National Currency Collection
United States of America, 1 dollar : 1799
Story
Currency’s metric system
The Russians, under Peter the Great, had a great idea: divide your money into units of 100. As Russian economic policy had little influence outside of Russia, Europe continued to use the Carolingian system of pounds and pennies. Basically, 1 pound of silver was divided into 20 shillings or 240 pennies. The fluctuating value of silver made this a problematic system not to mention the maddening conversions required when the British pound was further divided unequally into crowns, farthings and half-pence. In 1792, the American Congress adopted the decimal system for their first currency and over the next few generations, so did the rest of the world; except for the U.K., which finally adopted it in 1971.
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