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PAGE CONTENTS:
Tidbits
Diamonds
Gold
The History of Money
Why Roosevelt Is On the Dime
Million Dollar Bill (Counterfeit History)
Credit Cards
Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs)
Tidbits
The ruby, sapphire, emerald, and aquamarine
are not specific minerals.The ruby is the red and the sapphire is the blue variety of corundum.An emerald is the green variety
and an aquamarine is the blue varietyof beryl.
100,000 Swiss francs or approximately $80,000 is needed to open a Swiss bank
account.
Abraham Lincoln is the only US president facing right on an American
coin.
The term "hush money," meaning a bribe to keep someone form revealing scandalous or damaging information,
was first used in the early 1700s.
The total amount of money in a standard Monopoly game is $15,140.
If you had $10 billion in $1 bills and spent one every second, it
would take 317 years to spend them all.
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Greenbacks
No definite explanation can be made for the original choice; however, it is known that at the time of the introduction
of small-sized notes in 1929, green was continued because pigment was readily available in large quantities. Also, the color
was relatively high in its resistance to chemical and physical changes, and green was psychologically identified with the
strong and stable credit of the Government.
Where did the dollar sign come from?
An Irish immigrant to the United States is the one credited
with originating the dollar sign. Oliver Pollock sailed the high seas at the age of twenty-three, and settled in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania. This young entrepreneur rapidly established himself as a wealthy and influential West Indies trader.
Pollock moved his operation to Louisiana, where he amassed
even more wealth as a trader, and as a plantation owner. His success enabled him to provide supplies to the Patriots' cause
in the Revolutionary War, and to maintain close contact and a degree of influence with Congress. Pollock's success allowed
him easily to purchase military supplies to support "the cause," as the Spanish Empire had an outpost in New Orleans, Louisiana.
In his dealings with the Spaniards, Pollock used their currency, the peso.
In true Spanish tradition, Pollock used an abbreviation
for pesos, yet his penmanship made the abbreviation appear to be the transposition of the letters "p" and "s." Prior
to 1775, the fledgling nations monetary system was in disarray, and needed to be revamped.
By 1775, Congress decided to rectify the situation by backing
all of its legal tender with the most commonly circulated coins that were, coincidentally, Spanish coins minted in the New
World. Americans then began trading with "Spanish milled dollars," later termed "dollars," as Americans shed the "pounds"
that were the vestiges of British rule.
Congressman Robert Morris, to whom Pollock addressed his
billing records, perpetuated the use of the dollar sign, and was the first high government official to give his blessing to
the "s" with the two lines through it.
The appearance of the dollar sign in print, in a 1797 book
by Chauncey Lee, signified the acceptance of the dollar as a purely American symbol, much as is the bald eagle. And, no, the
dollar sign formed by placing the letter "U" over the letter "S" is not an abbreviation for Uncle Sam, as some have suggested!
In 1915, the average annual family income in the
United States was $687 a year. Comparably, the $40-$60k made by the average family today would be a king's ransom!
One hundred years ago (from 2002), the salary for the average U.S. worker was between $200 and $400 per year.
The euro is equal to about 90 cents U.S.
Martha Washington, Pocahontas, and Susan B. Anthony are
the only 3 women to have been represented on US currency.
In 1897 the federal government of the U.S. recalled $26
million dollars worth of one hundred-dollar bills when a counterfeit bill appeared that was so accurate it almost couldn't
be distinguished from the real thing. This was the only time in history that fake money was so well desgined that legitimate
currency had to be withdrawn.
A stack of one-dollar bills one mile high would be worth
more than $14,000,000.
If you stacked one million $1 dollar bills, the pile of
money would weigh 2,040.8 pounds. If you used $100 dollar bills, the stack would weigh only 20.4 pounds.
A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened
into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
When was money first used?
