I thought this was kinda neat and as a Maryland resident I thought I should

add it to my collection. 2003 A $2.00 STATE BILLS." MARYLAND " UNC.

Government spends twice what coins are worth in minting

CENTS INSENSIBILITY

PENNIES FROM HELL: CHANGE WE CAN'T BELIEVE IN

Government spends twice what coins are worth in minting

The cost for the U.S. government to produce pennies and nickels is more than the face value of the coins, a government watchdog points out.

Judicial Watch, in a statement Wednesday, called it an “egregious waste” and a “fleecing.”

The U.S. Treasury’s practice, Judicial Watch said, “means hundreds of millions of coins have been sold well below cost.”

“Incredibly, the government has knowingly done this for at least eight years and actually documented the egregious waste in several reports though nothing has been done to stop it,” Judicial Watch said. “In fact, both the Treasury and the Bureau of the Mint have extensive documentation on this, yet it continues today.”

Judicial Watch cited a 17-page 2012 U.S. Treasury report that presented the key information in the closing paragraphs.

“Challenges also exist with coin production,” the report said. “In recent years, the [U.S.] Mint reported that the cost of producing penny and nickel coins were double their face value and that metal prices have caused the production costs to be higher than the coins’ face value for the past six years.”

See the huge selection of financial advice in the WND Superstore, from Dave Ramsey’s “Smart Money Smart Kids” to “The Money Masters,” “I Want Your Money” and “The End of Money.”

The report said Treasury “also suspended production of the dollar coins to save money in production and storage costs due to excess supplies on hand and low demand for the coins.”

Judicial Watch commented that if “a private business operated in this manner, it would surely go broke in no time.”

The buried reference to the cost of producing money was noticed by a lawyer who brought it to the watchdog group’s attention.

“The audit also mentions the boondoggle surrounding the suspended dollar coins. Low demand and the high cost to store the excess supplies led the Treasury to stop making them yet in fiscal year 2011 production costs of the unpopular dollar coin were about a fifth of its value, according to the report,” Judicial Watch said.

The organization said Treasury is “well known for its transgressions not to mention wasting public funds.”

Earlier this year, Judicial Watch found Treasury paid an upscale public relations firm $112.7 million to promote money.

The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing paid to educate the public about the redesign of the $100, $50, $20, $10 and $5 notes.

Judicial Watch said American taxpayers received in “the fleecing” to promote an established product that needs no promotion “education materials on the new bills in 18 foreign languages, awareness programs aimed at domestic and Latin American markets, stakeholder and media outreach and an interactive website.”

The U.S. produced 6 billion pennies in 2012 and more than 7 billion in 2013, with a combined face value of about $130 million. About 1 billion nickels were made in 2012 and about 1.2 billion in 2013.

        Found this on the internet and was so fascinated by

                           it I had to share with you collectors.

            

Change The Way You Look At A Dollar Bill

http://screen.yahoo.com/change-way-look-dollar-bill-185128465.html?format=embed&player_autoplay=false">

Lets see if you can tell me when is a pound not 16 ounces?  Answer later if anyone doesn't know.Here is a silver trading unit for silver 31.1 grams .999 fine silver

Troy weight is a system of units of mass customarily used for precious metals and gemstones. There are 12 troy ounces per troy pound, rather than the 16 ounces per pound found in the more common avoirdupois system. The troy ounce is 480 grains, compared with the avoirdupois ounce, which is 437½ grains. Both systems use the same grain defined by the international yard and pound agreement of 1959 as exactly 0.06479891 gram. Although troy ounces are still used to weigh gold, silver, and gemstones, troy weight is no longer used in most other applications.

United States two-dollar bill

The United States two-dollar bill ($2) is a current denomination of U.S. currency. The third U.S. President (1801–09), Thomas Jefferson is featured on the obverse of the note. The reverse features an engraved modified reproduction of the painting The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull.

The bill was discontinued in 1966 but was reintroduced 10 years later as a potential cost-saving measure. Today, it is seldom seen in circulation, and as a result, the production of the note is the lowest of U.S. banknotes: fewer than 1% of all notes currently produced are $2 bills. This comparative scarcity in circulation, coupled with a lack of public awareness that the bill is still in circulation, has also inspired urban legends and occasionally has created problems for people trying to use the bill to make purchases.n April, 1976, the Treasury Department reintroduced the $2 bill as a cost-saving measure.^[22] Series 1976 $2 bills were redesigned and issued as a Federal Reserve Note. The obverse design remains basically unchanged since 1929 and features the same portrait of Jefferson. A green treasury seal and serial numbers replace the red used on the previous United States Notes. Since the reissue of the bill coincided with the United States Bicentennial, it was decided to use a bicentennial themed design on the reverse. An engraved rendition of John Trumbull's The Declaration of Independence replaced Monticello on the reverse. However, only 42 of the 47 persons in the painting are included in the engraving.

