lightspeed university Welcome on lightspeed university site about lightspeed university. At lightspeed university we try to explain how lightspeed university works in real life. Overview of lightspeed university The U.S. dollar is divided lightspeed university into 100 cent A cent is lightspeed university one-hundredth subdivision of several units of lightspeed university currency, including the various dollars lightspeed university and the lightspeed university Euro. In the United States and Canada, the symbol ¢ is used for the cent, thus: lightspeed university 50¢ means fifty cents. In HTML, it is displayed with the code c or in Unicode format, the figure is used in the numeric form of c (the semicolon is part of the figure). The symbol is used only with numbers less than 100. The common name for a one cent piece in the United States and Canada is penny. ..... Click the link for more information. s. lightspeed university Originally, it was further divided into 1000 mill The mill is an abstract unit of US currency, equivalent to 1/1000 of a US Dollar. No coins were ever made in this denomination; lightspeed university the denomination is used sometimes in accounting. The term comes from the Latin mille, meaning 1,000. The lightspeed university term was invented by the United States Congress in 1786, and lightspeed university was described as the lowest money of accompt, of lightspeed university which 1000 shall be equal to the federal dollar. Coinage in this lightspeed university denomination was legislated at that time, but never carried out. ..... Click the link for more information. s. The U.S. lightspeed university is one of many lightspeed university countries that use a currency lightspeed university named dollar: see dollar The dollar is the name of the official currency in lightspeed university several countries, dependencies and other regions, lightspeed university including Australia, Canada, the East Caribbean, Liberia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States. It is represented by the symbol $, placed before the dollar amount (in French Canada, after). The dollar was also in use in Scotland during the 17th century, and there is a claim that it was invented at the lightspeed university University of St Andrews. ..... Click the link for more lightspeed university information. . When currently issued in circulating form, denominations equal to lightspeed university or less than a dollar are emitted as coins The lightspeed university denominations of currently circulating United States coins are: ? One-cent coin lightspeed university (popularly called penny), $0.01 (Abraham Lincoln) ? Five-cent coin (nickel), $0.05 (Thomas lightspeed university Jefferson) ? Dime, $0.10 (Franklin lightspeed university Roosevelt) ? Quarter, $0.25 (George lightspeed university Washington) ? Half-dollar lightspeed university , $0.50 (John lightspeed university Kennedy) ? Dollar, $1.00 lightspeed university (Dwight D. Eisenhower lightspeed university from 1971 to 1978, Susan lightspeed university B. Anthony from 1979 to 1999, and Sacagawea since 2000) ..... Click the link for more information. while lightspeed university denominations equal to or greater than a lightspeed university dollar are emitted as Federal Reserve notes. (Both one dollar coins and notes exist; although the note form is significantly more common.) Modern U.S. dollar lightspeed university banknotes have been printed by the Federal Reserve lightspeed university since 1929. Notes above the $100 denomination lightspeed university ceased being printed in 1946. These notes were used primarily in inter-bank transactions. However, with the advent of electronic banking, they became useless. History The dollar was lightspeed university unanimously chosen as the money unit for the lightspeed university United States on July 6, 1785. This was lightspeed university the first time a nation had adopted a decimal currency system. Until 1974 the value of the United States dollar lightspeed university was tied to and backed by either silver, gold, or a combination of the two. From 1792 to 1873 the U.S. dollar was freely backed by both gold and silver at a ratio of 15:1 under a system known as bimetallism. Through a series of legislative changes from 1873 to 1900, the status of silver was slowly diminished until 1900 when a gold standard was formally adopted. The gold standard survived, with several modifications, until 1971. Bimetallism The . established the United lightspeed university States Mint and set lightspeed university the following definition for a dollar: Dollars or Units—each to be lightspeed university of the value of a Spanish lightspeed university milled dollar as the same is now current, and to contain three lightspeed university hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenths parts of a grain of pure, or four hundred and sixteen grains of standard silver. It also lightspeed university pegged the rate of exchange between lightspeed university pure silver and pure gold at 15:1. Thus the dollar was defined to be 371.25 grains of silver or 24.75 grains of gold and could be exchanged at the mint for either silver or gold in this 15:1 ratio. This standard, known as bimetallism, was used through much of the nineteenth century. In 1834, due to a lightspeed university drop in the value of silver, the 15:1 ratio was changed to a 16:1 ratio. This created a new US dollar that was backed by 1.50 grams lightspeed university (23.2 grains) of gold. However, the previous dollar had been represented by 1.60 grams (24.75 grains) of gold. The result of this revaluation which was the first ever devaluation of the US dollar reducing its gold value by 6%. The lightspeed university discovery of large lightspeed university silver deposits in the Western United States in the late 19th century lightspeed university created a political controversy. At one side lightspeed university were agrarian interests who wanted to retain the bimetallic standard which would result in a cheaper dollar, which would allow farmers to