So if I ask you to like... pull a piece of paper
out of your wallet right now, you know, you'd
probably reach for a one dollar bill. Oh, yeah,
definitely. It's it's just the most common thing
we carry. Right. And you'd rub it between your
fingers. You'd feel that crisp texture and you
would think of it as, well, paper. But you would
actually be completely wrong. Which is pretty
crazy considering how often we handle it. We
just yeah, we take its fundamental existence
totally for granted. Exactly. Because that one
dollar bill is not actually paper at all. And
to make things even stranger, the first person
whose face was, you know, prominently plastered
on it was not George Washington. Yeah that assumes
it's always been this green paper rectangle with
the first president which is just not the case.
So welcome to this deep dive. Today we are looking
at the United States one dollar bill and our
source material for this is a really comprehensive
Wikipedia article that details the history, the
intricate design, and honestly the massive cultural
impact of this specific note. It really is a
massive impact. I mean, the history is incredibly
layered. It is. So our mission today is to help
you look at that crumpled bill in your pocket
and realize it's actually this remarkable canvas.
We're talking about textile chemistry, secret
wartime logistics, and like centuries old colonial
branding. Right. Which means we really need to
start by looking at what this object actually
is at a molecular level because its physical
makeup kind of dictates almost everything about
its history. Okay, so if it is not paper, what
exactly are we carrying around in our pockets
every day? Well, it's fundamentally a textile.
The material makeup of a modern dollar bill is
this highly specific blend. It's 75 % cotton
and 25 % linen. Oh, wow. I mean, that makes total
sense when you think about laundry. Yeah, exactly.
If you've ever accidentally left a dollar bill
in your pocket and you run it through a heavy
wash cycle, it actually survives. It doesn't
disintegrate into a pile of mush the way like
a grocery receipt or a piece of notebook paper
would. No, it holds up perfectly. So it's basically
closer to your favorite pair of denim jeans than
it is to standard stationery. That is honestly
the perfect analogy. That denim comparison really
helps you understand the physical mechanics of
the bill. That specific cotton and linen blend
is engineered for just extreme durability. How
durable are we talking? Well, the data shows
this blend allows a single dollar bill to survive
an average of 6 .6 years in active circulation.
Wait, 6 .6 years? Yeah. And that is highly abrasive
circulation before it finally wears out and needs
to be replaced. And despite being that tough,
a single bill weighs only about one gram. That
is wild. Just one gram for all that durability.
Right. And beyond just durability, that unique
woven texture serves as a baseline security feature.
It's incredibly difficult for counterfeiters,
you know, using standard wood pulp paper to replicate
the exact tactile snap and feel of genuine U
.S. currency. OK, so we have this tough one gram
denim like material. But did the government always
use this exact format? Like, let's go back to
its origins. We definitely should, yeah. Because
the very first one dollar bill issued by the
federal government, which came out in 1862 during
the Civil War, it did not feature George Washington.
No, it really didn't. It featured a man named
Salmon P. Chase. Salmon P. Chase. Yeah, he was
the secretary of the Treasury serving under President
Abraham Lincoln at the time. And it's important
to understand the actual mechanism of that specific
1862 bill. It was issued as a legal tender note.
OK, I need you to pause right there and explain
that. What makes a legal tender note different
from, I don't know, the cash we use today or
the money they used before the Civil War? So
before the Civil War, the money supply was just
a complete mess, as all these different notes
issued by thousands of private state banks. And
those were usually backed by gold or silver.
that those banks held in their actual vaults.
Right. So you had to trust the specific bank.
Exactly. But fighting a massive war requires
a unified federal money supply. So the government
issued these legal tender notes, which were often
called greenbacks, and they were fiat money.
Meaning they weren't backed by physical gold
or silver in a vault. Right. They were backed
entirely by the government's promise, like just
a promise that they had value and had to be accepted
to pay debts. So. Damon P. Chase was essentially
putting his own face on a massive, unprecedented...
financial experiment. I have to admit, as an
experiment, it seems wildly arrogant for the
Treasury Secretary to just put his own face on
the money instead of, you know, the ultimate
founding father. Why did it take so long to get
George Washington on the front of the nation's
most basic currency? Well, you have to consider
the psychological state of the United States
in the mid 19th century. I mean, it was a young
nation actively trying to figure out its visual
identity on a global scale. So they were just
making it up as they went along. Kind of, yeah.
