2025, Business, History, Uncategorized

Greenbacks

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In addition to a daily check of our local regional jail for the inmate list so I can see which of my little darlings are in the hoosgow, (There are several today) and the two funeral homes to see who died, I also check a history site to see what of importance has occurred on this day in the past.

I see that today is the anniversary of the US Congress in 1862 authorizing the printing of paper money. I rarely have any paper money in my purse. Husband usually has some, but it is hit or miss. I remember my dad being so happy to have some “Silver Certificates” in his possession when I was a child. I remember that the engraving was quite elaborate on those bills. I wonder, given the advent of all that is digital, if we will need paper money in the future. It seems the penny is also on the way out.

What is your favorite bank robbery movie, song, or story, or songs or stories about money in general? What is the largest monetary bill you ever carried?

27 thoughts on “Greenbacks”

  1. There are so many enjoyable scenes showing piles of cash being lost by the bad guys.

    Mission Impossible TV has quite a few.
    The Sting. (Actually they were ALL bad guys)
    Now You See Me (Magicians revenge)
    John Wick (Lots of violence. One viewing is enough)
    Wayback in the early sixties, I touched a $500.00 but it was my father’s.

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    1. The Sting is a favorite movie of mine–the plot is so cleaver, stinging the watcher and the bad guys. Newman and Redford were also great in their roles. We watched it recently.

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  5. I’m sure I’ve never had a larger bill than $100.

    As part of the resistance, I’m shopping locally and using cash more often in place of plastic. It’s good old fashioned economics. I buy locally with cash and hope that my money stays local. I’m trying to eliminate those middle men who seem to love taking their own cut out of every transaction. I don’t know if this makes a lot of economic sense, and it certainly doesn’t help my credit score, but I don’t know if I even care about that anymore.

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  9. RIse and Shine from your afternoon nap, Baboons,

    My great uncle had a $1,000,000 bill at Thanksgiving once. It was, of course, not real. Uncle Burnell was obsessed with money and making money, and there was never enough money. He married my dad’s aunt, and adopted us as family.

    During the Great Depression his father died when he was age 13. As the oldest boy he had to work to support his family as a result, an experience that stayed with him forever. He became a plumber/city sewer contractor in Nevada, Iowa, because “people always need a plumber.” He worked hard and died a rich man. His money was a constant topic of conversation for him, though, all the years I knew him. However, at the end of his life he had some type of dementia. They were included in the family Thanksgiving one year, which became unforgettable and we still all laugh uncontrollably at the memory of it. My Brother-in-law went to get Uncle Burnell, Aunt Genny, and Aunt Gladys that day. The car pulled up into the yard, close to the back door of the house. The car door opened, and soon we saw a yellow stream shoot up into the air, then he stood up, zipped his fly, and limp-waddled into the door, pulling out his wallet to extract his Million Dollar Bill which he displayed to everyone, followed by, “You are not in the will.” But no one had asked to be, ever. This sequence: wallet, million dollar bill, You are not in the will played out many times through out the afternoon, to the point we would get the giggles at the first sign of the wallet. One of us kept the million dollar bill at the end of the day–I think my sister.

    When WWII broke out, after Pearl Harbor he signed up for the Army, and spent WWII in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands living in a cave. He would talk about his Army Reunions, but he would never talk about what he did in the Army. We finally read about it in his obituary. It had to be a punishing experience in the cold and rough conditions. I am sure it sealed in his pre-occupation with having enough money, though.

    So there you have it. I held a Million Dollar Bill.

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  13. I can’t think of many heist movies or songs. Along with The Sting, I enjoyed the George Clooney version of Ocean’s Eleven. I loved the old Mission: Impossible TV show–a lot of those plots revolved around stealing something, not always cash.

    The largest bill I’ve handled is $100, but somewhere, squirreled away in one of my drawers, I have an old Liberty silver dollar. No idea if it’s worth anything other than its weight in silver.

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  14. I was 13 when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid came out. An impressionable age … my girlfriend and I came out of the movie theater, crying so hard we could hardly breathe. I’ve never been able to watch this movie again. Even at my ripe old age. I also am very fond of The Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery. And like most others I have had $100 bills in my hands, but usually for a very short period of time – like from the bank to the person that I’m buying the car from kind of thing.

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