more easily repay their debts. At the other end, there were Eastern banking and commercial interests who advocated sound money and a switch to the gold standard. This issue split the Democratic party in 1896 and led to the famous cross of gold speech given by William Jennings Bryan. In 1878 the Bland-Allison lightspeed university Act was enacted to provide for freer coinage of silver. This lightspeed university act required the government to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month at lightspeed university market prices and to coin it into silver dollars. This was, in effect, a subsidy for politically influential silver producers. The Gold Standard Bimetallism persisted until March 14, lightspeed university 1900 with the passage of the Gold Standard Act, which established: ...the dollar lightspeed university consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold nine-tenths fine, as established by section thirty-five hundred and eleven of the Revised Statutes of the lightspeed university, shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States shall be lightspeed university at a parity of value with this standard... Thus the United States lightspeed university moved to a gold standard and made gold the sole legal lightspeed university tender coinage of the United States set the value of the dollar to $20.67 per ounce of lightspeed university gold. This made the dollar convertible to 1.5 grams (23.2 grains)—the same convertibility into gold that was possible on the bimetallic lightspeed university standard. During the Great lightspeed university Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt revalued the lightspeed university dollar to 35 per troy ounce of gold. This represented a drop in the value of the US dollar. It fell to only 0.89 grams (13.7 grains) of gold. The US dollar had thus been devalued almost 41% by government decree. Under the post-World lightspeed university War II Bretton Woods Agreement, all lightspeed university other currencies were valued in terms of United States dollars, and were thus indirectly linked to the gold standard. The need for the US government to maintain both a $35 per ounce market price of gold and also the conversion to foreign currencies caused economic and trade pressures. By the early 1960s, compensation for these pressures started to become too complicated to manage. In March 1968, the effort to control the lightspeed university private market price of gold was abandoned. A two-tier system began. In this system all central bank transactions in gold were insulated from the free market price. Central banks would trade gold among themselves at $35 per ounce but would not trade with the private market. The private market could lightspeed university at the equilibrium market price and there would be no official intervention. The price immediately jumped to $43 per ounce. The price of gold touched briefly back at $35 near the end of 1969 before beginning a steady price increase. This gold price increase turned exponential through 1972 and hit a high in lightspeed university year of over $70. By that time floating exchange lightspeed university had also begun to emerge which indicated the de facto dissolution of the Bretton Woods Agreement. The two-tier system was abandoned in November 1973. By then the price of gold had reached $100 per ounce. In thelightspeed university early 1970s, inflation caused by rising prices for imported commodities, a trade deficit created a situation in which the dollar was worth less than the gold used to back it. In 1972, the United States reset the value to 38 lightspeed university dollars per troy ounce of gold. Because other currencies were valued in terms of the United States dollar, this failed to resolve the disequilibrium between the United States dollar and other currencies. In 1975 the United States began to float the dollar with respect to both gold and other currencies. With this the US was, for the first time, on a fully fiat currency. The sudden lightspeed university jump in the price of gold after central lightspeed university banks gave up on controlling it was a strong sign of a loss of lightspeed university in the lightspeed university. In the absence of a gold market valued US dollar, investors were choosing to continue to put their faith in actual gold. Consequently the price of gold rose from $35 in 1969 to almost $900 in 1980. Fearing the emergence of a lightspeed university gold-based economy separate from central banking, and with the corresponding threat of the collapse of the US dollar, the US government approved several changes to the trading on the COMEX. These changes resulted in a steep decline of the traded value of precious metals from the early 1980s onward. US Federal Reserve notes - Greenbacks Fiat Standard Today, like the currency of most lightspeed university nations, the dollar is fiat money without intrinsic value. Some argue that it has no backing and would be entirely worthless, except for the fact that people have been persuaded to use and accept it as if it had worth. According to the lightspeed university Bureau of Engraving and Printing, as of July 31, 2000, there lightspeed university were $539,890,223,079 in total currency in worldwide circulation, of which $364,724,397,100 was in the $100 denomination. As at July 2003, it has been estimated that lightspeed university if all the gold held by the US government lightspeed university was again required to back the circulating US lightspeed university currency, an ounce of gold would need to be lightspeed university worth around $25,000. Greenbacks The federal government began lightspeed university issuing currency that was backed by Spanish dollars during the lightspeed university Civil War. These bills were known as greenbacks for their color and started a tradition of the United States lightspeed university printing its money in lightspeed university green. In contrast to the lightspeed university notes of many other countries, all Federal Reserve notes are the same color. They