Our own currency tells a lot about the United States, its history, and the values it holds dear. The one-cent penny, for example, shows the head of Abraham Lincoln, president during the U. S. Civil War, on one side and the monument erected to him in Washington, DC, on the other. The 25-cent quarter features George Washington, the first president, and one U. S. symbol, the bald eagle. The back of the ten-cent dime shows a torch, olive and oak branches, and the Latin words “E Pluribus Unum” (“out of many, one”). These are symbols for liberty, peace, and strength—three core U. S. values—and one of the nation’s traditional mottoes.