Dollars

This article is about general United States currency. For the dollar coin, see United States dollar coin. more...

The dollar (currency code USD) is the currency of the United States. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents.

Adopted by the United States Congress in 1785, the U.S. dollar is today the most used currency in the world. Several countries use the U.S. dollar as their official currency, and many others allow it to be used in a de facto legal capacity. It is also used as a reserve currency by many countries. In 1995, over $380 billion USD were in circulation, of which two-thirds was outside of the United States. As of 2005, that figure had doubled to nearly $760 billion with an estimated half to two-thirds being held overseas , which is an annual growth of about 6.6%.

Overview

The U.S. dollar uses the decimal system, consisting of 100 cents (symbol ¢). In another division, there are 1,000 mills or ten dimes to a dollar; additionally, the term eagle was used in naming gold coins. However, only cents are in everyday use as divisions of the dollar; "dime" is used solely as the name of the coin with the value of 10¢, while "eagle" and "mill" are largely unknown to the general public, though mills are sometimes used in matters of tax levies and gasoline prices. When currently issued in circulating form, denominations equal to or less than a dollar are emitted as U.S. coins while denominations equal to or greater than a dollar are emitted as Federal Reserve notes. (Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the note form is significantly more common.) In the past, paper money was occasionally issued in denominations less than a dollar (Fractional Currency) and gold coins were issued for circulation up to the value of twenty dollars.

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