Penny, nickel, dime, quarter; Who's there?

December 7, 2008 3:45 PM

How old were you when you learned who was on our most basic currency-- coins? When could you place them on the continuum of Presidents?

And when did you learn that here in the U.S. no one living may be commemorated on currency or stamps?

I have been working as a substitute teacher and have taken this on as something of a private mission, because all my students (up to grade 6) are convinced that all those profiles are either GW Bush (still alive, as you know), "Obama! Obama!" (also alive and not yet President) or, distant third, George Washington. So what did you know, and when did you know it?

posted by emhutchinson to education (25 comments total)

I was three. My family were patriots and coin collectors.
posted by ikkyu2 at 3:54 PM on December 7, 2008

I remember getting a ruler with all the presidents on it in grade 3, and they were old news to me by then, so sometime earlier than that. I have no idea about the non-living rule.
posted by equalpants at 4:03 PM on December 7, 2008

Probably not three, but no later than 1st grade. My dad got me into coin collecting early.
posted by netbros at 4:05 PM on December 7, 2008

I *still* couldn't swear who was on there, apart from Washington on the quarter.

(And to be completely honest, I just fished one out of my bag to check and avoid making an even greater ass of myself.)

I come from neither patriots nor coin collectors.
posted by CunningLinguist at 4:06 PM on December 7, 2008 [4 favorites]

And when did you learn that here in the U.S. no one living may be commemorated on currency or stamps?

Several minutes ago.

I learned the currency stuff around middle school, but I met people in college who didn't know the hell was on a dime.
posted by milarepa at 4:11 PM on December 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

I (public school, early 70s) knew who was on each coin before kindergarten (but I was very money motivated as a kid, my dad's nickname for me was Scrooge McDuck because I saved all my birthday money and would roll around on it). I knew the order of all past Presidents by 4th grade, and learned the no-one-living rule in 5th or 6th.

My son's school (public school, currently in 5th grade) introduced who was on the coins beginning in 1st, he memorized the names by the end of 2nd. He doesn't know the entire order of past elected presidents yet, but knows you have to be dead to have your face on US currency. As of 3rd grade, he knew the order of our more notable presidents (e.g., Washington = 1st, Lincoln = 16th, Kennedy = 35th) but I doubt he could place Jefferson other than "sometime after Washington and before Lincoln."
posted by jamaro at 4:11 PM on December 7, 2008

That is weird. One of the first things I learned and remembered teach my brothers was about money and who was on the coins and dollars. I would say kindergarten or first grade. We even had this encyclopedia of all of the presidents that I would go through and show all my brothers before they were even in school.
posted by hazyspring at 4:12 PM on December 7, 2008

Second grade. Since one of the street slang words for money is "Dead Presidents" I would think that them being portraits of any president who was not dead would not make much sense.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 4:20 PM on December 7, 2008

I am 36, and still can't. *fishes in pocket*. I've no idea who they guy on the dime is, and I guess Washington was the first President and there were then a bunch more before Lincoln? The thing about dead-people-only I learned upon reading your question.
For reference, I have lived in the US for 8 years and I know who the lady on the stamps and coins of my own country is, and that she is still alive.
posted by nowonmai at 4:30 PM on December 7, 2008

I also just learned the dead people thing when i clicked on [more inside]!

And shamefully... your second question almost suggests I know the continuum of presidents in which to place the coin figures...eek.
I think I'd do OK if we can let the dime slide....

sounds like an excellent and reasonable lesson/goal though. i think a lot of us fall through the gap just because its something so obvious or common we never pay a second glance.
posted by nzydarkxj at 4:52 PM on December 7, 2008

"The guy on the dime," nowonmai, is the ultimate stumper. FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who will be getting more press soon with the new public works programs in the works, is the one no one seems to know, ever. And as for the tails sides, the Lincoln Memorial on the penny and Monticello on the nickel all seem to say "White House" (the "marble columns," or something).

