Numismatics is the study of currency, money, and its uses thereof. U.S. Currency is noteworthy for several reasons:

(ha! “note” worthy! Get it? It’s another of my famous puns. You lucky, lucky bastards…)

Anyways: -Did you know that US currency is the only money where the notes are all the same size? People in Europe refer to USD as “Monopoly Money” for that reason. Seriously.

-Since 1969, the largest denomination in circulation of US currency is the $100 Note. On top of that, there are far more people in the U.S. than there are $100 notes. Consequently, whenever you use a $100 note, most people would be smart enough to verify the authenticity of the note!

So, starting from the top:

-Yup. The first issuing note of $100 from the U.S. Treasury featured Lincoln on the note. It was in 1862, one year before his assassination, and in the midst of the Civil War.

-The next series was put into Circulation in 1870. It featured Senator Thomas Hart Benton (Missouri) on the note. He was most closely associated with the “Manifest Destiny” idea of westward expansion. Also, do you see where it says “GOLD” all over the note? US Currency is ensured in value by our stores of gold bullion, which are kept in places like Fort Knox, Kentucky or the Federal Reserve Bank, in NYC.

-1914 Was the first time Benjamin Franklin made his appearance on the note. That is Independence Hall on the back (it is where the Liberty Bell is: in Philly.)

-1966 Was the next series. I kinda like the typography on that note. It is kinda cool looking. It also has a new seal of the US Treasury, and the Latin has been replaced with English. It was issued because of a bunch of changes internally, and because of a decrease in the amount of currency in circulation.

-Series 2006A was the next release of the note. It was actually released in 1996, but was renamed the 2006A because it underwent numerous changes to stop counterfeiting efforts.

-the most current version of the currency from 2009. Current Currency designs are often subject to recalls, modifications, and so forth. (Current Currency is the correct terminology. it is also alliterative, with the same root for each word. Do you KNOW what that means? It means that I have given you lucky bastards TWO examples of my stunning word-play, in only one post! You guys hit the freaking jackpot with me!) The 2009 series was DESIGNED in 2009, but was released in 2011, recalled and replaced with an uncolored version (some kind of problem with creasing), and the next series is set to be released in October of 2013.

It is actually kind of interesting, when you read about it. Also, look at world currency pictures at some point. They’re often quite beautiful. Another thing to look for: in the UK, Coins issued with the Portrait of the Queen are issued with her age correct for the date of issue. So, the first coins released under her reign showed a young woman. Now, they show her to have aged quite considerably.

I feel like sending a letter across the country overnight is a more impressive technological advancement than sending an email

It very much so IS a greater achievement.

It costs about $15 to send a physical letter across Tokyo, and it might take longer than a week.

It costs less than $1 to send a letter from New York City to Los Angeles, and it will get there in about 5 days.

And the USPS is not funded by taxes. The USPS is funded entirely by revenue streams like stamps and shipping fees. The US Senate even took money from the USPS retirement fund when Bush lost too much of it. Seriously. And yet Americans take the USPS for granted, or make jokes about the Postal Workers.

Benjamin Franklin created the USPS, and it is one of the most awesome things about living in the United States. Learn to appreciate it, and please be nice to local postal workers. They have a shitty, under-appreciated, and vital job.

Japan Post charges 82 yen - 72 cents USD - to mail a letter. I can’t find out how long it takes to get one from one end of Tokyo to the other on their English site, but this story is real fishy.

Also, it’s actually funded by taxes. The USPS operates at a big lossand would have gone bankrupt otherwise.

Well, I was WAY off on the price of mailing stuff in Japan. Apologies. I read that stuff online a while back, no idea where. That’s what I get for not checking my sources I guess.

Mailing letters from coast to coast of the US is still cheaper than mailing stuff across the island nation of Japan. And probably faster.

As for the revenue, it might have since been revised and I missed it, but the USPS has pretty much always funded itself on revenue. That’s one of the genius things about it.

The U.S. Senate legitimately took money from the USPS to pay for some crap that Dubya got us into:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/05/news/economy/postal_service_loan/index.htm

The government took 12 Million from the USPS as a loan, and the most recent headline I could find on it (granted, from about 5 years ago) says that the USPS needs the money back.

Like I said, albeit they recoup some of the losses with postage fees, the USPS still loses over a billion per quarter.

And yet,

https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-facts/top-10-things-to-know.htm

Short version? Taxes don't pay for the USPS to operate, and they remain competitive with privately held corporations like FedEx or UPS by relying solely upon revenue generated from Stamp and Service Fee revenues. And the USPS has been operating like that since Ben Franklin created it. Yes, they're losing money. When is the last time you wrote someone a letter instead of an email? Holiday Cards, right?

The USPS is one of the greatest logistical innovations of all time, and it deserves respect. I am not trying to be a Post Office fan-boy, but there are plenty of other things that suck about the US Infrastructure Systems. The USPS is one of the most impressive things about the USA, and most people think it's a joke.

An Algorithmic Political Geography Of The USA

Anyone interested in geographic economics and regionalism will find this new study from Garrett Dash Nelson and Alasdair Rae fascinating. The authors used an algorithmic approach to identify the megaregions of the US based on commute data. It demonstrates that in almost all areas of the country, the current political borders are not a good reflection of the economic interests of the inhabitants.

Note the NYC region – where I live – where the political boundary between NY state and New Jersey (and a speck of Pennsylvania) are shown to be irrelevant, and in fact, problematic: consider Governor Christie’s blocking the construction of new tunnels from NJ to NYC, for example. 

The NY-Connecticut border stands out as one of the few borders that show up algorithmically, which the authors suggest indicates some border-related economic barrier to commuting: perhaps the NYC tax system, where those that commute to work in NYC have to pay city taxes as well as to the state?

Also note that the High Plains lack enough commute data to warrant even a name on their new partitioning.

In a perfect future world, political boundaries would be fluid, not fixed. The residents of the NYC region, for example, would have an equal voice in issues that affect them equally, and those outside the region – like those in the new megaregions of Upstate NY and Philly – would have little say. 

The longer that old political boundaries persist – reflecting dictates of long-dead kings, or the expansion west a hundred years ago or more – the greater the societal costs for their inflexibility and their mismatch with actual economic reality. 

I’d like to see the analysis carried out at a finer granularity, so that the ‘counties’ and ‘cities’ of the new ‘state’ of New York City could be determined in the same way, as opposed to political considerations of decades or centuries ago. 

One last observation: handing over the political geography to an algorithm will likely be a political plank in future elections, taking away the lever of gerrymandering based on political parties, and determining voting districts based on human activity and connection. 

I don’t want to rehash the recent presidential elections, but I wonder how these regions would have voted, and what allocation of electoral votes they would have had. Don’t you?

beautiful work

Back in 1990, Peter Kuper did this story about Donald Trump building a wall to keep out the underclass, which, a quarter century later, seems eerily prescient. I’m only posting the first seven of the twelve pages, sorry. To read how the story ends, go get Kuper’s beautiful hardcover collection Drawn to New York: An Illustrated Chronicle of Three Decades in New York City.

the Four Freedoms Portfolio, by Franklin Booth. this portfolio features artwork that was originally published in 1943.

From the Top: -Freedom of Religion. -Freedom of Speech. -Freedom from Fear. -Freedom from Want.