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If $1 is $19 I am suprised more people didnt check that their $1 notes are legit back then. Story makes it sound like $1 was chump change.
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Do you check the $20 bills the ATM spits out, or just stuff them in your wallet and spend them?
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> Juettner began working as a maintenance man and building superintendent in New York's Upper East Side. His job allowed him and his family to live rent free in the basement of the building where he worked.
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Yes, but he was forced to counterfeit when that job ended.
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I think it's a fairly reasonable assumption that he retired (he was 60 in the 1930s) but the article could have made that part explicit.

On my first read I thought he had become a junk collector out of depression for the death of his wife.

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Since they were silver certificates he could have redeemed them for a 26.73g coin composed of 90% silver and 10% copper. In 2026, the value of the silver has fluctuated between about $46 and $94 (and the value of the copper content has stayed a little over 3 cents).
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Those stopped being redeemable for silver in 1968, so their value is no longer defined by the metal prices of 2026.
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If you swap them in stores, maybe. But taking counterfeit bills to the national bank is just stupid, even if very well made.
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Would owning his apartment disqualify him from being a folk hero? If he was a renter, does he deserve to be a hero? Just wondering. If he'd gotten rich from printing fake currency and become a right wing dictator would you think the same as if he was just a broke tenant? Why or why not?
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The hell are you talking about?
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I'm talking about the vague implications the parent poster was making - the purposes of which weren't very clear, but which I interpreted as: "A) Money is worth less than it was, (so printing fake money is justified) B) But on the other hand maybe he was part of the propertied class (in which case it wouldn't be)". I was asking whether they had a moral compass.
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I think you're reading way too much into that comment. Sometimes questions are just questions out of curiosity, not accusations of the opposite.
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