VCU

Did you know coins are History In your Pocket (H.I.P.)? You'll learn why, and have fun with games and other activities when you visit the official U.S. Mint site for kids. Take a look!

Do you know what a mint is? Besides being a refreshing piece of candy, it's also the place where the U.S. Government makes our coin money (nickels, dimes, etc).

Agent Redfox would like to form a Secret Savers spy ring! Would you like to join? Who would you be spying on? How about George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton … all the people whose faces appears on our paper money.

Fast counters can count to 200 in a minute. That puts them at 1,200 in an hour. At this rate, it would take over 9,500 years to count to a trillion!

O.K., so historical Americans are on the front of our money, but what’s on the back?

For one thing, it earns interest.  The credit union keeps track of how much money you have in your savings account and multiplies that amount by an interest rate (which can change according to the economy). This result is the interest, and is added to your account. Interest is a reward you get just for keeping your money at the credit union!

•  The U.S. Mint produces between 11 and 20 billion coins every year.

•  The U.S. Department of the Treasury first issued paper money in 1862 to help finance the
   Civil War and make up for the shortage of coins.

•  How long does money last? That depends on the amount.

Before money, people bought things by trading other things such as shells, cocoa beans, even camels! Here in the U.S., we use the dollar. But not everyone uses the dollar. People in other parts of the world have their own money. Here are some of the other varieties: