Saturday, June 16, 2012

Grandma: Counting Money

I had intended on writing this blog last Sunday because I have another one about Grandma especially for Father's Day.   As usual, things happen, and life goes too fast!  It is actually quite interesting to me that I have these inclinations to post right after I mow the yard.  I used to mow my Grandma's yard when I was a teenager, and now that I am an adult, I find it the best time to think uninterrupted.  (Kind of difficult to listen to the girls with the mower running!  Lol!)

This week, I am going to write about learning the value of money.  (Literally!)  It starts like this....every time my sister and I spent the night at Grandma's we would get the lecture from Mom, "Don't fight!  You make your Grandmother nervous when you do!"  (What does that really even mean?  But who am I to question what my Mom says?  Lol!)  Anyhow, on one of the overnighters, we (Grandma, my sister, and I) had plans to drive to my Aunt Pat's house for a visit.  We were warned by Mom to be extra good since it would be a 30 minute drive to Pat's.  Grandma had this one covered!  She gave Jessica and I each a handful of coins, and each time we were bad, we would have to give one back.  Unfortunately, this was SO long ago that I don't remember giving any back, but I do remember comparing money with Jessica to make sure that she didn't have more money that I did.  It would have been such a travesty if she had MORE than ME!  ;o)  So, here we are counting out our coins in the back seat of the car, and comparing what we had.  I had more than Jessica.....do you want to know why?  Mine were BIGGER than hers!  So they MUST be more, right?  To my dismay, Grandma overhead the conversation, and quickly figured out what was going on. She set us completely straight, and I didn't have more than Jessica!  :o(  She explained what each coin was worth, and helped us to sort them out.  Still to this day, I occasionally wonder why the dime is smaller than the nickel and penny.......it's just not right!


In case you care, this is the answer I found when I Googled it:

Originally, a cent had 1 cent's worth of copper, a nickel 5 cents' worth of nickel, and a dime 10 cents' worth of silver. Because the same weight of each metal was worth a different amount, the coins' sizes had to be different in order to match weights and values. For example, silver was (and still is) worth a lot more per ounce than copper, so a dime could have a lot less metal in it but be worth far more than a copper cent. 


Even though the monetary value of coins no longer represents the value of their metal content, the traditional sizes are maintained.

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