Can you say that 10 times fast? Here are fifteen sources of insight into the world of money and finance, courtesy of Didyouknow.org.
- If you stack one million US$1 bills, it would be 110m (361 ft) high and weigh exactly 1 ton.
- Queen Elizabeth II is one of the 10th wealthiest women in the world.
- In 1900, the price of gold was less than $40 per ounce. It reached $600 in 1930. In 2009 it reached $1,000 per ounce.
- The word millionaire was first used by Benjamin Disraeli in his 1826 novel Vivian Grey.
- In 1932, when a shortage of cash occurred in Tenino, Washington, USA, notes were made out of wood for a brief period. The wood notes came in $1, $5 and $10 values.
- The first credit card was issued by American Express in 1951.
- The term “smart money” refers to gamblers who have inside information or have arranged a fix, the gambling term for insuring the outcome of an event by illegal methods.
- A million dollars’ worth of $100 bills weighs only 10 kg (22 lb).
- The average age of Forbes’s 400 wealthiest individuals is over 60.
- The $ sign was designed in 1788 by Oliver Pollock.
- Australians are the heaviest gamblers in the world; an estimated 82% of Australians bet. That is twice as much per capita as Europeans or Americans. Yet, Australia, with less than 1% of the world population, has 20% of the world’s poker machines.
- Tourism is the world’s biggest industry, affecting 240 million jobs.
- Statistics show that people with high, medium and low income groups spend about the same amount on Christmas
- TIP is the acronym for “To Insure Promptness.”
- The NASDAQ stock exchange was totally disabled one day in December 1987 when a squirrel burrowed through a telephone line.
