Money Matters

Money: Coins and Bills

Every country in the world has a monetary system designed to regulate and control the government issued currency -- the money.

Here we see the coins currently in use in Canada. The figures on the coins are Canadian symbols. There is a maple leaf on the penny or cent; a beaver on the nickel; the Bluenose -- a swift clipper ship, built in Nova Scotia, on the dime. There's a caribou on the quarter. The large coin is worth a dollar. The water bird shown on it is called a loon. So Canada refers to its dollars as loonies. There's also a $2 coin called a "toonie". So Canada is a land of loonies and toonies instead of dollars and cents.


That's not quite true. A loonie is a Canadian dollar, and though it isn't usually worth as much as a US dollar, there was a time long ago, when, for a brief moment, it was worth a few cents more.

The US Dollar has been the standard currency in world trade for many years. But, as global communication and trade increases, the Euro in Europe and the Japanese Yen in Asia are becoming more common in international affairs.

American coins, except for the loonie, have exactly the same value as Canadian coins do. There is a penny or cent, a nickel worth 5¢, a dime worth 10¢, and a quarter worth 25¢. Though there is a half-dollar or 50¢ coin, they are not seen or used as much as quarters, dimes and nickels. We use pennies to buy bubble-gum or to make wishes in wells -- and not much else.

Bills to Pay Bills

American paper money known as "bills", show their value in the corners of the bill.
Most have images of former presidents on one side, and pictures of American national monuments on the other. All American paper money is the same shade of green -- which is why people sometimes call them "greenbacks". Many countries in the world like Canada and Australia, have colorful paper money with intricate geometric designs that make it hard to counterfeit or photocopy.

Here we see some of the paper money "denominations" (dollar values) in use today in America. The most common bills in circulation are $1, $5, $10, $20 and $50. Automatic tellers (ATMs) can only dispense $20 bills, so we have to withdraw multiples of $20. When we make a large withdrawal at the counter instead of the ATM, the human teller will usually ask what bill denominations we want. Since $500 in 20's makes a pretty thick pile of bills, we might want $100's or $50's instead.

Talking About Money

When we talk about money, we call the decimal point "AND".

So, $7.61 is spoken "Seven dollars AND sixty-one cents". A common mistake with big amounts is to add the word "AND" in the wrong place. Most people say " three hundred AND twenty-seven dollars, AND sixty-three cents" when they see $327.63 -- but the correct way is without the big, red AND!!! It should be said "three hundred, twenty-seven dollars, AND sixty-three cents". This amount $4 267.98 should be said: "four thousand, two hundred, sixty-seven dollars, AND ninety-eight cents". We say AND only at the decimal point -- nowhere else!!

Example: Write this amount of money in words: $14 357.94

Solution: Fourteen thousand, three hundred fifty-seven dollars, and ninety-four cents.

Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying and Dividing Money

Just like whole numbers and decimals, money is based on 10, so there is no difference in approach when we Add, Subtract, Multiply or Divide amounts of money. After all, money numbers are just whole numbers with decimals. We just line up the decimal places, carry tens and hundreds when we add or multiply; borrow ones, tens and hundreds when we subtract, and so on, just like we always do. A good thing about money numbers is -- they always have just 2 decimal places, so we never worry about putting in zeros, to line up decimals of different lengths. An important thing to remember -- our answer must always include the dollar sign and decimal point.

Examples:

1)
2)
3)

4) $35. 56 ÷ 28 =

Now get a pencil, an eraser and a note book, copy the questions,
do the practice exercise(s), then check your work with the solutions.
If you get stuck, review the examples in the lesson, then try again.

Practice Exercises

1) Fill in the blanks with the right number. The first one is done for you.

a) $1.22 = 122 pennies b) $0.55 = ____ nickels c) $2.25 = _____ quarters

d) $1.90 = ____ dimes e) $0.20 = ____ nickels f) $1.00 = _____ quarters

2) Write these money amounts in words:

a) $157.93 b) $21.54 c) $2 605.17

3) Find the sum, difference and product:

a) $157.93 + $23.67 = b) $21.54 - $13.75 = c) $260.17 × 5 =

4) The team of Juanita, Sandy and Chuck won $32.25 for coming 2nd in the spelling bee. They wanted to share it equally. How much will each member of the team get?

Solutions

1) Fill in the blanks with the right number. The first one is done for you.

a) $1.22 = 122 pennies b) $0.55 = 11 nickels c) $2.25 = 9 quarters

d) $1.90 = 19 dimes e) $0.20 = 4 nickels f) $1.00 = 4 quarters

2) Write these money amounts in words:

a) $157.93 b) $21.54 c) $2 605.17

a) one hundred fifty-seven dollars and ninety-three cents
b) twenty-one dollars and fifty-four cents.
c) two thousand, six hundred five dollars and seventeen cents.

3) Find the sum, difference and product:

a) $157.93 + $23.67 =


b) $21.54 - $13.75 =


c) $260.17 × 5 =


4) Since there are 3 team members, they will divide $32.25 by 3:

They each get $10.75.

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