Question: Where do the slang terms sawbuck and C-note for currency come from? Are there slang terms for the $20 and $50 bills?
Answer: According to the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, the term sawbuck has been American slang for a $10 bill since before 1850. Alexander Hamilton's likeness wasn't put on the currency until 1928.
Back then, a sawbuck was a type of sawhorse with legs projecting above the crossbar, forming an X at each end of the sawhorse. X is the Roman numeral for 10.
C is the Roman numeral for 100 and note comes from the term Federal Reserve note, thus C-note is slang for $100. The C-note is also known as a Benjamin (as in Benjamin Franklin).
A double sawbuck is slang for a $20 Andrew Jackson bill. The $50 Ulysses Grant bill may be called a half-C-note.
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Other slang terms include fin for the $5 Abraham Lincoln. The $1 bill is frequently called a buck, bean or a George Washington, among other nicknames.
Question: A recent newspaper story stated the "people of the United States vote for electors" in a presidential election. What does this mean?
Answer: The U.S. Constitution specifies that the president is chosen not by direct election of the people but by electors, a process now known as the Electoral College.
The process varies, but generally, each state's political party nominates electors at their conventions or by a vote of the party's central committee.
Potential electors may be dedicated party liners, state elected officials, party leaders or people who have a personal or political connection with the presidential candidate.
The voters then vote for the electors linked to a particular candidate when they vote on Election Day.
The Constitution assigns each state a number of electors equal to the combined total of its congressional delegation.
Each state's electors vote, usually in their state capitals, on a date designated by law following the general election. The Electoral College was key in 2000 when George W. Bush received fewer popular votes than Al Gore, but received a majority of electoral votes.
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