The Dollar Quiz: A Hands-On Approach to Monetary Debasement and Inflation

The dollar quiz is a hands-on teaching tool designed to create an awareness of and curiosity about monetary debasement, and the subsequent inflation it enables, by looking at the historical evolution of the U.S. Dollar. Students are challenged to rank the current values of historical and modern one-dollar pieces. The class lecture and discussion following the quiz reveals the current value of each dollar, along with an account of some basic economics of monetary debasement and inflation. Instructors can employ this exercise simply as a means of demonstrating monetary debasement and the extent of U.S. dollar inflation, or as an introduction to a more detailed section on U.S. monetary history.

Find the article at the Journal of Private Enterprise.