If
money is a physical object traded as standard tokens of value, then the first money was being used by 9,000 BC in the middle
east and Africa, where cattle and measures of grain were exchanged as standard units for other items like food, raw materials,
land, or wives. Among the first objects specially created as value tokens were coils of cast silver "ring money" that
were used in Mesopotamia as early as 2,500 BC. These bits of silver were weighed in shekels, the world's first standard units
of measure. The first coins were circulated in Lydia in 687 BC, according to Herodotus. Although the Chinese may have
used paper money for a short time in the same century, the first western use of paper money was not until the 18th century,
by the French.
COINS
When were the earliest coins minted?
We think a long, long time ago - In 625 B.C., metal coins were introduced in Greece. They replaced grain - usually
barley - as the medium of exchange. Stamped with a likeness of an ear of wheat, the new coins were lighter and easier to transport
than grain, and did not get moldy.
United States dimes, quarters, and half dollars have notches
all around their edges, but pennies and nickels have no notches. Notches are a remnant from days when the value
of a coin was determined by the amount of silver or gold it contained. The US mint incorporated the notches as a way of discouraging
people from shaving off small amounts of the precious metals from their coins. Less valuable coins have always contained only
cheaper metals, and so their smooth edges were allowed to remain. Although coins today no longer contain silver, the
notches have been kept as part of their design, and are useful for recognition by the visually impaired.
What was the first official U.S. coin?
The first U.S. coin was the Fugio copper penny. It was minted in 1787 to help deal with the problem of underweight
or counterfeit copper pennies circulating at the time. By minting a national coin, a standard could be established.
The coins bore a sun and sundial on the front, with
the inscription "FUGIO" (I fly) and "MIND YOUR BUSINESS." On the back were thirteen linked rings with the words "WE ARE ONE"
and "UNITED STATES." Benjamin Franklin designed the coin. Unfortunately, the Fugio cent had a troubled birth. The contractor
who had agreed to press the coins used much of the copper for another coinage, and eventually fled to Europe to avoid prosecution
by the U.S. government. Only a few thousand Fugios were ever made, and it is uncertain if any were ever put into circulation.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST U.S. COIN TO MINTED WITH
THE MOTTO "IN GOD WE TRUST?
The U.S. two-cent coin was minted between 1864 and 1873, and was the first coin to
bear the motto "In God We Trust". The motto was omitted from the new gold coins issued in 1907, causing a storm of public
criticism. As a result, legislation passed in May, 1908 made "In God We Trust" mandatory on all coins on which it had previously
appeared. Legislation approved July 11, 1955, made the appearance of "In God We Trust" mandatory on all coins and paper currency
of the United States. By Act of July 30, 1956, "In God We Trust" became the national motto of the United States.
Pennies
The Penny is the only coin currently minted in the United
States with a profile that faces to the right. All other coins - the silver dollar, half dollar, quarter, dime, and nickel
- all feature profiles that face to the left. Of course, Sacajewea's face on the dollar coin isn't in profile at all!
How is a penny different from other coins?
Other
than its color, the Penny is the only coin currently minted in the United States with a profile that faces to the right. All
other coins the silver dollar, half dollar, quarter, dime, and nickel all feature profiles that face to the left.
When did the U.S. mint its first pennies?
The
U.S. Mint was authorized to produce one-cent copper coins on April 2, 1792. Originally, there were four designs struck: the
"chain" cent, the "wreathed" cent, the "flowing hair" cent, and the "liberty" cent.
Dimes
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
WHAT PERCENT OF A NEWLY MINTED DIME IS SILVER?
No percent. As of 1965, the U.S. Mint stopped using silver to make dimes. They contain 75% copper and 25% nickel, bonded
to an inner core of pure copper. Previously, dimes were 90% silver and 10% copper.
PAPER MONEY
WHERE WAS THE WORLD'S FIRST PAPER MONEY USED?
In China in the ninth century. It was introduced due to a scarcity of the copper used for coins.
Can someone carry one million dollars around in their
wallet?
Only if it's their credit limit or they were carrying very large denominations - If you stacked one million $1
dollar bills, the pile of money would weigh 2,040.8 pounds. If you used $100 dollar bills, the stack would weigh only 20.4
pounds.
How does a bill-changing machine determine
that your bill isn't counterfeit?
