Coins and Money

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

Hi everyone.

My name is Kathryn and today Marco we're talking about money.

That's right.

We're going to take a look at another lesson about money but this time we're going to learn

a little bit more about coins in the United States.

That's right.

Different coins, so different sizes and shapes, they have different names because they represent

different amounts of money.

So today we're going to learn the names of those coins and we're also going to learn

a little bit about British money.

So let's check out the dialogue.

Help me organize these coins.

That's a lot of money.

What'd you do, break the piggy bank?

Yeah, I'm going to go to the bank and change it for bills but first I have to separate

them into little piles.

Okay.

I'll find all the quarters and dimes while you sort the nickels and pennies.

Great.

Then we can add everything up and take it to the bank.

I found some coins that are not from here.

Oh yeah, those are from my trip to London.

I have like 90 pence but in all it won't add up to one pound.

Are you sure the bank will change these coins for you?

Hopefully.

All right, we're back so let's take a look at some of this language on Language Takeaway.

Language Takeaway.

So first up, Marco, we have this funny phrase, break the piggy bank.

What is a piggy bank?

That's right, a piggy bank.

Now you may have seen this, it has the shape of a little pig.

It's usually made out of plastic or ceramic and it has a little hole at the top where

you can put in coins and just basically save your money there.

All right, so this is a pig-shaped bank but it's a bank you keep in your room.

Mostly children have these, right?

Yeah, so if you want to save your change or you want to save some of your coins that you

have or teach your children about saving money, then usually they have a little piggy bank

where they can store their money.

So when you break the piggy bank, usually these were made of ceramic.

So to spend the money, you have to decide when it's very, very special or important.

So you have to break the entire bank and that's when you take all the coins you've been saving.

Right, exactly, because they didn't really have a little hole where you could take it

out from.

So when you wanted to take your money out, you literally had to break it.

Break it, all right.

So that's the piggy bank.

But what do we store inside a piggy bank?

We don't store bills, do we?

That's right, no, we store coins.

So this is an interesting word, bill, you know, like the name Bill, Bill Clinton, for

example.

Bills are the paper money that we use.

All right, but not capitalized like a name because this is a normal, a common noun.

Bills represent all paper money.

So I could get, I could ask for change.

Could I have the change in bills, please?

That's right.

And if I'm at a store, they'll give me bills, maybe a $5 bill, $10 bill.

This also counts for other currencies.

So if I'm in China, I might get my renminbi, my yuan in bills.

So it's just a general name for paper money.

That's right.

So, but what we store in the piggy bank are coins.

Now talking specifically about the types of coins or the different amounts that these

represent, let's take a look at those more in detail.

All right, so first up we've got quarters.

Now this should be pretty easy if you know your time because a quarter is one-fourth

of something.

So if we're talking about money, it's a quarter of a dollar or 25 cents.

That's right.

So 25 cents or a quarter of a dollar or one-fourth of a dollar, we just call it a quarter.

So you know, most machines or pay phones, you need to insert quarters.

That's right.

So we recognize the quarter because it's the biggest coin and it has a big eagle on one

side and on the other side it has George Washington's head.

George Washington, that's right.

Now the next in line or the next coin that we're going to take a look at are dimes.

Dimes.

Now these are also recognizable because they're the smallest coins, but that does not mean

they're the smallest amount.

Dimes are actually the second largest.

They're 10 cents.

They're 10 cents or one-tenth of a dollar.

And so you can say they're 10 cents or you can say dime.

So do you have, I don't know, if you have 10 dimes, that means you've got a dollar.

That's right.

10 dimes equal one dollar.

And the face on the dime is Thomas Jefferson.

Alexander Hamilton.

I don't know.

No, he was the first, well, he created basically the Department of the Treasury.

But Thomas Jefferson is on another coin and that's what we're going to look at next.

That's right.

The nickel.

The nickel is like the metal, you know, nickel.

And yeah, so this one is a little bit bigger than the dime, but not as big as the quarter.

I think it's a little bit thicker maybe.

It is thicker, but it's not as much money.

A nickel is five cents.

Five cents.

So one-twentieth of a dollar.

That's right.

