Dollar bill trivia quiz – answers

Here are the answers to the dollar bill quiz. How many did you know?

1) Which direction does the eagle face?
The eagle faces the olive branch in his right claw per the original sketch. “In 1782, Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson used elements from three different committees to produce his design. He then shared his sketch with William Barton, who added some minor changes to Thomson’s creation. The result was the Great Seal of the United States, which would be used to generally represent the federal government moving forward.”

2) Before George Washington, whose face first appeared on the one-dollar bill?
In 1862 Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, who was in charge of designing the $1 note, put his own likeness on it. Washington didn’t make his appearance until 1869.

3) What made the seizure of 900,000 counterfeit one dollar bills unexpected?
The value of the $1 denomination is so low that counterfeiters don’t believe it’s worth the risk or effort. Hollywood made a film in 1950, “Mr. 880” starring Burt Lancaster about an amiable man who specialized in forging $1 bills to survive during the depression. His copies were so bad that one set had Washington misspelled as “Wahsington.”

4) How clean is a dollar bill?
According to a 2017 study in PLOS ONE, the currency they tested from New York City had “hundreds of species of microorganisms. The most abundant were ones that cause acne, as well as plenty of harmless skin bacteria. They also identified vaginal bacteria, microbes from mouths, DNA from pets and viruses. Cash is also often streaked with drugs. In a study of 10 one-dollar bills from cities across the country, nearly 80% of them had traces of cocaine.”

5) What’s noteworthy about the Pyramid engraved on the back of the bill?
“The pyramid was originally suggested by William Barton, the consultant and artist on the third Great Seal committee in May 1782,” according to one source. However in its final rendition, “Charles Thomson specified “A Pyramid unfinished.” He put a triangle around the eye of Providence,” and explained “The pyramid signifies strength and duration.”

6) What would an * at the end of serial numbers indicate?
A “star” on a bill means it replaced a bad one. When a mistake is spotted after the serial number was overprinted, the bureau replaces the faulty item it with a “star note” before it goes into circulation. About 1 out of 100,000 sheets have errors.

7) How many times do you have to fold a bill before it breaks?
According to CNBC, you would have to fold a bill back-and-forth about 4,000 times before it actually tears. While that may sound like a lot, for dollar bills, that threshold is reached within about 22 months, the Federal Reserve reports.

8) Is the dollar bill made out of paper?
We might call it paper money, but really it’s made from a special blend of cotton and linen fibers, with red and blue minute silk fibers running through it. Crane Currency makes all the paper for the bills at its Wahconah Mill in Massachusetts beginning in 1879. During printing a special proprietary blend of ink is used, then overprinted with symbols, starched to make it water resistant and finally pressed to give it that nice crisp look.

9) Why is green the color of choice?
In 1929 the size of all paper bills were made smaller and had standard designs to make forgeries easier to identify. The new bills were printed with green ink because it was plentiful, durable and the color green was associated with stability.

10) What are some creative uses of dollar bills?

Butterflies

Airigami

Bulldog

Money Tree

Cold Hard Cash

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