There was no standardized template for what American
money was supposed to look like. And furthermore,
currency design was basically an arms race. An
arms race against who? Counterfeiters. The treasury
was constantly updating and printing entirely
new note designs just to take one step ahead
of a massive counterfeiting industry. They were
throwing like different historical figures, allegorical
scenes, and really complex designs at the wall
to see what commanded the most visual authority.
It sounds like an absolute wild wester graphic
design. It really was. Because the source material
notes that in 1886, the Treasury shifted gears
again and put Martha Washington on the $1 bill.
And that made her the first woman to appear on
U .S. currency. Yes, which is a huge milestone.
But it wasn't a legal tender note, right? It
was a silver certificate. Exactly. Which changes
the underlying financial mechanics entirely.
A silver certificate meant that the piece of
cotton linen in your hand was a literal receipt.
So you could trade it in. Yeah, you could walk
into a bank. Hand them that specific Martha Washington
note and they were legally obligated to hand
you back one physical silver dollar coin straight
from the Treasury's vaults. And from what the
sources show, these early notes were physically
massive compared to what we use today. Like there's
this whole chaotic large size note era. Oh, the
large size notes are fascinating. You get the
1890 coin notes, which the government used to
buy up Silver Bullion. Then you have the 1896
educational series, which sounds incredibly boring.
Right. It sounds like a boring PBS documentary,
but it was actually this wildly ornate bill completely
covered in allegorical figures represent history
instructing youth standing in front of Washington
DC. Very dramatic. Super dramatic. And then comes
the 1899 black eagle note featuring this giant
bald eagle taking up the whole center with these
tiny little portraits of Abraham Lincoln and
Ulysses S. Grant just shoved to the bottom. I
mean, it wasn't until 1923 that designs for the
same denomination actually started to standardize.
And that decades long design chaos really reflects
a government experiment. in real time with how
to project stability. They were actively testing
visual language. Like seeing what people trusted
more. Exactly. Did an elaborate neoclassical
painting make citizens trust the paper more?
Did a giant eagle project more federal authority?
It took decades of trial and error to settle
on a unified psychological message that would
resonate with the public and also prove too complex
for counterfeiters to easily copy. And that brings
us to the modern era, which is where this gets
really interesting. They finally shrank the physical
dimensions of the bill to its modern size in
1928, mostly just to save on printing costs.
Practical reasons. But once the size was locked
down, they set about creating an iconic design.
And they did such an effective job that the front
of the dollar bill hasn't fundamentally changed
since 1963. So let's unpack the specific art
they chose to project that stability. OK, so
starting with the obverse on the front of the
bill, we finally see George Washington permanently
anchored in the center. But it's important to
note, it is not just a generic drawing. Right,
it's very specific. It's an engraving based on
a specific piece of art. Gilbert Stuart's famous
yet unfinished 1796 painting, known as the Athenian
Portrait. And the intricate etching used on the
bill was executed by an engraver named GFC Smilly.
OK, so we have Washington looking out of us.
But he is flanked by these two distinct, really
highly detailed seals. And I see these every
day, but I never actually look at them. What
exactly is the seal on the left side of his portrait?
So that one is the Federal Reserve District seal.
And it serves a purely logistical routing function.
It features a specific bold letter ranging from
A through L and a corresponding number. So it's
basically a tracking code. Exactly. That alphanumeric
code identifies exactly which of the 12 regional
Federal Reserve banks authorize the issuance
of that particular note. For instance, A is Boston,
B is New York, all the way down to L for San
Francisco. Okay, so the left side is all about
logistics, but the right side has the Treasury
Department seal, and that one is just packed
with imagery. I mean, it features a chevron with
13 stars, a set of scales, and a key. Yeah, and
the iconography there is heavily deliberate.
The scales represent justice and fairness in
the nation's finances. And the key represents
official authority and the safekeeping of trust.
And then sitting right at the bottom is the date
1789. which is the year the Department of the
Treasury was officially established. Every single
element on the front of that bill is engineered
to project institutional history and absolute
legal stability. But let's be honest, it's the
back of the bill, the reverse that really captures
people's imaginations. Oh, absolutely. This specific
design debuted a bit later in 1935, and our source
material actually notes that it required President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's conditional approval
to flip the proposed images around. It prominently
features the great seal of the United States.
And this is where we see an intense, almost obsessive
use of national symbolism to tell a story to
the rest of the world. OK, I want to push back
on a massive pop culture myth here, though. Let's
do it. Because you watch thriller movies or you
read internet forums, and there is this pervasive,
sensationalized idea that the back of the $1
bill is just littered with secret society codes.
