Coins and Currency Weekly
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Coins and Currency Weekly(c) is Published by Alan Cohen 

October 23, 1998

Issue #5

All you could want to know about paper money

Most of us use paper money for what it is meant to be used for - 
a universally recognized way to complete a transaction. With US 
currency not changing dramatically (until recently) for some 70 
years, it is not surprising that people don’t look at their 
currency. With the new $20 bill being released recently, this 
is starting to change. Love it, hate it, or don’t care about it, 
people are talking about it. 

How much do you know about currency, especially US Currency. The 
following statistics are from the Federal Reserve Bank of NY 
(http://www.ny.frb.org/pihome/fedpoint/fed01.html)

There is about $400 billion U.S. currency in circulation; the 
majority is held outside the United States.

Denomination of Bill		Life Expectancy (Years)
$1				1.5
$5				2
$10				3
$20				4
$50				9
$100				9

Another place to check out is the Bureau of Engraving and 
Printing, the folks that make the money. Their web site is 
at: http://www.bep.treas.gov/index.htm - You can find out 
anything you might want to know about this government 
department, even purchase uncut currency.

The coming Euro will make the redesign of US currency seem 
like a small event. The current countdown shows that there 
are only 66 days until banking begins for the Euro, and 1162 
days until coins and currency are produced. 

Susan B Anthony’s Again?

One question being asked is whether or not there will be enough 
Susan B. Anthony dollars to last until the new dollar coin is 
minted in 2000. It seems that there will likely need to be more 
minted in 1999. A controversy erupted when people speculated 
that the date of the coin would be 1981, the last year they were 
produced. The problem is that 1981 coins were not produced for 
general circulation, only special mint sets included this date. 
If the mint went back and produced more 1981 dated coins, then 
people who purchased these back then would not be very happy. 
Word comes from The Mint that if these coins are minted, then 
they will have a 1999 date, not a 1981 date. Also, these coins 
will not be included in packaged US Mint sets. 

Is there a precedent for this happening - a long absence with the 
same design? There sure is, and ironically, it happened with 
another dollar coin. The Morgan dollar ceased production in 1904, 
only to be produced for one year, in 1921. The Peace Dollar then 
superseded the Morgan dollar. It looks like history might repeat 
itself, with the Anthony dollar being brought back after a long 
hiatus, only to be produced for one year before giving way to a 
new dollar coin.


Until Next Week,

Alan Cohen

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Coins and Currency Weekly(c) (CCW) is published by Alan Cohen. 
It is a weekly newsletter devoted to coins and currency - Current news,
viewpoints, and other collecting information. 

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