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Read the latest from our editors and photographers, get photo tips, or comment on the latest issue.

History

Posted Jan 27,2010
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In 1893 the ultimate cheap souvenir was born. That’s when a Chicago jeweler used a metal-rolling machine to stretch coins and press the words “Columbian Exposition” onto them. Today coins are flattened and impressed with an image at thousands of U.S. tourist spots and as far away as China, says George Strang, whose Press-A-Penny firm manufactures rolling machines. American customers put in two or four quarters plus a penny. Collectors design and press coins to trade online, while entrepreneurs squish them to hype products, say “Merry Christmas,” and sell as wedding favors. Few of the coins are worth a lot in dollars, but they can harbor priceless memories. Collector Ray Dillard recalls a souvenir penny with a Hawaiian king on the front and a hand-scratched list of Pacific battles a WWII soldier had added to the back. —Marc Silver
Posted by National Geographic Staff | Comments (4)
Filed Under: History, Wide Angle
Posted Dec 8,2009

Codex-sinaiticus

A fourth-century Bible that includes the earliest known complete copy of the New Testament now has a 21st-century address: codexsinaiticus.org. For much of its existence, the sacred text—handwritten on parchment in ancient Greek—resided at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai, from which it takes its name. As with many old manuscripts, it was eventually split up, and some of it was lost. Only 823 of an estimated 1,487 pages survive.

Posted by National Geographic Staff | Comments (1)
Filed Under: History, Wide Angle
Posted Aug 25,2009

Seatbelts
Few inventors can claim credit for saving more than a million lives, but Nils Bohlin is one of them. Fifty  years ago the Volvo engineer modified an airplane device and came up with the three-point seat belt—one strap across the hips, one across the chest, both anchored to the same point on the car floor.

Posted by National Geographic Staff | Comments (0)
Filed Under: History, Wide Angle
Posted Mar 6,2009

Penny

The 1787 Fugio cent (top) was the first coin authorized by the U.S. government. Four new "tails" for the 2009 penny will pay tribute to Abraham Lincoln's life.

They are buried behind cushions, spit out by parking meters, and cursed by cashiers, yet pennies, apparently, are still loved by Americans. Hence the Treasury is issuing four new designs to honor the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth.

Posted by Marc Silver | Comments (0)
Filed Under: History, Wide Angle
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