[Texas Mom]

I know it's not news but thought it was worth posting.

[keithtoo]

Its also interesting to note that although the dollar bill is referred to as 'paper currency' it is technically a cloth or a rag. That is why it doesnt fall apart when we accidentally wash it with our clothes.

[My2Cents]

Good read. Thanks.

The one-dollar bill in my pocket has all of what the article describes, but the picture on the front is of Martin Sheen. Somehow, I don't think it's legit.

[2timothy3.16]

Thank you.

[rontorr]

Good job, this is the most complete that I have ever seen it. Every year or two, I come across this info in one place or another. It is good to read it once in a while to remind ourselves. And it IS news to those who don't know it, thanks a lot.

[NoCalEyes]

Eduational Bump

[kissthis]

If you don't like them, I'll take all of them off your hands that you can round up.

[The Other Harry]

I know it's not news but thought it was worth posting.

I think so too.

[Library Lady]

I know I'm going to get flamed for this but here goes. . . 13 also represents the tribe of Manasseh from which some scholars believe the United States is descended.

[VRWCmember]

I thought maybe it would only take 13 posts to get this thread moved to "Chat" aka "General Interest", where it belongs.

[Tribune7]

Thanks. Good post.

[Tribune7]

ping

[krb]

13 signers of the Declaration of Independence,

The Declaration of Independence had something like 56 signers.

[DonQ]

If you look on the front of the bill, you will see the United States Treasury Seal. On the top you will see the scales for a balanced budget. In the center you have a carpenter's square, a tool used for an even cut.

Not exactly. The balance scale is for measuring precious metals; the Treasury is NOT responsible for a balanced budget. The center is an heraldic bend, a mere dividing line between the scales and the key, not a carpenter's square - and the easiest way to prove this is to hold the corner of one bill against this bend and you'll see that it's not a true right angle.

Some of the details of the Great Seal on the back of the dollar bill are of comparatively recent vintage. The original seal - made around 1789 - was very crude art and looks as if I had doodled it on a cocktail napkin (in the original, it would be hard to identify the eagle as something other than an underfed turkey). But around 1880, the govt commissioned Louis Comfort Tiffany, the very famous jeweler and artist, to work up a new and more artistic seal; many of the details mentioned in this essay originated in Tiffany's artwork ... without any evidence that they were any other than Tiffany's own innovations. The significant features of the front of the Seal (the part with the eagle) is the recurrence of the number thirteen, for the 13 original colonies (13 stars, 13 clouds, 13 leaves in the olive branch, 13 arrows, 13 feathers in the tail, etc.) - most of these did not exist prior to Tiffany's work. The pyramid (on the back of the Great Seal) rather obviously, to us, does not match the angles or proportions of the Egyptian pyramids ... but this discrepency would have been little known or recognized in Tiffany's time or earlier.

[Brian Allen]

The $ sign is important, too.

Properly written in its modern form it has two vertical strokes superimposed on a letter "S." When it started out in life, however, that part of it now represented by only the two verticals were the vertical sides of the letter "U."

The $ sign is Our Nation's name "US."

[tophat9000]

Actually I did know this... my dad taught me

Also I belive that the United States is the only country with a two sided Great Seal

[Investment Biker]

Also note that the thirteen stars above the eagle form the Star of David. I understand that this is in tribute to a Jewish man that help Washington finance the war of independence.

[Question_Assumptions]

Actually, the believe that 13 is unlucky is hardly universal. In Eastern Asia, "4" is often the unlucky number.

[chainsaw]

click here The US dollar bill. click the down arrow and select the US Dollar Bill.,

[Hanging Chad]

I don't know where you got this article, since you did not source it,
but it contains several errors.

[HenryLeeII]

Thirteen is supposedly a good-luck number in Sicily.