“Here are a few bucks.” That starts the conversation with my daughter, leading into a deep dive into the United States’ currency history. There are numerous terms related to our monetary system. If you are lucky enough to have some cash in your wallet or the bank, you could be looking at a few bucks, a fin, sawbuck, dub, grant, or — fingers-crossed — C-note.

What’s a buck? According to Britannica.com, some of the earliest references to monetary exchanges showcase the importance of deerskin trading to the economy. A 1742 journal references a payment in “bucks.” Though deerskins varied in weight and condition, the term became ingrained with the emerging payment system. In 1792, the one dollar bill entered circulation, and with it came the nickname “buck.”

A five-dollar bill got its nickname “fin” from the Yiddish word “finf,” meaning five, while the slang term “sawbuck” references the Roman X that used to be part of the $10 bill design, reminding people of a wooden sawhorse/sawbuck. A dub, or $20, is just a double sawbuck. The $50 bill’s nickname, “grant,” references President Ulysses S. Grant, whose face appears on the bill. A C-note, $100, refers to the previous use of Roman numbers on currency, as a “C” denotes 100.

Did you know that Alexander Hamilton (founder of the U.S. Treasury, not just the subject of a popular Broadway musical) and Benjamin Franklin (founding father and the one who established the first printing press in Philadelphia) are the only two people on U.S. paper currency who were not presidents?

Cash may be king, but U.S. currency is also called The Dead Presidents for a reason. In 1866, Pennsylvania Congressman Russell Thayer amended an appropriations bill so that no likeness or portrait of any living person would be placed or engraved on securities, bonds, notes or postal currency of the United States. Up to that point, U.S. currency had various people’s faces on printed money. The final act occurred when Spencer Clark, superintendent of the National Currency Bureau, decided to put his likeness on U.S. currency, rather than printing a bill honoring William Clark, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Will there be a day when bucks and fins have gone the way of a mixed tape? Without cash, how can our children know how to make change at their pretend market? Will kids’ play stores come with a credit card or just a tiny phone and Venmo account? Who knows. Perhaps we’ll go back to trading in buckskins. Stranger things have happened.