Well it is beginning to look like Republicans are going to make a shambles of that “full faith and credit of the United States” stuff. Not paying your bills when you have money is, well, a pretty stupid thing to do. Not the kind of thing that most thinking people would do if they wanted to be invited to the next neighborhood barbecue.

So just what is this dollar that so many want to hang on to so dearly? There must be something about it that is just so intoxicating that we can’t let it go even when we actually owe them to someone else. So let’s just see what you know about the dollar and the monetary system:

1) Any idea where the word DOLLAR comes from?
a) from an early zinc coin that was “duller” than the more desired siver or gold
b) from an earlier Dutch coin the “daler”
c) from the time when Dutch flowers were the monetary standard and the ‘dahlia’ was the highest valued
d) from a large French coin the “dolier”

2) In the early days of the United States dollar coins were minted with a precise amount of:
a) Gold
b) platinum
c) titanium
d) silver

3) In recent days a coin of large value has been proposed to cover some of our debts. How big was the coin in question to be?
a) $1 million
b) $1 billion
c) $1 trillion
d) $10 trillion

4) During WWII the value of international currencies were set at a meeting held at:
a) Potsdam
b) Buenos Aires
c) Bretton Woods
d) Berlin

5) The largest denomination bill currently printed by the Federal Reserve is:
a) the $100 bill
b) the $500 bill
c) the $50 bill
d) the $1,000 bill

6) The largest denomination bill ever printed is the:
a) The $5,000 bill
b) the $10,000 bill
c) the $100,000 bill
d) the $1,000,000 bill

7) The dollar coin has been around in various forms since the beginning of the country. Which of these has not been on the one-dollar coin?
a) Susan B. Anthony
b) Sacajawea
c) Pres. Eisenhower
d) Pres. Kennedy

8) After WWII the value of gold was set at $35/ounce. What President ended pegging the dollar to gold at $35/ounce?
a) Pres. Eisenhower
b) Pres. Johnson
c) Pres. Nixon
d) Pres. Carter

9) What denomination bill is Thomas Jefferson on?
a) the $1,000 bill
b) the $2 bill
c) the $500 bill
d) the $10 bill

10) Finally what currency were once known as “greybacks?”
a) Dollars issued under the Articles of Confederation
b) Dollars issued during the Jackson presidency
c) dollars issued by the Confederate States of America
d) dollars issued after the US left the gold standard

In my research I read that today’s dollar is worth about 3 cents compared to the 1794 dollar. That means that a television that cost $1000 in 1794 would cost around $30,000 today.

Ok – here are the answers:

1) b) most directly from the Dutch “daler” – indirectly from the german “thaler”

2) d) silver (24.056 grams)

3) c) $1 trillion

4) c) Bretton Woods

5) a) the $100 bill

6) c) The $100,000 with Woodrow Wilson on the face

7) d) Pres. Kennedy (he only got a half dollar)

8) c) Pres. Nixon in 1971. This became known as the “Nixon Shock” (one of many from Nixon)

9) b) the oft forgotten $2 bill which is still in circulation

10) c) dollars issued by the CSA