Saturday, January 07, 2006

Yes, we have no bananas.


We do have this mysterious double sawbuck, though:

$20 Bill Printed Over Sticker Nets $25,300

AP. DALLAS - A $20 bill printed on paper that mysteriously had an ordinary fruit sticker on it sold Friday for $25,300, an auction company official said.

The 1996 bill originated at a U.S. Treasury Department printing facility in Fort Worth, but how the fruit tag found its way onto the paper of the greenback is unknown.

In the case of the Del Monte note, the seal and serial number are both printed on top of the sticker, meaning the fruit tag must have found its way onto the bill midway through the [printing] process.

The note, in nearly perfect condition, has achieved celebrity status among currency collectors, appearing on the covers of the Bank Note Reporter and Numismatic News.

To be honest, I just wanted the chance to use the term "double sawbuck" on my blog.
Though finski (fin, comes from a yiddish word for five) is my favorite.
C note isn't that creative because C is one hundred in Roman numerals.
So, I started looking about where the sawbuck came from.
Couple things I found:

Originally, a $10 bill had the roman numeral X '10' printed on it. A $10 bill, already called an "X," started being called a "sawbuck" because of the resemblance of the letter "X" to the crossed legs of the sawhorse.
Hmm. I do like that some people called it a double sawski.

Craftsmen in the early 1800's used two boards nailed together in the shape of an "X" to secure wood that was to be cut. From the side, this man-made apparatus looked like the roman numeral for "10". They named it a "sawbuck". Over time, these craftsmen began to refer to their $10 bill as a "sawbuck".
Interesting.
You may decide which makes more sense.
But, I do think we should start making slang terms for money more common in our language again.. :)


3 comments:

SheaNC said...

Your right. I'll start thinking of some:

$20 - "Fruit of the ATM"

$1 - "OMFG! For a candy bar!?"

$5 - "Used to be but now is not nearly enough"

Anything over $20 - "Generally outside my realm of experience"

Mike V. said...

You know what we need? A real good dollar coin.
I propose a Caesar's casino chip.. :)

Jay said...

I am a total whore for random trivia.