One of the most powerful currencies in the world is the United States Dollar. The term dollar actually became common since the colonial period, which are approximately 200 years ago where the Europeans started to colonize the America. To let you learn more about it, her are some amazing facts about the money in the United States. How do Americans spend it? Are Americans great at saving or splurging? Are people in America rich? Keep reading to find out more.

#1 $10 = Rich

Apparently, if you are a normal American citizen who has $10 in your pocket then you are considered to be richer than 25% of the rest of America. And if you think that is not shocking enough, then you’ll be more surprised when you find out that 6 members of the Walton clan or also known as the family who is known to be the owners of the very popular shopping center, Walmart, are actually richer than the lower 30% of some Americans. That just means that there are actually 6 people who are wealthier than about 90 million Americans today.

#2 Can’t retire at 65

Did you know that more than 90% Americans who are employed could not retire at the age of 65? This is according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute and an approximate of 96% of people who are employed at the present time, will not be able to collect their benefits from Social Security retirement when they finally turn 65 because an average person living in America is now living longer so the administration of the Social Security department have to adjust to being able to compensate for the additional payments they have to make.

#3 The Mystery of “13” on the $1 Bill

A lot of people have noticed it, but there are still a few who doesn’t know about it and this is for you. Get a dollar bill and take a closer look at it and you will notice that there are a couple of things tied to the number “13” which refers to the 13 original colonies. There are the 13 stars located above the eagle, 13 various representations of the number 13, there are 13 steps on the pyramid (which most people failed to notice), there are also 13 horizontal stripes, which is on the top of the shield and also 13 vertical bars which are also on the shield. There are also 13 leaves and 13 berries that can be found on the olive branch in one of the eagle’s talons, 13 characters can be seen in 1776 from its Roman numeral form which is MDCCLXXVI. These are just a couple of “13” things that can be found on the dollar bill, check out a few more to see for yourself.

#4 $100,000 Dollar Bill

In 1935, the very first and only $100,000 bill was created and it was printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing because it needs to be used strictly for business conducted between banks so technically it was never used in public. There are also $500, $1000, and $5,000 bills in the past, but from 1969 up till today, the only known largest denomination printed in the United States is the $100 bill.

#5 Monopoly Money > Real Money

According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, they need to follow a certain budget when it comes to printing money and it is about $826.7 million for the printing costs which can produce about 26 million bills a day with a total value of more than $1.3 billion. So technically, the famous board game, Monopoly, prints out more money,  play money with about $50 billion a year. How crazy is that?

#6 Tear Money with 8000 folds

Now, this is something you should totally try (if you want to waste money?) Apparently, it will take about 8000 folds to actually tear a bill apart. According to the Federal Reserve, when the dollar bill looks worn out, it will be removed from circulation and be replaced with a crisp new version because a bill’s life actually depends on its denomination. For example, $1 has a life expectancy of 5.9 years providing it wouldn’t be excessively used.

#7 Dirty Money

It is known for a fact that one of the dirtiest things in the world is money. According to a study conducted in 2002, 94% of the paper money is actually contaminated by millions of bacteria, however, some of these microorganisms are not really harmful to your health, only about 7% are hazardous and it can cause pneumonia, flu virus, and staph infection.