Teacher's Guide for Money Unit

This teacher's guide is designed to lead your class through further study of economic topics. Web links are provided for further reading, and journal articles are cited on subjects difficult to find on the Web.

Discussion Questions

• Why is preventing counterfeit money important?
  
  
• What other counterfeiting measures would you include in the new currency and why?
  
  
• What effect will the “Electronic Age” have on money, especially currency?
  1. Credit cards
  2. Debit cards
  3. Smart cards—an “electronic purse” which holds money that can be subtracted at stores and vending machines
  4. Telephone banking
  5. Computer banking
     
     
• Businesses and consumers are beginning to realize the cost and inconvenience of handling money. Some banks are even charging for teller services. What effect will this have on how we buy and sell goods and services?
  
  
• What effect will globalization have on the dollar and other countries' currencies?
  1. A common currency for the European Community?
  2. Could this lead to a North American currency? A world currency?

Supplemental Readings

Links

• Teacher Features, via the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
• Coin News, via the Bureau of the Mint
• The 50 states commemorative coin program,
  via the Bureau of the Mint
• Governments and Money,
  via the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
  
• Currency Processing and Destruction,
  via the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
  
• How Currency Gets Into Circulation,
  via the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
  
• Small change: thoughts on the penny,
  The Region, March 1992
• Federal Reserve System's gold vault,
  The Region, December 1991
  
• U.S. Currency — New Designs, via the U.S. Treasury
• Dollars and Cents: Fundamental Facts about U.S. Money, via the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
• Money Matters, via the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
  [PDF format]
• Electronic Money, via the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
  

Articles
Counterfeiting:

• “The (Funny) Money Supply.” Business Week, May 23, 1994, p.109.
• “Plastic is Beautiful.”The Economist, Dec. 25, 1993, p.101.

New European Currency:

• Assessing the Euro Three Years After Its Launch,
  The Region, June 2001
• Interview with Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa,
  Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, The Region, June 2001
• “To Phrase a Coin.” The Economist, Feb. 11, 1995, p.14.
  
• “Europe's Currency Tangle: The way ahead.”
  The Economist, Jan. 30, 1993, p.21.
• “One Big Currency—and One Big Job Ahead.”
  Business Week, Dec. 23, 1991, p.40.

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