell us if it still current usage?
And is cash-for-paper-money used in other countries and if so, where?
I hadn't heard "dead Presidents" until after the movie "Dead Poets Society." However when I did hear the phrase I immediately knew it meant paper money (not coins.)
http://www.moneyfactory.com/section.cfm/4 for pictures of US currency.
Not in the history on $2 bills is that they were often considred bad luck - possibly because they were often confused with $1 and you could be short changed. The "cure" was to tear off a little piece of the top right hand corner.
For lots of other neat stuff click :
http://www.ustreas.gov/topics/currency/index.htmlI was having my car washed after getting it off the boat in Honolulu and proffered a $10 bill for the service. The manager said "I'll give you a free car wash if you can tell me how many cars are on the back of the bill." I identified the number correctly (4) and got a free wash!
http://www.treas.gov/education/faq/currency/denominations.html
for answerss to questions on current denominations of currency - largest bills ever printed, present range of bills and that pesky $1 million bill.
Tale, talent, thaler, dollar--neat!
Cool links, wow. Look what I discovered about the center that's 30 miles down the road from me (Ft. Knox ):
In the past, the Depository has stored the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, Lincoln's Gettysburg address, three volumes of the Gutenberg Bible, and Lincoln's second inaugural address.
In addition to gold bullion, the Mint has stored valuable items for other government agencies. The Magna Carta was once stored there. The crown, sword, scepter, orb, and cape of St. Stephen, King of Hungary also were stored at the Depository, before being returned to the government of Hungary in 1978.
The Depository is a classified facility. No visitors are permitted, and no exceptions are made.
RE:Interesting, then, that the silver currency used in Europe from the 13th century onwards was called "thalers", a short form of the name of the village where the silver was mined. This in due course and with the appropriate vowel and consonant shifts, became ... tahdah! the dollar.
What is even more interesting, is a couple of hundred years before that, is traders from the east(ie, germany)via the norsemen- brought silver coin to england. it was high quality stuff, and was refered to to as easterling silver.. and became sterling.
Another interesting fact about the $2 bill: Way back (say, before the 1960s), when we had cash pay lines twice a month aboard ship, the U.S. Navy paid its sailors a substantial part of their salary in $2 bills (in San Diego, anyway and maybe in other locations as well). The purpose was to impress on the civilian community how much the navy was contributing to the economy.
I didn't think the $2 bill was introduced until the 70's... was that just a re-design?
In reply to:
Look what I discovered about the center that's 30 miles down the road from me (Ft. Knox )
Good luck with the tunnel, Jackie.
Bingley
Ssh--SSH!
The purpose was to impress on the civilian community how much the navy was contributing to the economy.
When Pease Air Force Base was first opened they paid the troops in silver dolars for the same reason.
As to $2 bills - I remember them from my teens which was way back in the 1940s!