My  Series 1976 $2 bills

In 1929, when all U.S. currency was changed to its current size, the $2 bill was issued only as a United States Note. The obverse featured a cropped version of Thomas Jefferson's portrait that had been on previous $2 bills. The reverse featured Jefferson's home, the Monticello. The note's seal and serial numbers were red. The Series of 1928 $2 bill featured the treasury seal superimposed by the United States Note obligation to the left and a large gray TWO to the right

Here is my 1928 Two Dollar Bill

.Anyway, here are 18 facts you probably didn't know about all those $2 bills you're currently squirreling away for no good reason:

1. Although Thomas Jefferson has been featured on the $2 bill since 1869, it was Alexander Hamilton's portrait that originally graced the front of the bill when it was introduced in 1862.
2. Jefferson's home, Monticello, was first featured on the bill's reverse side in 1929. The Monticello gift shop reportedly now gives them out as change to encourage their circulation.
3. In 1925, the U.S. government tried -- unsuccessfully -- to increase the popularity of the $2 bill by placing one in federal employee pay envelopes.
4. After years of public indifference to the $2 bill, production was finally discontinued in 1966, only to be restarted as part of the U.S. Bicentennial celebration in 1976.
5. The revised $2 bill from 1976 replaced Monticello with a depiction of John Trumbull's painting "Declaration of Independence."
6. Industrious folks looking to create a moneymaking collectible had the new $2 bills postmarked by the U.S. Postal Service on their first day of issue (April 13, 1976).
7. Unfortunately, so many of them did so that, even today, there are enough postmarked bills floating around to ensure they don't command much above the $2 bill's face value.
8. As a general rule of thumb, if a $2 bill has a red Treasury seal and serial numbers, it's at least a somewhat valuable collectible. If the bill has a green Treasury seal and serial numbers, then it's probably not worth more than face value.
9. Believe it or not, $2 bills are seen in circulation so rarely that some people think they're counterfeit upon first encountering them.
10. In 2005, a Baltimore man was arrested and held in custody until Secret Service agents could verify that the 57 $2 bills he used to pay Best Buy for installing a radio-CD player in his son's car were genuine.
11. Actually, it's a wonder we don't see $2 bills more often; as late as the turn of the 21st century, more than $1.1 billion worth of the bills were in circulation.
12. For its part, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing continues to print $2 bills, including 230 million of them in 2006. Even so, $2 bills make up just 1% of all U.S. bills in circulation.
13. In 1989, Geneva Steel in Provo, Utah, paid its employee bonuses with $2 bills to highlight the importance of the steel mill to the local economy. That fact became obvious after the rare bills began appearing in stores throughout the surrounding communities.
14. Then again, not every merchant is enamored with $2 bills. Over the years, there have been more than a few claims of businesses refusing to accept them as legal tender.
15. According to the U.S. Treasury, merchants aren't legally obligated to accept $2 bills -- or bills of any other denomination. Yes, they have to accept U.S. dollars, but those dollars don't have to be in the form of coins and paper money.
16. Legally, there is nothing stopping vendors from choosing to accept payment in U.S. dollars for goods and services only via credit cards or other electronic means.
17. The next time you pay for something using a $2 bill, the odds are that the cashier will have to put it under the cash drawer. That's because most businesses prefer to use the register's five bill slots for ones, fives, 10s, 20s, and checks or coupons.
18. Speaking of spare change, for quite a while now strip clubs have been including $2 bills in their customers' change whenever possible to help increase tip income for their dancers. Well, at least that's what I've been told.

Silver certificates are a type of representative moneyissued between 1878 and 1964 in the United States as part of its circulation of paper currency.^[1] They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, which had effectively placed the United States on a gold standard.^[2] The certificates were initially redeemable for their face value of silver dollar coins and later (for one year – 24 June 1967 to 24 June 1968) in raw silver bullion.^[1] Since 1968 they have been redeemable only in Federal Reserve Notes and are thus obsolete, but still valid legal tender.^[1]



I have over  100 $1.00 Dollar  Silver Certificates in various state of circulation.  I also have several $5.00 Silver Certificates

Barr Notes

Joseph W. Barr served as Secretary of the Treasury from December 21, 1968 to January 20, 1969. There are fewer notes bearing his facsimile signature than notes imprinted with signatures of other Secretaries of the Treasury because of his short tenure in that office. There were 458,880,000 $1 Federal Reserve Notes issued to five of the 12 Federal Reserve Districts.    These five (5) Barr Notes of mine are uncirculated and run in consecutive numbers

Buffalo Nickle

The Buffalo Nickel (also known as the Indian Head Nickel) was minted from 1913 to 1938. It was designed by the sculptor James Earle Fraser. They were made in the Philadelphia, Denver (D) And San Francisco (S) mints. Since the buffalo head nickel was made from 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel, they are not as prone to pricing volatility as much as gold and silver coins.  My collection is far  from

complete. I may never be able to afford the 1937- D 3 legged coin. Here is why. Burt maybe one day. But here is my collection which is still a work in progress:

The 1931-S is a very interesting coin.  The original mintage of 1,200,000 makes it the second lowest mintage Buffalo nickel, after the 1926-S (970,000 originally minted). But the 1931-S is rare in circulated grades but not that rare in mint state. By 1930, some pioneering dealers, such as PCGS CoinFacts Coin Dealer Hall of Fame member Wayte Raymond, had starting saving original uncirculated rolls of newly minted coins. Mintage was a big factor in the decision making process. The 1931-S Buffalo was such a low mintage that quite a few uncirculated specimens were put away in the year of issue. In fact, there may be more uncirculated examples in existence than circulated ones. (This low mintage saving phenominum was repeated years later with the 1950-D Jeffereson nickel, another issue that's rarer circulated than uncirculated.) The very late dates, i.e. the 1936-1938 issues, are much more plentiful in mint state than the 1931-S, but other than that, the 1931-S is just not that tough to find. The mint state survivors usually have a decent strike and luster can be quite frosty. Interestingly, while fairly common in Gem MS65, the 1931-S is somewhat scarce in MS66, and nearly impossible to find in MS67.

Other Features


Denomination
5C
Mint Location
San Francisco, California
Mint Mark
S
Diameter
21.2 millimeters
Weight
5 grams
Mintage
12
Composition
75% Copper, 25% Nickel
Designer
James Earle Fraser
Edge
Plain

Two Bank Notes from My home town Salisbury Maryland