First answer – yes the museum gives out samples. Really. But they’re of shredded bills and you’re only supposed to take one piece (though I don’t think anyone was watching).

And, you have to reach into a dark hole, ala something Indiana Jones might do, and though I doubted there were spiders or snakes guarding the paper (actually 75% cotton and 25% linen), I decided to forego the experience.

Second answer – “not a clue”, to the question of whether, after spending my whole life here, I had any idea that this museum existed (before yesterday).

Third answer – definitely worth the visit. I may have spent more time there than I did at the Louvre. And the Buy Bonds posters are worthy of any art gallery. I was particularly fascinated by the one featuring Joan of Arc (probably Jeanne D’Arc on any copies at Musée du Louvre).

I learned a lot about Military Payment Certificates used during the Viet Nam troop deployment, including how easy it apparently was to counterfeit them.

I leaned a lot about counterfeiting, not how to do it (darn), but how to spot it and the fact that, at the time of the U.S. Civil War (also, strictly speaking, not a war) almost one-third of all the U.S. currency in circulation was counterfeit (today only about .03%, but who uses cash anymore anyway, probably just counterfeiters).

To show how hip they are, the curators also have an area dedicated to the first Secretary of the Treasury (and Broadway star), Alexander Hamilton that included quotes from the musical.

There was plenty more, but perhaps the best thing was the Life Cycle of a Dollar section featuring a wonderful Rube Goldberg-type contraption that would look great in my living room.