Oh, right. The Illuminati theories. Exactly.
Floating eyes, hidden maps, grand global conspiracies
orchestrated by the Freemasons. But when you
actually look closely at the source material,
there is no grand conspiracy. The theme at the
back of the bill is literally just the federal
government hitting us over the head with the
number 13 to represent the original colonies.
It really is an overwhelming exercise in repetitive
branding. The designers basically wanted to ensure
that the foundational concept of the 13 original
colonies was absolutely impossible to miss. Let's
actually count them for the listener just to
show how aggressive this is. If you look at the
circular seal on the left, you see a barren landscape
with an unfinished pyramid. Right. And if you
take the time to actually count the tiers of
that pyramid, there are exactly 13 steps. OK,
now look at the obverse of the seal on the right
side, the one featuring the bald eagle. Suspended
right above the eagle's head is a glory. or like
a cluster of exactly 13 stars. And covering the
eagle's breast is a shield featuring exactly
13 vertical stripes. And what about what the
eagle is holding? Well, in its left talons, the
eagle grasps a bundle of exactly 13 arrows. And
in its right talons, it holds an olive branch.
But let me guess. Yep. If you look closely at
the engraving, that branch have exactly 13 leaves
and exactly 13 olives. It is not a secret code
at all. It's just incredibly aggressive colonial
marketing. Pretty much. But there is a deeper
meaning to the arrows and the olive branch, isn't
there? I mean, it isn't just about forcing the
number 13 in there again. No, it's actually a
profound statement. geopolitical posture nations
use currency to visually communicate their power
to anyone anywhere in the world who happens to
hold that money like a tiny billboard exactly
so the eagle holding both arrows represented
the capacity for war and an olive branch representing
the desire for peace, is projecting the foundational
values of the United States. Furthermore, the
eagle's head is specifically turned toward the
olive branch, visually signaling that the nation
prefers peace, but retains the arsenal of war.
And the designers were so committed to this imagery
that even the Latin phrases hanging around the
seals get in on the action. Above the pyramid,
you have Enuit Coeptus, which translates to,
he favors our undertaking. Right. Below the pyramid
is Novus Ordo Seclorum, meaning order of the
ages. And my absolute favorite detail, the ribbon
held in the eagle's beak reads e pluribus unum,
out of many, one. And the mathematical precision
actually continues there as well. If you count
the letters in the phrases e pluribus unum and
annuit coeptis, they would contain exactly 13
letters. It's just a stunning piece of unified
design. And except for the addition of the phrase,
in God we trust, in 1957, which was mandated
by a 1955 law, this whole symbolic canvas has
essentially remained untouched since FDR approved
it in the 1930s. Which creates a really fascinating
dilemma, because we've established this strict,
standardized, highly symbolic design that the
public completely trusts. But what happens when
the government is forced by extreme circumstances
to intentionally mess with this perfect recipe?
Oh, you're talking about the experimental dollars.
Yes. Specifically, the incredible logistical
maneuvers the Treasury had to pull off during
World War II. Because in 1942, the U .S. issued
special emergency notes for highly specific geographic
regions. Right, which was completely unprecedented.
For Hawaii, they printed dollar bills with the
word Hawaii stamped boldly on the left and right
sides of the front and horizontally across the
entire back. They also changed the ink on the
treasury seal from standard green to brown. And
at the same time, they printed special notes
for allied troops preparing to assault North
Africa, marking those notes with a bright yellow
seal. So consider the underlying mechanics of
that strategy. It is brilliant in its sheer pragmatism,
because if the Imperial Japanese military were
to successfully invade and occupy Hawaii, or
if the allied troops in North Africa were overrun
and their supply lines captured, Exactly. The
enemy would suddenly be in possession of millions
of US dollars. But by color -coding the seals,
the US government built in a fail safe. They
could instantly pass a regulation declaring any
dollar bill with a brown or yellow seal to be
completely worthless, literally stripping the
enemy of any financial gain. It is literally
a financial self -destruct button. Right. You
capture our cash, we push a legislative button,
and suddenly you are just holding a massive pile
of useless 13 -starred denim. It's a brilliant
logistical trick for fighting a global war. But
they weren't just experimenting with ink colors
for active war zones. No, they had to do tests
domestically, too. Because of severe wartime
material shortages in 1942, they actually had
to test alternative types of paper right here
at home. Yes, the supply chains for the specific
cotton and linen required for the bills were
severely disrupted by the whole war effort. The
Treasury really needed to know if alternative,
cheaper paper blends could survive that 6 .6
-year lifespan we talked about earlier. So they
took standard series 1935A notes and stamped
a red S on them, standing for special experimental
paper. Yep. And they tested those against a control
group of notes printed on the standard blend,
which they stamped with a red R for regular.
