The dollar bill is perhaps the most recognisable item of currency in the world. It serves as a universal statement of wealth and materialism, and a tempting symbol of the ‘American Dream.’ This programme provides us with an intriguing investigation of the secrets hidden behind this seemingly mundane unit of currency.

Firstly, we examine the eye-catching symbols which adorn the dollar bill. We discover that it is filled with images taken from the Great Seal. This emblem, which was first used publicly in 1782, is the closest that America has ever come to possessing a ‘national coat of arms.’ From the bald eagle and olive branch on the front of the seal, to the unfinished pyramid on the back, we aim to uncover what these mysterious symbols denote, and why they festoon the American national currency.

We consider the viewpoints of the countless conspiracy theorists who detect the sinister hand of the freemasons behind the dollar bill’s imagery. We trace our investigation back to America’s Founding Fathers. It has been stated that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere and John Hancock all took their freemasonry extremely seriously, opposing both the Church and England. They led the struggle for a new America, and were deeply committed to Enlightenment ideals of equality, religious freedom and the rule of reason.

We assess the suggestion that these men deliberately inserted cryptic Masonic messages into the design of America's Great Seal. Particular attention has been paid to the ‘all-seeing eye’ on top of the unfinished pyramid, which is said to have its origins in Masonic iconography. The quotation from Virgil, ‘Novos Ordo Seclorum’, has also been mistranslated by many theorists, who misinterpret the phrase as a rallying cry for the new Masonic world order.

Finally, we look at the important alterations which Franklin D. Roosevelt made to the dollar bill. The thirty-second president of the U.S.A was a Democrat and a well-known freemason. The reverse side of the Seal lay unused for more than a hundred years, until the depression-era president radically redesigned the American ‘buck’.