Love, As Always, Pete

The Weekly Letters, by A. Pedersen Wood

Quick Way to Measure

Need to measure something quickly?

A US Dollar Bill ($1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, or $100) is just over six (6) inches in length. You can use one anytime you need to find the "size" of something in a hurry.

By the way…

If you are ever tempted to use a dollar bill in a photo, to show scale, for example, don’t do it!!!  It is a violation of federal law to reproduce US currency in any way and they will hunt you down and prosecute you, if only as good practice for fledgling Secret Service agents.

My favorite counterfeiting story from the Secret Service involved a guy we’ll call “the Joker” in the 1950’s.  He thought making fake nickels would be a good idea, since no one ever bothers to look at small change.  Needless to say, they caught, tried and convicted him.  Then, someone at the Secret Service sat down with an adding machine (long before handheld calculators) and figured out that, when all was said and done, the Joker’s fake nickels actually cost him more than 5¢ each to manufacture.

For a fun look at counterfeiting, see Mister 880.