SortStack #1396 — 2030-04-05

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A single steel paperclip $0.02

   Norwegians wore paperclips on their lapels during WWII as a quiet symbol of resistance against the Nazi occupation.

2. A Big Mac in the United States, on average $5.80

   The Economist's 'Big Mac Index' uses this burger's price worldwide as a playful gauge of whether currencies are over- or undervalued.

3. Manhattan Island, as the Dutch paid for it (in goods, at the famous valuation) $24

   The Dutch paid 60 guilders in trade goods in 1626 — a sum 19th-century historians famously converted to about $24. Manhattan real estate is now worth well over a trillion.

4. The median home in San Francisco $1.3M

   San Francisco is only about 121 square kilometers — smaller than Walt Disney World in Florida — which helps explain the brutal housing math.

5. The Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe, the most expensive car ever sold $142M

   Mercedes had kept both existing cars for nearly 70 years before secretly auctioning one in 2022 — the buyer's identity and the car's location remain closely guarded.

6. Building the US Interstate Highway System, in the dollars of its day $114B

   Championed by Eisenhower after he saw Germany's autobahns, the system took 35 years to declare complete — the original estimate was a fraction of the final bill.

← All puzzles · Play today’s SortStack