And they didn't test these in the lab. They just
released them directly into circulation to see
how they would hold up in the pockets and wallets
of everyday Americans. And by doing that, they
utilized the entire American public as this massive
decentralized real world focus group. They just
monitored how quickly the SNR notes were returned
to banks due to physical wear and tear. It's
so clutter. It is. And incidentally, because
those specific red stamp notes are highly valued
by collectors today, counterfeiters frequently
try to fake those red SNR stamps on standard
1935A notes. To authenticate one, you literally
have to cross -reference the serial numbers to
prove it was actually part of the original treasury
test batches. The government's experimentation
didn't stop in the 1940s either. The sources
mention a major mechanical test in the 1990s
called the Web Notes experiment. Ah, the Web
Notes. And this was driven purely by the sheer
staggering global demand for the one dollar bill.
See, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing traditionally
prints money on single flat square sheets that
hold 32 individual notes at a time. But to speed
things up, they tried printing both sides of
the note simultaneously on massive, continuous
rolls of paper, which is exactly how a high -speed
newspaper press operates. And that highlights
the friction between the bill's physical makeup
and modern manufacturing. The webpress technique
is incredibly fast, but remember, they are not
printing on standard woodpull paper. Right, they're
printing on that tough textile blend of cotton
and linen. Exactly. And that denim -like fabric
didn't behave well on high -speed rollers, did
it? Not at all. The immense tension of the continuous
web press caused the continent and material to
stretch and warp and tear. The massive rolls
would frequently jam or snap, causing the intricate
engravings on the front and back to misalign
entirely. What a nightmare. It was. It resulted
in massive operator errors and mechanical failures,
forcing the Treasury to finally scrap the entire
project in 1996. So if you are listening to this
right now and wondering if you have one of these
rare web notes in your wallet, you can actually
check. Yeah, they're easy to spot if you know
what to look for. Because they were printed on
continuous rolls instead of flat sheets, the
webinars are missing their face check letters
and quadrant numbers. And for the listener, those
are the tiny little alphanumeric codes usually
located in the corners of the bill that tell
the Bureau exactly where on the original 32 -note
printing plate that specific bill was positioned.
Without sheets, they just didn't need the quadrant
numbers. Which really brings us to a fascinating
psychological phenomenon regarding the $1 bill
today. Because the fundamental design of the
bill has remained completely static since 1963,
our brains are just hardwired to notice when
something is slightly off. Exactly. These anomalies,
like the brown seals, the web notes, the red
stamps, they aren't just dry history. They have
created an entire subculture of collectors. It
turns the mundane change in your wallet into
a literal treasure hunt. Let's look at star notes.
Star notes are a perfect example. of industrial
error correction basically becoming a collector's
item. How so? Well, when the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing is running massive sheets of currency
and a printing error occurs, like a smudge, a
tear, a misalignment, they legally have to destroy
that flawed sheet. But they still need to account
for the exact serial numbers they just destroyed.
Right, for security. So they replace the messed
up bills with new ones from a highly specific
replacement run. To indicate it is a replacement,
they print a small star right next to the serial
number. And there are currently rumors circulating
in the numismatic community that the 2021 series
might actually be the very last to feature star
notes, mostly because modern printing tracking
technology is making them obsolete. So if you
were listening to this right now, I playfully
invite you to pause the deep dive, pull out your
wallet and see if you have a star note. You might
literally be holding a tiny piece of mechanical
printing history. It's true. However, This intense
focus on every tiny detail of a static design
also means that our human pattern recognition
can sometimes go into overdrive, and that leads
to massive misunderstandings. Oh, you were talking
about the Dallas JFK coincidence. This is one
of the wildest stories in the source material.
