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THE
GRINGO GREENBACK
What
is the color of the front of a
dollar bill? Try to answer this
without looking in your wallet.
There
are lots of other great games that
you can play with your money. One
of the most recent being the
folding of a Twenty Dollar Bill, resulting
in the display of the late Twin
Towers in New York, and the
airlines that crashed into each.
My
favorite game is getting
someone to bet against me
regarding the Five Dollar Bill. I
will put money on the fact that I
can release this note from about 4
feet high, and it will land with
Abraham Lincoln looking up at
you. Try this, it works.
The
Dollar is a World Wide Phenomena.
It is everyone's favorite
currency. My brother loves
the penny, because they are the
exact same size and weight as the
Quarter-of-the-Low-Lands. At some
point he put so many of these
coins in parking meters of his
hometown, that it resulted in a
local newspaper article, which he
proudly mailed to me.
Launderers
and Traffickers prefer the Gringo
Currency, although the Euro and
British Pound are trailing
closely. Whole countries have
discarded their own, usually
colorful and nice-to-look-at but
worthless money, to improve
their financial situation by
"dollarizing" their
economy. Costa
Rica may not be far behind. You
can use the Greenback practically
everywhere.
But
because it is such a popular way
to exchange wealth, it has caused
concern. The United States,
responsible for the creation of
this Superstar Valuta, at one
point considered printing a
different version for foreign use
only.
Travelers
leaving the nation would be
required to exchange their
"green" money for a
"pinkish red" version,
which then could be used in
dollarized economies elsewhere, or
exchanged to other currencies
abroad.
Like
things aren't difficult enough as
it is, just leave it to some
"brilliant" economists
to screw stuff up even more.
I can only imagine all
the schemes and frauds that this
would create! Apparently, because
of the very unfortunate happenings
of nine/eleven and the attempts to
stop the flow of money to
terrorist organizations, this option
is being considered again.
And
how much money is involved here
anyway? And what constitutes a
"lot" of money?
As a
child, I was very impressed by
One Hundred Dollars. Today, I am
duly overcome when the price
of a car is expressed in Colones!
That's right, I am a millionaire,
just don't ask me in what
currency...
A
Billion Bucks is a lot, is it not?
No, it isn't...there are
approximately 8000 investors who
collectively have that much at
stake right now, but that still
does not make it a lot of money.
Any of
you ever buy lottery tickets? Well
now, here are some numbers that
should interest you: According to
World Magazine, $57 Billion
dollars was wagered on US
lotteries and a whopping $592
billion in American casinos in the
year of 2001 alone. The state of
Massachusetts sells more than $500
worth of lottery tickets each year
for every person within its
borders. Yes, that includes women
and even children!
Now,
that is a lot of money, especially
when you realize that it is being
"thrown away" for
the 1-to-135,145,920 chance for
The Jackpot! Have
you noticed that people will tell
you how much they've won, while
they forget to mention how much it
cost them to finally receive a
pay-out? But that is human nature;
we tend to focus on the positive
and we also like to impress.
Here
are the answers to the problems in
the first paragraph:
Because
Abraham Lincoln is pictured on
both sides of the Fiver, he will
always land face up. He really is,
look carefully between the columns
on the back of the bill. It is the
Lincoln Memorial, after all.
The
folding of a Twenty to display the
nine/eleven tragedy is as follows:
put the bill face down, so you are
looking at the White House on the
back. Then, fold the top half down
so you are folding it lengthwise
in two. Now you are looking at
just the bottom of the White House
and the little chandelier over the
door in the center. Like folding
an airplane, fold first the left
and then the right part of the
bill downward over the chandelier.
The result is a rendering of the
World Trade Center Towers ablaze,
with "America" stated on
the right, and "United"
on the left, thus indicating the
unfortunate air carriers.
Additionally,
"nine" plus
"eleven" of the
tragedy's date equals twenty, the
face value of the bill... Coincidence?
Of course, but spellbinding
nonetheless!
And
the color of the front of the
dollar? It is black! The color of
the face of American Money is
predominantly black, hence the
term "Greenback",
because, well, the back is green.
Most of you knew this, I suppose.
And most of you know that today,
the amount of money in circulation
does not represent the amount of
gold in Fort Knox anymore. So a
lot of these popular bills
are truly paper only, without real
value to back it up.
So,
don't worry about it, it's only
money!
Hank
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