In passing judgment, the machine checks for several characteristics. For instance,
by passing a light through it, the changer examines your bill's gross density (my Junior High School gym teacher would have
scored high). It also uses light rays to check the alignment of thin lines embedded in your bill. A magnet generates a signal
from the ink in your bill and it had better match the one characteristic of the ink used in printing real bills. The machine
also measures the exact length of your bill. It's a good thing the bill changer doesn't also measure the sweat on my palms
while I await it's verdict. After 30 seconds I'll sign any confession it prints out. Source: HOW DO THEY DO THAT? By
Caroline Sutton
U. S. Paper Currency
Which denominations were the first
paper currency?
The first paper notes printed in the United States were in denominations of 1 cent, 5 cents, 25
cents, and 50 cents. The U.S. Department of the Treasury first issued paper U.S. currency in 1862 to make up for the shortage
of coins and to finance the Civil War.
How did we come up with "$" as a dollar sign?
Now, where it came from: Thomas Jefferson, who stole it
from Spain. After the American Revolution, the new nation wanted to free itself from British influence and was not about to
adopt the pound and its sign as its currency. Instead, the United States, at the behest of Jefferson, turned to the Spanish
dollar. On the back of that large coin was the Two Pillars of Hercules at Gibraltar. An "S" was imposed on them simply to
show they were plural. "I'll buy that," said the US Congress. Source: EVER WONDER WHY? By Douglas B. Smith
HOW DID THE DOLLAR SIGN $ ORIGINATE?
The origin of the dollar sign is not known, but may be derived from the Spanish or Mexican "P's" that appeared
on the peso, or piastre, which are Spanish silver coins of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries marked with an "8" because
they were worth eight reals. The dollar sign "$" is probably derived from the figure `8' as it appeared on `pieces of eight'.
It was common to put two vertical lines through the S? Originally, the sign for the dollar was a capital U with a capital
S written over it. As years went by, the curve at the bottom of the U was dropped and then we had the two vertical lines through
the capital S. We got even lazier and dropped one of the vertical lines and thus our modern $.
HOW MANY DIFFERENT WAYS ARE THERE TO MAKE
CHANGE FOR A U.S. DOLLAR?
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
Change for a dollar?
If
you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in U.S. coins
without being able to make change for a dollar.
WHICH DENOMINATION OF CURRENCY
IS THE MOST COUNTERFEITED?
In the United States, the $20 is the most counterfeited, followed by the $100 note,
the $10 note, the $50 note, the $1 note, and the $5 note. The $100 is the note that is most counterfeited in foreign countries.
WHEN TRANSLATED, WHAT DO THE LATIN WORDS
MEAN ON A DOLLAR?
The Latin above the pyramid, ANNUIT COEPTIS, means "God has favored our undertaking." The Latin
below the pyramid, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, means "a new order has begun." At the base of the pyramid is the Roman Numeral
for 1776.
PRECIOUS GEMS
Are most diamonds made into rings or
necklaces?
Only about 20 percent of diamonds are made into jewels of any sort. Because they are so hard, most
diamonds are used to make tools such as dental drills and metal cutters.
Can an emerald be worth more than a
diamond?
While diamonds are usually considered the most precious of stones, a large, near flawless emerald is
worth considerably more than a diamond of the same size.
Were diamonds once a gem fit only for
a man?
They certainly were - During the middle ages, only men wore diamonds, as a symbol of their courage and
virility. However, since 1477, when Archduke Maximilian of Austria gave a diamond ring to Mary of Burgundy, diamonds have
been the gem of choice for men who wanted to melt a woman's heart. |
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Diamonds
Diamond is the hardest material known to man and one of the two best
known forms (or allotropes) of carbon, whose hardness and high dispersion of light make it useful for industrial applications
and jewelry. Diamonds are specifically renowned as a mineral with superlative physical qualities -- they make excellent abrasives
because they can be scratched only by other diamonds, Borazon, ultrahard fullerite, or aggregated diamond nanorods, which
also means they hold a polish extremely well and retain luster.
There's evidence that they aren't terribly rare at all. The creation
of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable is a relatively recent development. Until the late nineteenth century the
entire world production amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered in South Africa,
and diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they had no alternative
but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control production and perpetuate the illusion
of scarcity of diamonds.
Created in 1888, De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. is the most successful
cartel arrangement in the annals of modern commerce. While other commodities, such as gold, silver, copper, rubber, and grains,
fluctuated wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price
every year since the Depression.
Today, diamonds are used to symbolize eternity and love, being often
seen adorning engagement rings and sometimes wedding rings as well. The popularity of this modern tradition can be traced
directly to the marketing campaigns of De Beers, starting in 1938. Prior to the De Beers marketing campaign, engagement rings
had no one particular stone associated with them. So, if you're one of those people who dislikes being "manipulated" by advertising,
then perhaps you should consider a more affordable stone!
Since gemological and industrial uses of diamond have created a large
demand some of it is met by synthetics, man-made diamonds which have similar properties to natural diamonds. This process
has historically produced industrial-grade diamonds, but producers have recently begun to produce diamonds with high enough
quality to penetrate the gem diamond market. Currently, trained gemologists are able to distinguish natural diamonds from
all synthetic and simulant diamonds. However, new techniques for creating and treating simulants (such as coating them with
a very thin diamond-like layer of carbon) are making it increasingly difficult to distinguish simulants from real diamonds.
Copyright © 2006 ArcaMax Publishing, Inc. and its licensors.
Gold
Today, our money is a funny thing. It plays such a big
role in our lives that we rarely stop to think that the cash we try to amass has almost no inherent worth. Of course, for
the world's financial systems to function, it's best not to dwell on that truth. You can't have people looking in their wallets
and saying, "Hey, these pictures of dead presidents are just heavy-duty paper. I'm not accepting these crummy things for work
anymore (or at least not so few of them)."
But gold is a store of value that has been treasured by
nearly every society that has encountered it. Gold has for millennia captivated humans with its glitter and glow. Gold--whose
luster is buffed by the knowledge of how hard it is to pry from the earth--is something that nearly everyone will accept for
work. Nothing else is as good as gold. Why?
The gold that encircles your finger today could have been
mined in Spain before Christ was born, fashioned into a torque necklace by the Celts, buried in a bog for centuries, rediscovered,
melted down to form Venetian ducats, and shipped to China as payment for silks and spices. Or it could have been blasted out of the earth just a few
years ago.
Gold does not rust or corrode. In fact, pure gold won't
even tarnish. Precious artworks made by the ancient Egyptians more than 3,000 years ago are as beautiful today as they were
when the pharaohs received them.
A single ounce of gold can be stretched into a thin wire
50 miles long (80 km) or hammered into a 100-square-foot (9-square-meter) sheet. Because it's soft, gold is easy to work with.
So ancient cultures without sophisticated tools could fashion elaborate works of art.
You know how people are. When anything becomes common,
we just don't value it as much. After trade with the Far East got far easier, those precious silks and spices came down in
price. But gold, well, you don't find gold lying around. Gold mining remains miserable, hard work. Most mines must move more
than 100 tons of earth just to get one ounce of gold.
In fact, we've only ever managed to mine about 175,000
tons of the metal. That's it. You could put the whole world's gold supply on a single oil tanker and sail it from king to
king. It would melt into a cube just 70 feet (21 meters) on a side.
Gold has always been the metal of choice for impressing
your minions. But gold isn't just for goblets anymore. Today, gold gets used in all sorts of high-tech applications, from
the semiconductors in your computer to the heat shields on NASA's space shuttle. Only silver and copper conduct heat and electricity
better.
In this uncertain world, gold is valued because of its
permanence, its beauty, and the fact that its value transcends borders and modern monetary systems. Not too long ago, the
U. S. military was still issuing gold coins to fighter pilots in case they were shot down in hostile territory. It's comforting,
somehow, to know that even now a hefty coin can be swapped for a ride to the border.
Colleen Kelly
Copyright © 2007, Every Learner, Inc. All rights reserved.
NOTE: Twenty-four-karat gold is not pure gold;
there is a small amount ofcopper in it. Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.
The History of Money
by Mary Bellis
Money is anything that is commonly accepted by a group of
people for the exchange of goods, services, or resources. Every country has its own system of coins and paper money.
In the beginning, people bartered. Barter is the exchange
of a good or service for another good or service, a bag of rice for a bag of beans. However, what if you couldn't agree what
something was worth in exchange or you didn't want what the other person had. To solve that problem humans developed what
is called commodity money.
A commodity is a basic item used by almost everyone. In the past, salt,
tea, tobacco, cattle and seeds were commodities and therefore were once used as money. However, using commodities as money
had other problems. Carrying bags of salt and other commodities was hard, and commodities were difficult to store or were
perishable.
Metals objects were introduced as money around 5000 B.C.
By 700 BC, the Lydians became the first in the Western world to make
coins. Countries were soon minting their own series of coins with specific values. Metal was used because it was readily available,
easy to work with and could be recycled. Since coins were given a certain value, it became easier to compare the cost of items
people wanted.
Some of the earliest known paper money dates back to China, where the
issue of paper money became common from about AD 960 onwards.
With the introduction of paper currency and non-precious coinage, commodity
money evolved into representative money. This meant that what money itself was made of no longer had to be very valuable.
Representative money was backed by a government or bank's promise to
exchange it for a certain amount of silver or gold. For example, the old British Pound bill or Pound Sterling was once guaranteed
to be redeemable for a pound of sterling silver.
For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the majority of currencies
were based on representative money through the use of the gold standard.
Representative money has now been replaced by fiat money. Fiat is the
Latin word for "let it be done". Money is now given value by a government fiat or decree, in other words enforceable legal
tender laws were made. By law the refusal of "legal tender" money in favor of some other form of payment is illegal.
The origin of the "$" money sign is not certain. Many historians trace
the $ money sign to either the Mexican or Spanish "P's" for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The study of old manuscripts
shows that the "S," gradually came to be written over the "P," looking very much like the "$" mark.
U.S. Money
On March 10, 1862 the first United States paper money was issued. The
denominations were $5, $10, and $20. They became legal tender by Act of March 17, 1862. The inclusion of "In God We Trust"
on all currency was required by law in 1955. The national motto first appeared on paper money in 1957 on $1 Silver Certificates,
and on all Federal Reserve Notes beginning with Series 1963.
Electronic Banking
During the 1950s, researchers at the Stanford Research Institue invented
"ERMA", the Electronic Recording Method of Accounting computer processing system. ERMA began as a project for the Bank of
America in an effort to computerize the banking industry. ERMA computerized the manual processing of checks and account management
and automatically updated and posted checking accounts. Stanford Research Institute also invented MICR (magnetic ink character
recognition) as part of ERMA. MICR allowed computers to read special numbers at the bottom of checks that allowed computerized
tracking and accounting of check transactions.
ERMA was first demonstrated to the public in 1955 (September), and first
tested on real banking accounts in the fall of 1956. Production models (ERMA Mark II) of the ERMA computer were built by General
Electric. Thirty-two units were delivered to the Bank of America in 1959 for full-time use as the bank's accounting computer
and check handling system. ERMA computers were used into the 1970s.
| ©2006 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company.
All rights reserved. |
Why Roosevelt Is On the Dime
In 1921, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with a bout
of polio that left him partially paralyzed, there were no organizations to lend support. Although Roosevelt had the money
for the very best treatments for himself, he realized that there were thousands of others who did not. Also, at the time,
there was no known cure for polio. In 1938, President Roosevelt helped establish the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis
(which later became known as the March of Dimes). This foundation was created to help care for polio patients and to help
fund research to find a cure. Funding from the March of Dimes helped Jonas Salk discover a vaccine for polio.
Soon after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in 1945,
the public started sending letters to the U.S. Treasury Department requesting that Roosevelt's portrait be placed on a coin.
The dime seemed the most appropriate coin because of Roosevelt's ties to the March of Dimes. The new dime was released to
the public on Roosevelt's birthday, January 30, 1946.
by Jennifer Rosenberg
©2007 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company.
All rights reserved.
Million Dollar Bill (Counterfeit History)
A man was arrested in South Carolina after he tried
to open a bank account with a fake $1,000,000 bill. The teller called the police. Another man was arrested in Pittsburgh after he tried to pay for his groceries with a fake $1,000,000
bill. Reports say he became irate when the cashier wouldn't make change.
Friends, there never has been a real $1,000,000 bill in
the United States. Since 1969, when the Treasury discontinued its $500, $1,000, and $10,000 bills, the most cash you can stash
with a single slip is $100. But counterfeiters, you will soon see, are an enterprising and creative lot. At least the ones
that try to pass off real denominations are.
Counterfeit History
As early as the 1690s, paper money was circulating in the
American colonies. Within about 50 years, every colony was printing money. And so were the counterfeiters.
Some colonies hired Ben Franklin to make their money, impressed
by the printer's skill at putting details in bills that made them harder to copy. But really, in those early years, paper
money was easy to fake--so easy that housewives could support families by forging five-pound notes.
That's what Rhode Island's Mary Peck Butterworth did. She
simply laid a piece of starched muslin over a genuine bill printed in 1715 and ironed it lightly. When she pulled the muslin
away, it carried a negative impression of the bill. She then placed the muslin on a piece of paper and ironed it again, transferring
the pattern to the paper. After freshening up the image with a quill pen, Mrs. Butterworth had money.
Before long, she was employing most of her family and a
couple of hired hands in her lucrative craft. She made so many fake bills that Rhode
Island had to recall that whole issue of five-pound notes. She got caught, but because she always burned her muslin
cloths, the state had no hard evidence--and Mrs. Butterworth beat the rap.
Worse, Mrs. Butterworth was just the syrup on the pancake.
In 1775, when the Continental Congress began to print paper money to pay for the Revolution, rampant counterfeiting helped
undermine the currency's value. People soon referred to any worthless thing as being "not worth a Continental."
After the Revolution, the Constitution, and the adoption
of the dollar as the currency of the United States, it must have seemed like everyone was printing money--and, surprisingly,
a lot of it was legitimate. Before the 1860s, about 1,600 private banks were authorized to print "state bank notes," and each
bank had distinctive designs for its currency.
As many as 7,000 designs tempted counterfeiters--until
1861, when the federal government started printing green-tinted "greenbacks" to finance the Civil War. By 1863, Congress had
moved to replace the myriad notes issued by private state banks with more uniform "national bank notes" issued by more regulated
"national" banks.
And by 1865, amid alarm over the fact that at least a third
of the paper money circulating in the United States was bogus, the government established the Secret
Service to target counterfeiters. (It wasn't until 1902 that the Secret Service
officially took the job of protecting the president.) The Secret Service
cracked down hard on funny money. They might have gone overboard in 1881, when they destroyed the printing plates used to
make play money for board games.
Today, every paper dollar in America is a "federal reserve
note" printed by the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing and issued only by the Federal Reserve Bank. And the
Secret Service continues to track down money cheats.
But counterfeiters have mostly moved offshore, using today's
computer technology--and in some cases, the resources of rogue governments--to iron out bills like old Mrs. Butterworth. The
lure of easy money never fades.
Colleen Kelly
Copyright © 2007, Every Learner, Inc. All rights reserved.
Credit Cards
by Mary Bellis
Credit is a method of selling goods or services without the
buyer having cash in hand. A credit card is only an automatic way of offering credit to a consumer. Today, every credit card
carries an identifying number that speeds shopping transactions. Imagine what a credit purchase would be like without it,
the sales person would have to record your identity, billing address, and terms of repayment.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "the use of credit cards originated
in the United States during the 1920s, when individual firms, such as oil companies and hotel chains, began issuing them to
customers." However, references to credit cards have been made as far back as 1890 in Europe. Early credit cards involved
sales directly between the merchant offering the credit and credit card, and that merchant's customer.
Around 1938, companies started to accept each other's cards. Today, credit
cards allow you to make purchases with countless third parties.
Credit cards were not always been made of plastic. There have been credit
tokens made from metal coins, metal plates, and celluloid, metal, fiber, paper, and now mostly plastic cards.
The inventor of the first bank issued credit card was John Biggins of
the Flatbush National Bank of Brooklyn in New York. In 1946, Biggins invented the "Charge-It" program between bank customers
and local merchants. Merchants could deposit sales slips into the bank and the bank billed the customer who used the card.
In 1950, the Diners Club issued their credit card in the United States.
The Diners Club credit card was invented by Diners' Club founder Frank McNamara and it was intended to pay restaurant bills.
A customer could eat without cash at any restaurant that would accept Diners' Club credit cards. Diners' Club would pay the
restaurant and the credit card holder would repay Diners' Club. The Diners Club card was at first technically a charge card
rather than a credit card since the customer had to repay the entire amount when billed by Diners Club.
American Express issued their first credit card in 1958. Bank of America
issued the BankAmericard (now Visa) bank credit card later in 1958.
Credit cards were first promoted to traveling salesmen (more common in
that era) for use on the road. By the early 1960s, more companies offered credit cards, advertising them as a time-saving
device rather than a form of credit. American Express and MasterCard became huge successes overnight.
By the mid-'70s, the U.S. Congress begin regulating the credit card industry
by banning such practices as the mass mailing of active credit cards to those who had not requested them. However, not all
regulations have been as consumer friendly. In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court in Smiley vs. Citibank lifted restrictions on
the amount of late penalty fees a credit card company could charge. Deregulation has also allowed very high interest rates
to be charged.
©2006 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs)
by Mary Bellis
As is often the case with inventions, many inventors contribute to the
history of an invention. In the case of the ATM, Don Wetzel invented the first successful and modern ATM in the USA, however
he was not first inventor to create an ATM. In 1939, Luther George Simjian started patenting an earlier and not-so-successful
version of an ATM.
An automatic teller machine or ATM allows a bank customer to conduct
their banking transactions from almost every other ATM machine in the world. Don Wetzel was the co-patentee and chief conceptualist
of the automated teller machine, an idea he said he thought of while waiting in line at a Dallas bank. At the time (1968)
Wetzel was the Vice President of Product Planning at Docutel, the company that developed automated baggage-handling equipment.
The other two inventors listed on the patent were Tom Barnes, the chief mechanical engineer and George Chastain, the electrical
engineer. It took five million dollars to develop the ATM. The concept of the modern ATM first began in 1968, a working prototype
came about in 1969 and Docutel was issued a patent in 1973. The first working ATM was installed in a New York based Chemical
Bank. (editor's note: There are different claims to which bank had the first ATM, I have used Don Wetzel's reference.)
"No, it wasn't in a lobby, it was actually in the wall of the bank, out
on the street. They put a canopy over it to protect it from the rain and the weather of all sorts. Unfortunately they put
the canopy too high and the rain came under it. (laughing) One time we had water in the machine and we had to do some extensive
repairs. It was a walkup on the outside of the bank. That was the first one. And it was a cash dispenser only, not a full
ATM... We had a cash dispenser, and then the next version was going to be the total teller (created in 1971), which is the
ATM we all know today -- takes deposits, transfers money from checking to savings, savings to checking, cash advances to your
credit card, takes payments; things like that. So they didn't want just a cash dispenser alone." - Don Wetzel on the first
ATM installed at the Rockville Center, New York Chemical Bank from a NMAH interview.
The first ATMs were off-line machines, meaning money was not automatically
withdrawn from an account. The bank accounts were not (at that time) connected by a computer network to the ATM. Therefore,
banks were at first very exclusive about who they gave ATM privileges to. Giving them only to credit card holders (credit
cards were used before ATM cards) with good banking records. Wetzel, Barnes and Chastain developed the first real ATM cards,
cards with a magnetic strip and a personal ID number to get cash. ATM cards had to be different from credit cards (then without
magnetic strips) so account information could be included.
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