You do have it easier in the UK. But all my kids are confused on the subject of the living QE II. "Isn't that the dead princess?" they ask. I will start bringing UK stamps to school. Thanks.
posted by emhutchinson at 4:55 PM on December 7, 2008

When I was a kid, they weren't all presidents.
posted by Class Goat at 5:03 PM on December 7, 2008

They never taught us in school about who is on the currency. I learned it somewhere around age 8-10 when I was an avid coin collector (though I'm pretty sure I knew Washington and Lincoln before that.) I didn't know about the "only dead people" rule until just now.
posted by Daily Alice at 5:06 PM on December 7, 2008

And when did you learn that here in the U.S. no one living may be commemorated on currency or stamps?

Right now, actually.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:08 PM on December 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Our son is 7 and my husband was just quizzing him on who is on what coins yesterday. He did quite well.
posted by Lucinda at 5:22 PM on December 7, 2008

I still forget who's on the dime after being reminded it's FDR. I'm surprised you'd think that learning the rule about dead people on stamps and currency is some classic milestone in life that people remember.

What's the point of this question? Wouldn't it be better suited to Metachat?
posted by Jaltcoh at 5:47 PM on December 7, 2008

Actually, when I was an adult, they also weren't all presidents.
posted by Class Goat at 6:33 PM on December 7, 2008

Thank you, Class Goat. I forgot about Sacajawea, too.

As for "the point of this question," I am trying to figure out what, if any, benchmark exists for learning to recognize the meaning within the stuff of our everyday lives. "No Child Left Behind" translates for me to "No Relevance or Meaning Left Intact." (And it's MetaTalk, not MetaChat.)

Just fill in those "bubbles" and identify a picture of a cup as "something to drink out of" and we'll pass you on to the the next grade.
posted by emhutchinson at 6:59 PM on December 7, 2008

My daughter was taught the names of the figures on our coinage through the use of a song and visual aids in kindergarten. I doubt she has any sense of their historical order and for that matter, I doubt she remembers their names - even a year later.
posted by serazin at 7:14 PM on December 7, 2008

And for what its worth, I don't really care if she ever knows who they are. I'm not sure that I do, though I'm pretty well informed about political history and current events.
posted by serazin at 7:15 PM on December 7, 2008

For some reason, even though I know that it's FDR, I always see Truman when I look at the dime.

In answer to your question, I probably knew by age 7.
posted by fructose at 7:50 PM on December 7, 2008

Well, not all the people on US paper currency were presidents, of course. Not just Franklin, but Hamilton too. And it was only until recently that I found out why Alexander Hamilton was on one... First Secretary of the Treasury, which made sense. For whatever reason I'd only known him for his duel with Aaron Burr.

One year in grade school, we had a display line in the hallway of all the presidents, but I doubt any of us actually studied it, and we certainly never learned it in school. I'd think every kid knows about Washington being the first, Lincoln being the 16th, Jefferson being somewhere early, and whoever the current pres is. Maybe Kennedy, and Garfield (because he had a funny name). And Jackson on the $20, because of Michael (haha).

So as far as coins, the only mystery was indeed FDR. As for us adults, maybe him being the most recent has something to do with it, and we're not as used to seeing his profile as an icon. And I always thought the penny's Lincoln Memorial looked like a balcony upside down.

Just for "fun" I tried memorizing all the presidents in order, and it's pretty useful to know. I don't know why all schools don't stress learning them. Please do that, OP.

And I thought I'd heard about the stamp/dead thing long ago, but it seems like there'd be exceptions here and there and thus it either was no longer in effect, or never was.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 10:59 PM on December 7, 2008

The money in my pocket right now has a Queen, two different pieces of modern art, two different buildings, and a dude with glasses pictured on the coins.

As for US currency, I think the Indian-head penny made more of an impression as a four-year-old than Lincoln ever did. I could probably recognize all the faces on the coins nowdays, but I'd never be able to sort them into anything like a chronology.
posted by HFSH at 2:46 AM on December 8, 2008

(And it's MetaTalk, not MetaChat.)

No, I don't mean MetaTalk -- it wouldn't be suited to there, either. I mean Metachat, where Metafilter users often ask questions of the "Hey, tell me some quirky thing about yourself" variety, as opposed to the "I have a problem to be solved" variety.
posted by Jaltcoh at 7:21 AM on December 8, 2008

I can name all the presidents in order, but I have no idea who is on most money and I can't say I really care. Knowing which president served when tells me things about history, and seems relevant; this not so much.
posted by dame at 8:46 AM on December 8, 2008