Here are some fascinating facts about finance, courtesy of Investigating Answers, that I found to be quite interesting. I found #5 to be the most surprising… Did you know any of these already?
- The average credit card holder has 3.5 credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve.
- The Secret Service Division was created on July 5, 1865 in Washington, D.C., to suppress counterfeit currency.
- The world’s first bank was Monte Dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472 and headquartered in Tuscany, Italy. It still operates today.
- 70% of American students have credit cards, according to a report in the International Journal of Business and Social Science.
- JP Morgan’s uncle, James Pierpont, wrote “Jingle Bells” in 1857.
- The United States generates more than 20% of the world’s GDP with about 4% of the world’s population.
- The birth of modern banking is credited to the medieval Knights Templar. They took oaths of poverty; therefore donating all of their cash and property to the Order. Nobles often used the Order to safeguard their money while they were off fighting in the Crusades.
- The 1792 law that established the United States Mint also made coin defacement, counterfeiting, and embezzlement by Mint employees punishable by death.
- Credit cards were not always made of plastic. There have been credit tokens made from metal coins, metal plates, and celluloid, metal, fiber, and paper cards.
- By the end of the Civil War, between one-third and one-half of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit.