Wikipedia is full of useful information
Jun. 26th, 2006 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
featherynscaleThis morning, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
triadruid and I stopped for a bite of breakfast at the friendly neighborhood Burger King. He kindly offered to sponsor the biscuits, and pulled a $10 bill out of his wallet.
Now, it is our custom to make an offering of meme-corruption to our various deities when we pay for things in cash, by crossing out the word 'God' in the motto on the bill and replacing it with the name of some god in particular. This seems to us more fair. After all, we trust in a lot of gods, even some that by practical standards, you shouldn't trust any farther than you can throw them. But this is the nature of our faith, that we do, in fact, trust in them to hold to their own various natures, which we respect.
But lo, the ten of this morning was an atheist ten. It did not feature the usual motto at all, and we were briefly perplexed about this, until such time as the man in the window demanded the coin of the realm from us in return for our morning protein and grease. We handed it over, and change was made, and we were sent off into the world to wonder, "Did we just pass counterfeit money?"
So, as usual, Wikipedia provides the answer. As it turns out, series 1950 ten dollar bills did not carry the "In God We Trust" motto, and also had an alteration in the wording that tells you on most bills simply that the bill is legal tender, in which it promised that the bearer would be paid ten dollars in real money upon presentation of the bill to the proper authorities. The motto was added and the reference to real money was deleted in 1963. So it was entirely possible that the bill was real, since it did contain the more ornate language about legal tender. The treasury department (I looked this up, too) estimates that the average useful life of a ten dollar bill is about 18 months, after which it becomes too decrepit for use and is replaced. So this would have been a bill that someone had held onto for quite some time without passing it from hand to hand. So that's fun.
So remember, kids, keep a small stash of cash under your mattress for years at a time. You might need it some day, and, if nothing else, you'll confuse some poor bastards when you eventually do spend it, and what's more fun than that?
triadruid and I stopped for a bite of breakfast at the friendly neighborhood Burger King. He kindly offered to sponsor the biscuits, and pulled a $10 bill out of his wallet. Now, it is our custom to make an offering of meme-corruption to our various deities when we pay for things in cash, by crossing out the word 'God' in the motto on the bill and replacing it with the name of some god in particular. This seems to us more fair. After all, we trust in a lot of gods, even some that by practical standards, you shouldn't trust any farther than you can throw them. But this is the nature of our faith, that we do, in fact, trust in them to hold to their own various natures, which we respect.
But lo, the ten of this morning was an atheist ten. It did not feature the usual motto at all, and we were briefly perplexed about this, until such time as the man in the window demanded the coin of the realm from us in return for our morning protein and grease. We handed it over, and change was made, and we were sent off into the world to wonder, "Did we just pass counterfeit money?"
So, as usual, Wikipedia provides the answer. As it turns out, series 1950 ten dollar bills did not carry the "In God We Trust" motto, and also had an alteration in the wording that tells you on most bills simply that the bill is legal tender, in which it promised that the bearer would be paid ten dollars in real money upon presentation of the bill to the proper authorities. The motto was added and the reference to real money was deleted in 1963. So it was entirely possible that the bill was real, since it did contain the more ornate language about legal tender. The treasury department (I looked this up, too) estimates that the average useful life of a ten dollar bill is about 18 months, after which it becomes too decrepit for use and is replaced. So this would have been a bill that someone had held onto for quite some time without passing it from hand to hand. So that's fun.
So remember, kids, keep a small stash of cash under your mattress for years at a time. You might need it some day, and, if nothing else, you'll confuse some poor bastards when you eventually do spend it, and what's more fun than that?
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All hail Wikipedia
Date: 2006-06-26 09:09 pm (UTC)nerdinessintelligence, "Hey, is that named after Harald Bluetooth, one of the kings of Denmark during the Viking Age?" He didn't know and had never heard of Harry, so I consulted Wikipedia, and lo and behold, it is... and the logo of the technology is a bindrune. So, not only does this prove the mighty knowledge power of Wikipedia, but this little story also proves that if we were telepathic, togetherRe: All hail Wikipedia
Date: 2006-06-27 08:43 am (UTC)