The Historical Link Between Punch Card Sizes and US Bank Note Dimensions
By
zdw
Pale, doughy, and a touch sad. Eat if peckish.
Summary
The article discusses the historical connection between punch card dimensions and US paper money sizes. It notes that punch cards were designed to match the 3.25″ by 7.375″ size of US bank notes prior to 1929. The author then draws a parallel between the literal shrinking of US currency (which was reduced to 2.61″ by 6.14″ after 1929) and the figurative shrinking of the dollar's purchasing power, using CPI data from 1861 as a baseline.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledToday I learned that the size and shape of a punch card was chosen to be the same as US paper money at the time.
Thinking about how US bank notes shrank in size made me think about how they shrank in purchasing power as measured by the Consumer Price Index.
Curiously, the ratio of p
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