From Economics:
Money and
Currency have
value because people
believe they have value.
Gold, pieces of
paper with
ink on them, little
stamped discs of
metal, and
silver are all examples of things that have been used as money. People believed they had value, thus they did.
Money is a figment of societies imagination.
Useful things to know about USA money:
USA money comes in these numerical values:
Hard
coins:
- 1 cent - Called a "penny".
- 5 cents - Called a "nickel".
- 10 cents - Called a "dime".
- 25 cents - Called a "quarter".
- 50 cents - Usually called a "fifty cent piece" or maybe a "half dollar piece". the word coin might be used instead of piece. These are rarely used in common exchange.
- 100 cents - Called a "one dollar coin". Current coins of this value in circulation are the "Susan B. Anthony dollar" and the "Sacajawea dollar". One dollar coins are rarely used in common exchange, but are not as rarely used as the fifty cent piece.
- There are probably higher value coins in existence that were produced by the Federal Reserve Mints, but they would be mainly specialty coins and most cashiers likely won't accept them.
Paper money:
- 1 dollar bill
- 5 dollar bill
- 10 dollar bill
- 20 dollar bill
- 50 dollar bill
- 100 dollar bill
MALTP says re Money: America used to have bills up to $100,000, but they've stopped printing them up to $100 lately.
1 dollar bill is equivalent to 100 pennies, a 5 dollar bill is equivalent to 5 1 dollar bills, a ten dollar bill is equivalent to ten one dollar bills, etc.
Americans don't say the word bill and we tack on an s so that a 100 dollar bill thus becomes 100 dollars. We refer to the dollar unit because it is simpler to think of it being one hundred dollars rather than ten thousand pennies.
Using the decimal system, anything before the . in a dollar amount is in terms of dollars. Anything after the . is in terms of cents. If it goes over 99 cents (.99 dollars), it become one dollar (1.00 dollar). 99 cents plus a penny, equals one dollar.
.99 dollars +.01 dollars = 1.00 dollars.
Money can be counted by basic units as well as sum amounts. Thus, 60.28 dollars becomes, in largest possible denominations: A 50 dollar bill, plus a 10 dollar bill, plus a quarter, plus 3 pennies. The collection of that money is also: sixty dollars and twenty-eight cents. The sum value is that of 6028 pennies.
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I provided this information about coinage values and coin lingo because I have seen foreigners try and use US cash. Not knowing what some of these things are gets in the way of the transaction.
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It is also important to note that in America, the money is dirty. It has travelled through many hands and many cash registers. If someone handles cash, they should wash their hands before handling food. In fact, I think its a law.
If you have ever seen the hands of someone who has been playing a slot machine in a casino for hours on end, you will know what I'm talking about. Their hands look dirty. The coin gunk washes off fairly easily, but it looks pretty bad.<\p>
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I used to work as a cashier in a bagel shop. Whenever I was done with my shift my hands would smell like the coins I've been handling all day long.
Money smells metalic. When I was a kid, I thought this was cool. Now it just makes me feel dirty. <\p>