President Abraham Lincoln established the United States Secret Service on the exact same day he was assassinated, but their original mission had absolutely nothing to do with protecting politicians.

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President Abraham Lincoln established the United States Secret Service on the exact same day he was assassinated, but their original mission had absolutely nothing to do with protecting politicians. The agency was created under the Treasury Department solely to combat the massive epidemic of counterfeit money, which made up nearly a third of all currency in circulation after the Civil War. It took over three decades and two more dead presidents before someone in Washington finally realized that maybe the guys who are really good at spotting fake dollar bills could also stand in front of the commander-in-chief with a gun. Even today, these highly trained agents split their time between taking bullets for world leaders and arresting teenagers who printed fake twenties on their parents' inkjet printers. It is a wildly disjointed job description that basically requires you to be part elite bodyguard and part aggressively armed bank teller