The US developed a coin circulation problem in 2020

The designs on US coins have changed a lot over the years

From states producing and issuing their own coins after the Revolutionary War, to collectors’ coins in modern times, US coins have had many design changes throughout history. You can learn about the different variations, plus what design elements are added to all US coins today, in an article.

Only 14% of transactions are in cash, as of 2025

Credit (35%) and debit (30%) cards have long eclipsed cash as the primary method of payment in the US. It is a primary backup, however, with 90% of customers intending to use cash to pay or store value and 80% carrying cash.

Some coin denominations have ridges on their sides in part to prevent counterfeiting

You may have noticed that dimes and quarters feature small ridges on their sides that other coins, like pennies and nickels, don't have. This video can help you learn more about why the practice, called "reeding," was first started—and why it's still used today.

Colonial Americans used tobacco, wampum, and land-backed notes to solve a chronic coin shortage

British coins rarely circulated in the colonies due to an unfavorable trade balance, forcing colonists to improvise. They traded in Spanish dollars, Native American shells, tobacco warehouse receipts, and eventually paper money backed by land rather than gold.

China is making a deliberate push toward a cashless society

Riding widespread digital finance apps like Alipay and WeBank, physical cash circulating in China fell under 4% of total money in 2023. The trend reflects the country's drive to be a leader in the future of digital payments.

The Federal Reserve tracks how much US currency is circulated around the world every year

It's estimated that about half of US currency is circulated outside of the US. In 2023, there were 54.6B US notes circulated, with 18.9B of those being $100 bills. This chart shows how many US notes have circulated since 1997.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Up to $68M in coins gets trashed every year

Waste facilities and TSA say they collect thousands of dollars of discarded money per year. A Wall Street Journal reporter visited a waste facility and learned what you can do with your extra change.

Customers wrote just one check a year in 2024, on average

Major retailers like Target have stopped accepting checks in recent years as real-time payment systems are increasingly being implemented across the US. This shift is considered an improvement in safety—as checks are vulnerable to fraud—but can lead to some exclusion for those without access to digital devices.

Minting a coin that can pay off the federal debt has been proposed as a quick fix to rampant borrowing

It’s uncertain how financial markets would react to such a large cash injection. Some economists warn it could trigger massive inflation. Others say the nation needs a clean slate.

Why Americans are drowning in credit card debt

Americans owe more than $1T to credit card companies. And with rising interest rates that prevent cardholders from paying down debt (not to mention the rising cost of living), that number is likely to keep growing. A podcast episode explains how the US got here, and what policymakers and individuals can do about it.

While the Fed is involved in issuing new generations of cash, the way it adds to the money supply does not involve printers

The majority of money in circulation is credit, not cash. This credit, which acts similarly to direct deposit from employers, is added to bank accounts by the Federal Reserve. The Fed also employs tools like the federal funds rate and open market operations to expand or contract credit.

President Trump ordered an end to US production of the penny in 2025

The US will stop producing pennies after more than 233 years in 2026, though they will still be considered legal tender. It takes roughly three cents to produce a single penny, with an annual price tag of nearly $100M.

72% of Americans say tipping is now expected in more places than it was 5 years ago

This change has been driven by multiple factors, including point-of-sale systems from fintech companies such as Square that prompt customers for tips directly. Americans also increased tipping during the pandemic in an effort to support local businesses struggling financially due to a lack of physical foot traffic.

The United States had a washing machine that cleaned dirty dollar bills

In the early 1900s, the US Treasury Department had a machine that washed and ironed old, soiled paper bills. The machine helped the Treasury save money by decreasing printing costs for new dollar bills, but had nothing to do with the modern understanding of money laundering.

Stablecoins could give people in high-inflation economies access to stronger currencies

Specifically, stablecoins could provide a way to make sure these funds remain valuable during times of volatility. Some examples of people without access to the US dollar using stablecoins as a store of value have been observed in Venezuela.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

COVID-19's shock to employment rates sparked some economists to fear deflation

COVID-19 simultaneously disrupted the supply chain and the labor market. Since the unemployment rate had hit record highs, some economists were worried that the supply chain would recover before the labor market. If that had happened, businesses would have been producing goods, but no one would have been able to buy them because they wouldn't have the disposable income to do so.

Some argue that the $2 bill could be more useful than the $1 bill

Inflation has made purchasing items with just a $1 bill extremely rare. At a time when dollar stores are no longer true to their name, it seems that the $2 note may be the more practical small bill to keep on hand. This article advocates for the use of $2 bills, while detailing their history of being overlooked and the communities that swear by them.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

BNPL has 19th-century roots, but the pandemic made it mainstream

The modern BNPL model didn't take off until the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumers were stuck at home and lockdowns forced them to shop online rather than in person. The number of US BNPL loans grew more than tenfold from 2019 (16.8 million) to 2021 (180 million), according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report.

11,000 new US dollar stores opened between 2007 and 2017

Dollar store retailers experienced significant fiscal gains during the 2010s, which were then accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. But in recent years, dollar stores have been closing in large numbers and suffering financial hardship. Experts point to Walmart's strategy of decreasing prices to cater to inflation-fatigued customers, and point out that when Walmart does well financially, dollar stores typically suffer.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a decrease in immunizations in the US and worldwide

Public health funds and resources that were diverted to COVID-19 response reduced efforts to combat polio and vaccinations for polio and other diseases declined during the pandemic, putting more people at risk for polio.

The federal government pumped $70 billion into transit amidst reduced ridership during the COVID pandemic

When ridership collapsed by 75% in the spring of 2020, Congress sent transit agencies nearly $70B to help them survive. But that money has largely run out, and ridership remains 14-28% below prepandemic levels, leaving many transit systems with large budget deficits.

Central banking in the US has had a fraught political history

That history includes its doomed early efforts in the First and Second National Banks, as well as its failure to address the worst financial period in US history, the Great Depression.

FTX, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, collapsed in 2022

As crypto markets declined during the post-pandemic slowdown, Sam Bankman-Fried propped up the markets with billions he'd earned leading FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges. Then, in one of the most rapid financial implosions in modern history, the exchange collapsed as investors rushed to withdraw money.

Lack of regulation makes cryptocurrency a hotbed for money laundering

Cryptocurrency is largely anonymous and widely unregulated worldwide. As a result, crypto-to-cash schemes have become a highly prevalent money laundering tactic that allows criminals to commit financial crimes with crypto accounts and then "clean" the money by selling crypto for cash.

Mail-in voting has been used in US elections since the Civil War

Americans have cast mail-in ballots for more than a century, but COVID-19 greatly expanded their use. Modern systems track ballots and often require signature verification, increasing access while maintaining election security.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak is hampered by a lack of vaccine against the species of the virus, heightening the need for rapid tests to aid in disease control.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.