The Tale of Mr. Dollar

Hello! My name is Mr. Dollar. I come from a family of money all over the world! Take a look at the map of all of the different kinds of money in the world.

Dollar- United States Argentine Peso- Argentina Euro- European Union Yuan- China There are so many types of money in the world! Here are a few examples!

Every country uses one kind of money, or currency. Money includes all of the paper bills and coins that people use to pay for things. In America we use the dollar, in Argentina they use the Argentine peso, in England they use the pound, in the European Union they use the Euro and in China they use the yuan.

As types of money, we live in many different homes. Sometimes, we live in piggy banks, sometimes we live in wallets, and other times we live in bank accounts. People can go to a bank and open their own account to keep us in one place.

As I was saying, my name is Mr. Dollar and I’m from the Money family. Everybody has a purpose in this world and ours is to help people trade for goods and services. Every time people ask me about my job, they stop me there—what ARE goods and services?! I’ll get there, I promise! But first, what is trading?

Have you ever had a baseball card collection? If you buy a pack of baseball cards and have more than one copy of the Derek Jeter card, you can trade cards with a person who wants that card more than you do. If they need the card and you have the card, then you have something that somebody else wants. If your Derek Jeter card is worth more than their Alex Rodriguez, they might give you more than one baseball card to complete your collection because they want your card so badly!

The process of trading is how money started! People used to trade cows and cowrie shells for things that they wanted. If someone wanted to buy a loaf of bread, they could pay with shells and the bread maker would give them the bread.

The history of my family is very interesting. We have not always been made of paper and we might even change in the future. People are talking about having us help out on the internet with banking websites instead of being in wallets. I’m excited for a new way to help people trade!

My family started by trading anything that somebody else wanted for something that you wanted. It was called bartering. Later, people traded cows and they traded more cows if what they wanted was very valuable. Then, people traded shells (like I said earlier!).

In 1000 BC (a very long time ago!) people created the first metal money. Later, my family became much prettier as people started making leather money and paper money. Go to page 4 and pick out your favorite type of money! 1000 BC First Metal Money 0 CE 2013 CE— Today!

Money is worth different amounts in different time periods. People from different parts of the world used different money back then too. The Native Americans used Wampum, which were also money made of shells. Later, people started basing their money on gold. I think that was my family’s most beautiful time period!

In the United States, a place called the Mint makes all of the coins for America and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing makes the paper money.

Bills are not actually made of paper like the paper your textbooks are made of, though! All American dollar bills are made of linen and cotton. That’s why money feels different than paper and will not tear as easily! Even though I look like paper in America—do not write on me! You can get in trouble for that!

As Mr. Dollar, I like to describe trading money with dollar bills. Like the baseball cards, you can’t always trade one bill for one of a different kind of bill. If I gave you a one dollar bill and you gave me a five dollar bill, that wouldn’t be fair!

So, I need to give you five $1 bills and you can give me one $5 bill. Or, I could give you four quarters and you could give me one dollar. Then we have the same amount of money that we started with and the trade was fair. Can you think of any ways to make one dollar out of different coins?

But, people don’t usually spend their time trading dollars like they trade baseball cards. If we only traded dollar bills all the time, we would never end up buying anything with money. My job would be pointless!

I help people trade for goods and services. Goods are things that people make to get other people what they want and need. Services are activities that people do to help other people get what they want.

One of my favorite parts of my job is helping people to buy and sell things at lemonade stands! On a hot summer’s day, there is nothing better than trade in action on the street corner!

At a lemonade stand, the seller makes money by providing lemonade for people who want a cool drink. The buyer gives the seller money for the lemonade.

The seller is called the producer because he or she produces, or makes, the lemonade. The buyer is called the consumer because he or she consumes, or uses, the lemonade. A lemonade stand is a trade of a good— because lemonade is a thing somebody makes to sell to people that want lemonade!

At a clothing store like the outlet mall, the people who work in the store get paid. Every day, they come to the store and help to sell the clothes and the store owner gives them money for working there. The worker at the store is providing a service because he is doing an activity that helps the owner of the store to sell the clothes.

Trade happens every day, all around you! Thanks for reading along with me today, everyone!