It's unbelievable how this spread. In 1963, the
Treasury printed a massive batch of $1 bills
for the 11th Federal Reserve District. Now, as
we learned earlier, the 11th District is headquartered
in Dallas, Texas. So the Federal Reserve seal
on the left side of the bill featured the letter
K. which is the 11th letter of the alphabet and
the prominent number 11 in the corners. Which
again is just standard boring bureaucratic routing
information. Right. But these specific bills
were released into general circulation right
around November 1963, the exact time President
John F. Kennedy was tragically assassinated in
Dallas. The public looked at these bills and
their brains just connected the dots. They saw
the 11 for November, the K for Kennedy, the Black
Federal Reserve seal and the Dallas origin and
wild rumors. immediately sparked that the government
had quickly issued some kind of eerie secret
commemorative morning note, but it wasn't. It
was just a total random coincidence. It perfectly
illustrates how desperately we want this static
trusted object to have deeper hidden meanings
and we see the exact same psychological quirk
with famous bar notes. Yes, Joseph W. Barr. He
served as the Secretary of the Treasury for exactly
31 days at the very end of 1968 and the beginning
of 1969. Collectors went absolutely crazy hoarding
any dollar bill that featured his signature.
I mean, the logic seems sound. If a guy was only
in office for a month, a bill with his signature
must be incredibly rare, right? Yeah, but that
logic fails because it fundamentally underestimates
the staggering scale of industrial currency production.
Because the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
didn't just stop the presses when he left office,
they continued using his engraved signature plates
for a while. And because the printing presses
run continuously to meet global demand, they
ended up printing over 458 million. bar notes.
It's an astronomical number. Right. Because so
many were printed and because hundreds of thousands
of people hoarded them in pristine condition
thinking they would pay for their kids' college,
they are essentially worthless to collectors
today. Which brings up a much larger structural
question about all of this. We are hoarding these
bills. We're tracking their minute printing errors.
We're obsessed with their symbolism. But why
does the paper one dollar bill still exist at
all? Now, that is the multibillion dollar question.
The Government Accountability Office, the GAO,
has run the numbers multiple times. They estimate
that if the United States finally retired the
paper one dollar bill and replaced it entirely
with a one dollar coin, it would save the government
roughly four point four billion dollars over
30 years. Because coins last for decades. Exactly.
Coins last forever. basically. Cotton linen bills
have to be shredded and reprinted every 6 .6
years. So why are we keeping a piece of fabric
that costs us billions of dollars just because
we're emotionally attached to it? It's honestly
a master class in behavioral economics. It proves
that money is not just a math equation or a cold
unit of exchange. It's a deeply ingrained psychological
comfort object. So people just don't like change.
Well, the resistance to a dollar coin isn't just
about math. It's about lobbying and emotion.
You have the powerful vending machine and car
wash industries lobbying heavily because refitting
their machines for coins or digital payments
is expensive. But more importantly, you have
advocacy groups, literal coalitions like Save
the Greenback actively fighting in Congress against
groups like the Coin Coalition. We are fighting
actual political battles in the halls of Congress
over keeping a specific piece of design from
1963 alive. And apparently the nostalgia is winning.
Congress has actively included provisions in
recent federal budgets that specifically prohibit
the Treasury from spending a single cent to redesign
the $1 bill. There are currently no plans to
redesign it and no plans to replace it. We just
stubbornly refuse to let it go. Because the American
public rejects structural change when it comes
to their most basic... fundamental unit of value.
A $1 coin feels different. It changes the tactile
experience of spending, tipping, and just interacting
with the economy. Yeah, it doesn't have that
snap. Right. The green dollar bill is familiar.
It represents stability, which, as we discussed
with the scales of justice, the pyramid and the
eagle, is the exact psychological goal the Treasury
Department set out to achieve over a century
ago. They succeeded so well in building that
visual trust that now we literally cannot bring
ourselves to modernize it. They built a brand
that was just too strong to kill. So let's step
back and look at the journey we have taken today.
We started with a fragile experimental fiat note
during the Civil War featuring Sam and P. Chase.
We watched it transform into a durable one gram
cotton linen canvas plastered with aggressively
redundant colonial symbols and exactly 13 of
everything. Exactly. We uncovered its secret
life as a self -destructing wartime asset in
Hawaii and North Africa. We explored the mechanical
failures of the web press. And we finally arrived
at the modern day vending machine politics that
keep this specific piece of art completely frozen
in time. It's just a remarkable, deeply human
evolution for an everyday object that most people
never even look closely at. And considering how
hard we have fought to keep this physical object
exactly the same for over 60 years, I think this
raises a final vital question for you, the listener.
If the physical $1 bill is essentially a piece
of 1960s design tax appeal, a physical artifact
sustained almost entirely by human habit and
tactile nostalgia, what happens to our shared
sense of national identity when our currency
inevitably goes entirely digital and we permanently
lose this everyday physical canvas of our history?