Fifth Grade
Worksheets
Making Money
Did you know that a dollar bill, a five-dollar bill, a ten-dollar bill, and a one hundred-dollar bill all weigh the same? The approximate weight of all U.S. bills is one gram. There are 454 grams in one pound. If you had a pound of one-dollar bills, you would have $454.00!
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has been printing paper bills since 1861. During the Civil War, bills were printed for three cents, five cents, ten cents, twenty-five cents, and fifty cents. The paper "coins" had to be printed because people were saving their metal coins. They knew the metal coins would always be worth something.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing calls bills "notes." The largest note ever printed was the $100,000 gold certificate. The largest note in use by the general public now is the one hundred-dollar bill.
The average amount of time a one-dollar bill lasts in use is about twenty-one months. One hundred dollar-bills last about eighty-nine months. They last longer because they are not passed from one person to another as many times as one-dollar bills are.
Only one woman has had her picture on American currency notes. Martha Washington's picture was put on one-dollar notes in 1886. Her husband, George Washington, had his picture printed on one-dollar notes in 1869.
