Many friends who travel abroad often see the three letters USD on the price tags of products in tourist destinations. What do these three letters mean? Let us find out together below. Brief answer
USD is the English currency abbreviation of the US dollar and is the legal currency of the United States, El Salvador, Panama, Ecuador, East Timor and other countries. Details
Appeared after the passage of the United States Coinage Act of 1792. The current issuance of U.S. dollars is controlled by the U.S. Federal Reserve System. Since 1913, the United States has established the Federal Reserve System and issued Federal Reserve Notes. More than 99% of banknotes currently in circulation are Federal Reserve notes.
The authority responsible for issuing U.S. dollars is Congress, and the specific issuance business is handled by the Federal Reserve Bank. After World War II, continental European countries reached an agreement with the United States and agreed to use U.S. dollars for international payments. Since then, the U.S. dollar has been widely used as a reserve currency in countries other than the United States and eventually became an international currency.
In 1792, the U.S. dollar adopted a gold and silver bimetal system. According to the Coinage Act promulgated that year, one U.S. dollar was equivalent to 371.25 grains (24.057 grams) of pure silver or 24.75 grains (1.6038 grams) of pure gold. until 1873. One US dollar is worth 24.057 grams of silver, which is approximately equivalent to one Spanish silver dollar.
Because the U.S. government rarely minted one-dollar coins, Spanish silver dollars had been one of the main currencies in circulation in the United States before the Civil War. U.S. government and private banks also mostly used Spanish silver dollars as reserves. Americans mostly exchange banknotes for Spanish silver dollars.
The main image on the front of the U.S. dollar banknotes is a portrait, and the main color is black. The main scene pattern on the back is a building, and the main color is green, but there are few differences in the colors of different versions. For example, the back of the 1934 version is dark green, the back of the 1950 version is grass green, and the back of the 1963 version is all dark green. Since Dollar Green is an ink made from a type of tree sap, the quality of the sap varies each time, so the color is slightly different.
The signature above is the signature of the Minister of Finance, and different Ministers of Finance were responsible for different issuance years. Prior to the 20th century, 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50-cent notes were issued. The large-front dollar is one-half the size of the small-front dollar compared to the small-front dollar. Interestingly, all denominations of the U.S. dollar are the same size. The $20 dollar bill is the most widely used high-denomination banknote in the United States.
The front of the US$1 bill (1993) shows the portrait of the first US President George Washington (1732-1799), and the main scene in the background is the Great Seal of the United States.