26 Fun Facts about Money - mental_floss List Show Ep. 330 | Mental Floss

Hi, I'm Adrienne. Welcome to our lovely salon

This is mental floss video. And did you know that some currency is cleaner than others

In 2013, Turkish researchers coded seven different currencies in all sorts of bacteria to test how long they survived

The Croatian kuni won, with bacteria only surviving three hours. And because it's made of plastic

the Romanian leu was still infectious the next day. And that's the first of many facts about money and currency

that I'm going to share with you today. Let's start with some history of currency

Originally, people bartered and traded to get the goods they needed. Animals are actually one of the oldest forms of currency

Experts believe that people started trading cattle and livestock around 9,000 BCE

Shells were another early currency. There's evidence that they were used for money at various points in time all around the world

including Asia, Australia, and North America. In Africa, there were places where shells were still currency as late as 1900 CE

China is responsible for what we recognize as money today. For instance, they started making coins during the Stone Age

And many experts consider China's decorated leather money from around 118 BCE

to be the earliest form of the banknote Then during the Tang Dynasty which was around 618 to 907 CE paper money became part of Chinese currency Western countries didn begin to use paper money until around the 17th century

On the island of Yap, which is now part of Micronesia, they used rye stones as money until the early 20th century

Rye stones were carved out of limestone, and they could be as large as 12 feet in diameter

Legend has it that the British got the term quid, meaning one pound, from the expression quid pro quo

a Latin phrase referring to an equal exchange. Since the 12th century, the UK has had about one trial of the picks each year

This is a ceremony to determine that coins have been minted using the proper standards

In Australia, a man named Francis Greenway appeared on the $10 note from 1966 to 1993

which is interesting because he was convicted of forgery in the 19th century

It's believed he's the only forger to ever appear on a country's currency

After World War I, Germany experienced such bad inflation that many people used bank notes for things like wallpaper

because they were worth so little. Another country that's dealt with inflation is Zimbabwe

In fact, in 2009, the country's officials had to create a hundred trillion dollar note in order to keep up with inflation

It was worth around 40 US cents. And Hungary went through serious inflation in the 1940s

At one point they made a hundred quintillion pango note which was worth about 20 cents in America at the time The original ATMs required vouchers imprinted with radioactive ink or else the machine wouldn be able to read and process them

Speaking of ATMs, there's one in Antarctica. Wells Fargo installed one at the Science Hub McMurdo Station in 1998

For centuries, Italian banks have accepted cheese in exchange for good rates on loans

Nowadays, a cheese maker can get a 3-5% interest rate on a loan if they leave the cheese at

the bank to mature. Canadian bank notes have a tactile feature for people who are visually impaired

The $5 note has 6 dots, the $10 note has 12, the $20 note has 18, and so on

Each year the US government destroys a lot of money. That's why you still get crisp dollars from the bank, and it's rare to find a bill older

than the 1990s. In 2010, the government got rid of 2.6 billion $1 bills

The average time a US bill is in circulation before being destroyed is fairly short, about

five years. And this depends on what it's worth. For instance, a $1 bill lasts about 3.7 years, a $20 bill lasts about 5.1 years, and a $50

bill lasts the longest, 12.6 years. Because who uses $50 bills? People rarely use physical money anymore

About 95% of legal transactions that take place in the U.S. today don't involve an exchange

of physical dollars or coins. And that might be a good thing

According to a study conducted at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth in 2009 90 of dollar bills contain traces of cocaine Queen Elizabeth II has appeared on currencies from 33 separate countries

The first time was in 1935, when she was featured on the $20 note in Canada

She was 9 years old. Talk about overachiever. According to the European Commission, the parallel lines in the euro symbol

represent the stability of the currency. Really? One unstable part of the currency ended up being the 500 euro note

In 2010 they were removed from many businesses after experts determined that 90% of the notes

in circulation were connected to crime, tax evasion, or terrorism. But only 120,000 1 euro coins are taken out of circulation annually for being counterfeit

Compare that with the 2 million 1 pound coins the UK removes

It could be because the pound is more attractive to forgers. Finally, I returned to the salon to tell you that when JK Rowling was asked about the Wizarding World's currency

she claimed that a galleon is worth, quote, about five pounds, though the exchange rate varies

Thanks for watching Mental Floss Video, which is made with the help of all these nice people

Again, I'm Adrienne. I also host Crash Course Economics, which you can check out here

And let me know in the comment section what you would buy in Dagon Alley with a galleon. Bye