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Learning to identify coins in the USA

MoonCarolCafe

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frank1538

frank1538

Posted
Posted
I'm going to have to teach my poovus the system of coins used in the USA.  

 

Has anyone had a problem with thier significant other understanding the heiarchy of penny/ nickle/ dime/ quarter/ half-dollar/ dollar coins ?

To Jingwen, a coin is a coin, is a coin - they all go into the jar. Besides, her jeans are too tight for the pockets to hold them. :unsure:

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lele

lele

Posted
Posted
I'm going to have to teach my poovus the system of coins used in the USA. 

 

Has anyone had a problem with thier significant other understanding the heiarchy of penny/ nickle/ dime/ quarter/ half-dollar/ dollar coins ?

In China, they have a similar system (1, 2, 5 fen), (1, 5 jiao), 1 yuan. What I have done is found coins from each category in the US that are her birthday and given them to her. This way, she has something from her birth year and the coins to become familiar with. :unsure:

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lele

lele

Posted
Posted
the quarter confused Bing a little until I expained it was 25 cents.  That took all of about 10 seconds.  Don't worry they catch on quick. just explain that each coin is X amount of cents.

They speak in fractions (I can not recall the pinyon for it, but in chinese i can say it, it sounds like, for example sui fenzhe yi) would be 25% or 1 out of 4, or a quarter.

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Robert S.

Robert S.

Posted
Posted
the quarter confused Bing a little until I expained it was 25 cents.  That took all of about 10 seconds.  Don't worry they catch on quick. just explain that each coin is X amount of cents.

I second that. Not only that but she will become an expert on the exchange rate very quickly.

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Jim - Portland, USA

Jim - Portland, USA

Posted
Posted
Besides, her jeans are too tight for the pockets to hold them. :D

That's a good one. Same situation here. I don't think a Kleenex would fit in those pockets.

 

Can't say I mind much :rolleyes:

Roger that! She (has to) keep all her coins in her handbag :)

 

She is still a bit perplexed by the coins and bills. For coins, she (and I) wonder why the coins don't have a big number on each one saying how much they are worth. Ever notice that? Nickels don't have a "5" on them, dimes don't have a "10" on them. It is kind of confusing. And I never even noticed that until she pointed it out! :D She's also amused that we have 25-cent coins instead of 20-cent coins.

 

And she rightfully points out that dollar bills are difficult to distinguish from one another, "They all look the same". Boring looking too. Most denominations of bills in other countries come in a variety of sizes and colors which makes them easy to distinguish, even in the dark. I told her that the US government wants to be conservative because US dollars bills currently serve as the defacto currency of the world, and US currency trades hands in every country of the world everyday, and they don't want to be coming out with constant updates. She agreed but still thinks they are confusing.

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tywy_99

tywy_99

Posted
Posted

They never put large numbers on coins but in the mid 1800's the mint produced a nickel with a large "V" on the backside being the roman numeral 5.

Well, some scrupulous people took this coin, painted it a gold color and passed it off as a five-dollar gold piece!!!

The following year, the U.S. mint stamped the word "cents" under the big "V"......:lol:

The original coin, the coin with just the "V", is probably worth about $5 now!

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lele

lele

Posted
Posted
They never put large numbers on coins but in the mid 1800's the mint produced a nickel with a large "V" on the backside being the roman numeral 5.

Well, some scrupulous people took this coin, painted it a gold color and passed it off as a five-dollar gold piece!!!

The following year, the U.S. mint stamped the word "cents" under the big "V"......:lol:

The original coin, the coin with just the "V", is probably worth about $5 now!

Actually, a V-nickel, even if in poor condition (you can just make out the V) is worth *at least* 10$US...but if it is in decent condition, it can be worth even more.

 

I made a mint at a market once by purchasing an old "silver dollar" for 2$US...it turns out it was worth about 80$US to my father who collects coins, and he ultimately sold it for 85$US (naturally, since we are family, we do not pay each other money!).

 

The best mistake of all (and if you can find one of these, I will pay you $100 for it) is a 1942 over 1941 dime (you can see that it initially was minted as 1941, but then a 2 is placed over the 1 on the coin).

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frank1538

frank1538

Posted
Posted
And she rightfully points out that dollar bills are difficult to distinguish from one another, "They all look the same".  

Surprisingly, I read that this was done intentionally. By making the bills the same size and generally the same color, people actually have to look at them a bit more closely. Supposedly, at one time, this was a small aid in detecting counterfeit currency - probably not much help these days.

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lele

lele

Posted
Posted
Yes, almost the same system except that we stopped using those nickles, pennies for a few years.

 

We still use dimes though.:)

I know!

 

That is why the 1 and 5 fen coins are worth a *mint*

 

I was able to purchase them at some banks (which still have them) at cost, and then have my father sell them in coin markets back in the US for around 0.50$US each! So, that means I get about 4RMB for each 1fen or 5fen coin I have brought back. However, as the originality of the coins goes down, so does the demand. But for the first few hundred or so, the demand was really high!

 

:)

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