One-twentieth of a dollar.

So this is what we call a nickel.

So you would call this coin, you would say, hey, do you have any nickels?

Dimes and nickels usually go together.

I don't know why.

Nickels and dimes.

Nickels and dimes.

Nickels and dimes means he doesn't have very much money.

That's right.

So, yeah, and then on this coin you have the face of Thomas Jefferson.

That's right.

Okay.

And finally we have the only coin that's not silver colored.

It's actually more of a copper color.

That would be the penny.

The penny.

That's right.

One cent or one penny is the smallest of the coins.

And actually you need 100 of these to make one dollar.

That's right.

And it's very unique because it's a different color.

It's the smallest amount.

And the face on this coin, do you know this one?

Yes.

This one is Abraham Lincoln.

Correct.

All right.

So we've got all these important people.

All of them were presidents actually except for Alexander Hamilton.

That's right.

And actually I think Alexander Hamilton looks good.

Better than the rest.

I don't know why.

He was a pretty handsome man.

Actually, no, he was said to be very funny looking I think.

So actually all of these coins, you can call them by these names and everyone will recognize

them, especially in the US.

Now I don't really think they apply to any other country as we saw later on, for example,

money in England or the United Kingdom.

But usually in the US, if you say, hey, do you have any spare change or do you have any

nickels and dimes?

Or can I borrow a penny?

Can I borrow a penny?

Usually in the US, they have these little things called take a penny, leave a penny,

right?

Or give a penny, take a penny.

You see these because pennies are not worth very much money.

And oftentimes people will leave a penny and if you have, it may something costs 26 cents,

but you only have a quarter, you can take a penny and then spend that.

So they're basically free pennies you might see in a store.

And then also if you get change, maybe you don't want to carry those pennies around or

that change.

You just leave that there.

And then it's kind of a way of recycling this small amount of money, which is very interesting.

It is very interesting.

But we're going to actually take a look at some British currency.

So let's take another listen to the dialogue.

And when we come back, we'll explore that.

Help me organize these coins.

That's a lot of money.

What'd you do?

Break the piggy bank?

Yeah, I'm going to go to the bank and change it for bills.

But first I have to separate them into little piles.

Okay.

I'll find all the quarters and dimes while you sort the nickels and pennies.

Great.

Then we can add everything up and take it to the bank.

I found some coins that are not from here.

Oh yeah, those are from my trip to London.

I have like 90 pence, but it won't add up to one pound.

Are you sure the bank will change these coins for you?

Hopefully.

All right, we're back.

So let's take a look at these British words on Language Takeaway Part 2.

So here we've got British currency, the pound, right, is the name of the currency.

So in America we have the dollar.

In Britain we have the pound.

Is it the sterling pound?

Yeah, pound sterling.

The pound sterling.

Pound sterling.

And I think that has to do with weight, I'm sure.

But here we've got it divided into small and large quantities.

So where we have coins, we might have pence.

Sounds like cents.

Right, exactly.

And I think actually the penny might come from the British term pence.

I'm sure it does.

They're very similar and the meaning is basically one hundredth of a pound.

Right, exactly.

And a pound is basically what you would say in the US, a dollar.

A pound is the currency of England.

But actually, you know how in the United States people would say, you know, a hundred bucks,

which would be a hundred dollars.

Over there they say one hundred quid.

Quid.

So yeah, this is actually important slang.

In America I would spend five bucks at the movies.

In Britain I would spend five quid.

And now that's a slang term for one pound.

That's right.

And actually I've heard also like 50p, which I think means 50 cents.

Yeah, pence.

Pence.

Yeah, so 50p.

So you could say this stick of, or this pack of gum costs 50p.

So 50 pence.

That's right.

Half of a pound.

So currency, obviously the currencies are different, but also it is interesting to learn

the way that you would say it locally.

So you know, next time if you are in Britain or you're talking to an English person, then

you'd know if they say, you know, 50 quid, you understand they're talking about 50 pounds.

Exactly.

So, but they don't use the euro over there.

No, they don't.

Not in Great Britain.

They do use the euro on the continents of France, Italy.

And the euro is the name of that currency.

Okay.

All right.

