Unlucky dollar?

Would you feel lucky if someone gave you a US dollar? Although one dollar is only about 120yen it is still better than nothing. You could even buy a pair of glasses from the 100yen shop!

And it looks pretty good, doesn’t it? It’s not made of paper, it’s made from cotton and linen, with a little silk, so it’s actually material. A special ink is used and then it is starched and pressed, and on the front you can see a picture of the first president, George Washington.

But if you look closely at the back you can find a big relationship with the unlucky number 13. Let’s go through the list.

You can see a pyramid, which has 13 steps.

Above the pyramid is written (in Latin) ‘Annuit Coeptis’, which has 13 letters.

Above the eagle is more Latin, ‘E Pluribus Unum’, which also has 13 letters.

Also above the eagle are 13 stars.

There are 13 bars on the shield below the eagle.

In the eagle’s left claw is an olive branch with 13 leaves.

In the eagle’s right claw are 13 arrows.

In addition the original US flag had 13 stripes and 13 stars.

It seems strange that in the US, where 13 is often considered unlucky, that the famous dollar bill (and the flag!) has so many references to the number 13.

For anyone who finds the dollar bill unlucky there is the one dollar coin, the silver dollar, or the gold dollar. The only problem is that these aren’t easy to find, though you can buy them on the internet for about 4 dollars each!