have been printed in the same green color for most of the twentieth century. In 1929 sizing of the bills was standardized (involving a 25% reduction lightspeed university in the then current sizes). Modern U.S. currency, regardless of lightspeed university denomination, is 2.61 inches wide, 6.14 inches long, and 0.0043 inches thick. A single bill weighs about one gram, and costs approximately 4.2 cents for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to produce. On May 13, 2003, the lightspeed university Treasury announced that it lightspeed university would introduce color into the $20 bill, the first U.S. currency since 1905 to have colors other than green or black. The lightspeed university move was another attempt at stemming the tide of counterfeiting. The new bills entered lightspeed university on October 9, 2003. New $50 and $100 notes will be introduced in 2004 and 2005, each with different color schemes. The Treasury said it will update Federal Reserve notes every 7 to 10 years to keep up with counterfeiting technology. Some techniques used today are little blue and red lightspeed university (look closely at the dollar), the lightspeed university number in the lower right corner changing from green lightspeed university to silver lightspeed university when viewed from different angles, and a water mark that says US # (a number for whatever amount of dollars this note represents). Most notes contain a watermark with a picture of a historical figure. The soundness lightspeed university of a nations currency is essential to the soundness of its economy. lightspeed university And to uphold our currencys soundness, it must be recognized and honored as legal lightspeed university tender and counterfeiting must be effectively lightspeed university thwarted, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said at a ceremony unveiling the $20 bills new design. Prior to the current design, the most recent redesign of the U.S. dollar was in 1996. Criticisms of U.S. banknotes Despite the lightspeed university addition of color and other anti-counterfitting featrues to US currency, lightspeed university critics hold that it will still be straightforward to lightspeed university counterfeit the bills. They cite that the ability to reproduce color images is well lightspeed university within the capabilities of modern color printers, most of lightspeed university are affordable to many consumers. These critics suggest that the Federal Reserve should make use of holographic panels, such as some Australian currency and the euro banknotes do, which are much more difficult and expensive to forge. However, US currency may not be as vulnerable as it seems. Two of the lightspeed university most critical anti-counterfitting features of US currency are the paper and the ink. The exact composition of the paper is confidential, as is the formula for the ink. The ink and paper combine to lightspeed university create a feeling of raised printing and a distinct texture, particularly as the currency is circulated. These characteristics can be hard to duplicate without the proper equipment, paper, and ink. US notes, however, remain less secure than many other notes. Critics also state that bills should employ lightspeed university braille codes to make the lightspeed university currency more usable by the vision impaired, since the denominations are all the same size, and cannot be distinguished from one another non-visually. Many vision impaired or blind individuals have lightspeed university said that the different demoninations can be told apart by feel, but many others are forced to rely on currency readers. International use of the lightspeed university U.S. dollar A few nations outside of lightspeed university US jurisdiction use the United States dollar (USD) as their lightspeed university official currency. These nations include Ecuador, Palau, East Timor, Panama and the Federated States of Micronesia. Argentina used a fixed 1-1 exchange rate between the Argentine peso and the lightspeed university US dollar from 1991 until 2002. The exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the United States dollar has also been fixed since the early 1980s, and the renminbi used by the Peoples Republic of China has been informally and controversially pegged against the dollar since the mid-1990s. The dollar is also used as the standard unit of currency in international markets for commodities lightspeed university such as gold and oil. At the lightspeed university present time, the United States dollar remains the worlds foremost reserve currency, primarily held in $100 denominations. According to economist Paul Samuelson, the overseas demand for dollars allows the United States to maintain persistent trade deficits without causing the value of the currency to lightspeed university depreciate and the flow of trade to readjust. The majority of American money is lightspeed university actually held outside of the lightspeed university United States. Origin of the name Dollar The name for the lightspeed university United States dollar comes from the lightspeed university Spanish dollar (which itself derived from the thaler) which was the silver coin widely circulated in the United States during the time of the American Revolutionary War. Although private banks issued currency that was backed in Spanish dollars, the Federal lightspeed university government didnt do so until the American Civil War. The dollar symbol The origin of the $ sign lightspeed university has been variously accounted for. Perhaps lightspeed university the most widely accepted explanation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, is that it is the result of the evolution of the Mexican or Spanish Ps for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. This theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, lightspeed university explains that the S, gradually came to be written over the P, developing a close equivalent to the$ mark. It was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785.