Sunday, August 30, 2009

Value of U.S. Currency in Circulation

Note the difference in life expectancy between $1 bills (1.8 years) and $5 bills (1.3 years, less than the $1 bill) and $100 bills (7.4 years).

From Visual Economics.

Listen to bluesman Little Walter sing about them "
Dead Presidents."

Originally posted at Carpe Diem.

3 Comments:

At 8/31/2009 11:38 AM, Anonymous Benny said...

I would love to hear a smarty somewhere explain this: There is $2,844 in circulation for every man, woman and child in the USA.
Your average family of four keeps $10k in the piggy bank?

 
At 8/31/2009 12:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's not clear if that $2.58 trillion is in the U.S. alone. If it isn't, that would explain it. Millions of households around the world keep physical U.S. dollars, sometimes an amazingly large amount.

 
At 8/31/2009 6:00 PM, Blogger KO said...

Here's part of the answer:

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/elsalvador/4165020005.html
"The unit of currency in El Salvador is the U.S. dollar.

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/ecuador/0811020005.html#ixzz0PnnK7Blt
"Since 2000, the official unit of currency in Ecuador has been the U.S. dollar."

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/vietnam/2403020005.html#ixzz0Pnnr3Gd8
"Note that the U.S. dollar is used widely in both Vietnam and Cambodia"

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/argentina/2296020005.html#ixzz0PnpFnYj2
"(In fact, some ATMs in Buenos Aires dispense U.S. dollars as well as pesos.)"

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/brazil/0813020005.html#ixzz0Pnq3ttST
"Even in the smallest towns people will know the exchange rate, and someone will be happy to take the U.S. dollars off your hands."

http://www.roughguides.com/website/travel/destination/content/default.aspx?titleid=144&xid=idh226989960_0067
"The only foreign currency that's likely to get you anywhere in the Philippines is the US dollar, as other currencies aren't widely accepted"

Plus the amount of currency in play at bank vaults, ATMs, retailers, etc. is a sizeable number. And the treasury doesn't know how much money has been accidentally sent to landfills, burned in fires, eaten by dogs, buried in the earth and rotted, etc. They assume it's all still cirulating unless it's been exchanged.

 

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