Yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of when the United States officially took $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills out of circulation. How’s that Gin & Juice lyric go again? I can hear it now…“with my mind on my money and my money on my mind”. Speaking of money, last Friday I visited the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. I realize that most of you can’t remember what happened today, let alone seven days ago, but I did tell you about this visit in a previous post. I enjoyed it for the fact that there was a lot of free stuff. You can make your own currency, pose for a picture (they print it out for you) with a million bucks and take home a bag of shredded money as a souvenir. So what did I learn, you ask? I took some notes.
1.The museum has been open since 2001.
2.The U.S. Mint is not part of the Federal Reserve and in case you were wondering who actually “prints” the money, that’s the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
3.No precious metals are used in coin making, pennies are now made of zinc because copper is so expensive.
4.Besides taking a picture with a briefcase full of a million dollars, you can also stand on top of a former elevator shaft six inches deep in the floor, which is now full of $143,000 in American coins.
5.The average American dollar used to last 18 months in circulation before becoming worn, but now it’s like 42 months because we all have debit cards.
6.I also watched a video on how the Fed Reserve sets interest rates (don’t go pointing fingers at Obama just yet) and give lots of cash to the 12 private banks in Chicago and act like a non-profit. Basically, the volunteer (who’s probably a freakin’ millionaire) thinks that money’s great and the economy will be fine. Sure.
Even though you have to walk through a metal detector and get your crap x-rayed, pictures are more than welcome once you’re inside. As you can see from above, I took a whole bunch…and yes, that’s me. My face is all over the internet, so who cares if it’s in one more place? I mean, google probably already owns my identity and in twenty-five years, will be selling it to the highest bidder. Whatever, man.
