I know it’s been a while since I did something trivia related so I thought that we might do something a little fun today. I had a lot of fun putting together 50 fun facts about money and thought why not put together a post on all the faces you see on our money? It’s not 50 facts, these probably aren’t as much fun as they are “Hmm… I didn’t know that,” but hopefully you have a little fun, learn a little something, and enjoy!

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It’s been a busy few weeks in the Middle East. Protests around the region are threatening regimes, and that is leading to possible instability in terms of oil supply. Indeed, violence in Libya has prompted some oil companies to evacuate non-essential personnel and their families. With investors — and others — increasing worried about the supply lines out of the Middle East, it is no surprise that oil prices are on the way up.

Predictions are coming in that we will see $3.50 for gas this summer, and Fortune is reporting that the U.S. government believes that there is a 1-in-10 chance that $4.00 gas is on tap for summer. So, what can you do about this? Gas prices are probably going to affect your personal economy — and soon.

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When I was 18, I traveled to Europe as an exchange student. I really didn’t know how to protect my money while traveling, and kept all most all of it in pocketbook, in a single form. I was lucky: The only danger my money faced was being spent. If I had been robbed, I would have been hard-pressed to get my money back (although, as part of a student exchange, I would have had help dealing with the aftermath).

True, I was at a disadvantage: I didn’t have a credit card, and I didn’t have a debit card. (This was a looong time ago.) Traveler’s cheques were the way to go when traveling overseas. However, some of the basics of protecting your money never change. It is especially important to be careful of your money if you know you will be traveling to a place in upheaval. Plus, you never know if the country you are in might suddenly become unpredictable, as what happened in Egypt recently.

Before you head out of the country, consider these tips for protecting your money:
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The fancy new $100 bill, with all its security bells and whistles, is so complicated that even the official manufacturers of those bills can’t get it right. CNBC reported earlier this week that $110 billion worth of $100 bills are currently wrapped in storage at Fort Worth because of a defect. During production, the paper may fold over and leave an uninked portion of the bill face… which is bad news. The bills are in “cash packs” of 16,000 bills per pack.

They’re currently looking at ways to mechanically scan the bills for defects because looking by hand would take twenty to thirty years. Until they can sort it out and fix the manufacturing problem, they’ll be producing more of the old $100 bills.

As for the new bills themselves, it costs about twelve cents to produce which puts the total bill of the bills, so far anyway, at $120 million. That really drives home the phrase “it takes money to make money.”

Who are Crane & Co. and why would we want to know ten fun facts about them? Open up your wallet or your purse, wherever you put your money, and pull out a bill. Crane & Co. manufactures the paper the money is printed on. In fact, Crane & Co. prints money for Sweden, Saudi Arabia, India, several African countries, India, and Paraguay. While they’re also a high end stationary provider, three quarters of their revenues are from currency business accounts.

Here are a few more fun facts about Crane & Co.:
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Take any bill out of your wallet, notice the little “Federal Reserve Note” written in the ribbon at the top of the bill? You may have heard that it’s considered legal tender and that you are required to accept it as payment.

As it turns out, while the Coinage Act of 1965 states that “United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues,” there is no such law that requires anyone to accept them. Section 31 U.S.C. 5103 of the act only states that the coins and currency are considered legal tender, but a business has the option must accept it as payment.

So the next time you want to “get back” at a business by paying in pennies, they are legally allowed to tell you to pound sand.

(Photo: r-z)

If you’ve wondered why Benjamin Franklin’s expression on the $100 bill never changes, it’s because he’s been getting regular botox injections. He would love to show emotion, but unfortunately he can’t. This year, he’ll be getting a little more work done, his first since 1996.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has created site with interactive tools that showcases the security features of the new $100 bill or you can check out their PDF explaining everything in great detail.

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Can you believe the euro has been around for almost eight years? I didn’t realize it’s been that long until I read a Bankrate question about options for converting old European currency (there aren’t many). That page referenced a University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business page that has anything and everything you could possible want to know about the Euro conversion, from a timeline to conversion rates to the Maastricht criteria, the criteria a country must meet to be eligible to convert to the euro.

The big lesson I learned was that the conversion rate from the old legacy currency to the euro is fixed forever and that you may have a deadline on converting notes and coins. For example, you can no longer convert the coinage of Belgium, Greece, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Portugal. There’s also a deadline on converting paper currency from Greece, France, Netherlands, Portugal, and Finland.

Here’s are the deadlines (includes ones for the recent additions):
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One of the things I learned whenever I drew up our financial network map was that I had a lot of bank accounts, mostly high interest savings accounts at online banks. FNBO Direct, Dollar Savings Direct, HSBC Direct, ING Direct, and E*Trade for starters and that was after we closed accounts at Emigrant Direct and Virtual Bank.

There are many reasons why I have so many bank accounts, and I’ll explain that some other time, but the point of this post is that it’s easy to forget the big picture whenever you’re dealing with the nitty gritty of daily affairs.

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One of the most important lessons you can teach your children is the importance of money. While we don’t have any kids yet, it has been a topic on my mind so I defer to these highly rated books for guidance:

Raising Money Smart Kids: What They Need to Know about Money and How to Tell Them by Janet Bodnar is published by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, one of the most respected personal finance magazines today. Bodnar is Kiplinger’s Personal Finance’s deputy editor, mother of three children, and nationally recognized as an expert in family finances and teaching children about money.

Silver Spoon Kids : How Successful Parents Raise Responsible Children by Eileen Gallo, Jon Gallo, and Kevin Gallo is a different kind of family finances book. It focuses on how to raise kids if you are in an affluent family and was written in the dot-com boom era (2001). While money has been tighter these days, I think that it covers the important topic of “trying to give your children everything,” which applies to both the affluent and less affluent.

Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children by Neale Godfrey and Carolina Edwards is a book from 1994, available for just a few dollars (plus shipping). How could I forget the book that is the namesake of this post? This book teaches timeless lessons about family finances and teaching kids about the value of money and personal values. If it applied in 1994, it’ll apply today (children haven’t changed that much!