Welcome to the The Old Money Edition of the Money Hacks Carnival! If this is your first time here, please have a look around and consider subscribing to our RSS feed. Be sure to also check out Festival of Frugality No. 139: The Michael Phelps Edition which was hosted here yesterday for more recommended reading.

Madoline and I have a fondness for history and all things old, so the theme for today’s carnival is “Old Money.” While credit cards, online banking and checks are great modern commodities, they just don’t have the charm of good, old fashioned money - in other words, cash. We hope you enjoy this tour through United States Treasury history and the art to be found in currencies of the past.

1934 $100,000 USD Bill (Woodrow Wilson)

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1918 $10,000 USD Bill (Salmon P. Chase)

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Dissolution is a fact of life: that things naturally break down into smaller and smaller parts until they virtually do not exist. It is the same with money. A newborn $20 bill from the ATM is beautiful and full of potential. As it is used, the bill is broken into many smaller bills and the smaller bills into coins which are left to languish at the bottom of purses and wallets. Eventually, these remains of a larger sum end up in corners and crevices of the home, and become a housekeeping nuisance.

Do you ever stop to think that all the orphaned pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters skulking about your house might together be worth $20 or more? $20 of grubby coins, has as much worth in its soul as $20 in a crisp new bill. And these coins, if rehabilitated, wiped, and sent to work at the bank, will do their very best to repay you over the course of your life. You will receive interest for taking interest.

On each occasion when Penelope and I have gathered up a whole houseful of coins, usually when moving out, we were surprised by an impressive grand total. Coins, like people, are worth more hanging together than hanging alone.

As a way of rounding up stray coins on a regular basis, I suggest you keep at least one coin jar in the house. Several would be better so you would not need to leave the room to deposit a loose coin, as one usually encounters a coin when very busy. A jar in the car is also advisable as money is often dropped there (and sometimes not your own!).

Note: Avoid services which charge money to count your coins. Credit unions are usually better than banks at not charging fees to deposit change–as they should not because banks benefit from holding your money no matter what form it comes in. We prefer to deposit cash in our savings account (which earns good interest daily) and spend it through our credit cards which earns us cash back on all expenditures. For more on earning money by using credit cards refer to Penelope’s post: this post.

Continue reading for tips on making an attractive coin jar for your home. (more…)