So that's good stuff.

And now lastly, although we saw it at the beginning of the dialogue, let's talk about

what this person wants to do.

He wants to change these coins into bills.

That's right.

So the verb when you need to exchange money is to change money.

So let's say if I go to England and all I have is dollars, I would say I want to change

money.

Okay.

You could also say exchange, but when we're speaking to one another, we normally just

say change.

Right.

Right.

Because even the places are sometimes called like money changers.

You know, they say that or something like that.

Exactly.

And so if I want to change money, that means I want to maybe change dollars for euros or

dollars for pounds.

But this also can mean I want to change a dollar for some quarters.

Right.

Right.

Because I need quarters for like a laundry machine or a telephone.

Right.

And I've heard also the term is to break.

So if maybe you have a $10 bill and you need maybe a $5 bill, but you don't have like,

you ask the person to break that money.

So you say, can you break this bill?

Yeah.

And that actually makes sense because a bill normally you break something that's big into

smaller pieces.

So if you think about it, if I break a glass, it becomes many pieces.

Well, if I break a $5 bill, I want maybe $1.

I get five of those.

There's one piece and then it breaks into many pieces.

So to break means to ask for smaller change.

That's right.

So maybe next time you guys need change, you can go up to someone and say, excuse me, can

you change this $5 bill for me?

Or can you break this $5 bill for me?

That's right.

All right.

So a lot of interesting language, very useful stuff.

Let's listen to the dialogue one last time.

Help me organize these coins.

That's a lot of money.

What'd you do?

Break the piggy bank?

Yeah, I'm going to go to the bank and change it for bills.

But first I have to separate them into little piles.

Okay.

I'll find all the quarters and dimes while you sort the nickels and pennies.

Great.

Then we can add everything up and take it to the bank.

I found some coins that are not from here.

Oh yeah.

Those are from my trip to London.

I have like 90 pence, but in all it won't add up to one pound.

Are you sure the bank will change these coins for you?

Hopefully.

All right.

Coming back to the topic now, you seem to know a lot about this stuff.

Let's test your knowledge here.

On the $100 bill, who do we find?

What president or one person?

Benjamin Franklin.

That's right.

But he wasn't a president, right?

He was not.

He was a very important figure in American history.

Many people are familiar with the story of Benjamin Franklin and the kite with the key

on it.

So he discovered electricity.

That's right.

He was a very important inventor and also an important person when it comes to the creation

of America.

That's right.

Now, the smaller of the bills would be the $1 bill.

And actually now you have a $1 coin as well.

But on the $1 bill, do you know who's on there?

I think it's George Washington also, right?

I think so, yeah.

So he's on the quarter and on the $1 bill.

We like to recycle our presidents.

The $20 bill then would be Abraham Lincoln, right?

Oh, that's right.

So they're actually on...

That's kind of unfair though.

These are favorite presidents in the United States.

But they haven't changed over time.

In other countries, you see that they change according to the important person that's in

government or maybe, for example, in China, you have Chairman Mao on there, which before

you didn't.

Or in England, you have Queen Elizabeth, before was the previous ruler, which I think was

King George VI.

But in the US, guys flat out 100 years ago, these guys haven't changed them since then.

Well, I think what America likes to celebrate its creation.

And so...

Which is still a very young country, right?

Right.

1776, so it's only been, what, 240 years.

So yeah, the idea is basically that we celebrate the founding, so the beginning of the republic.

And the men who are involved in that, they're called the founders.

George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, all of them, Benjamin Franklin,

these people are very important in the history of America.

And that's why we celebrate them on our money.

The one exception, of course, is Abraham Lincoln.

He was from the 1860s.

Right, 16th president.

That's right.

And he was very important because of the Civil War, and a lot of the changes that later happened

to our constitution.

And so he's another person who's maybe added on.

So he's basically the last guy you guys kind of celebrate, because you don't have, I don't

know...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Right, or Bill Clinton, or something like this.

Not yet.

Right, so I guess we got to wait a while.

But that's very interesting.

This history aspect of currencies is actually very, very interesting.

It is.

And one thing I'd like to add about quarters is that in the 2000s, so from 2000, I think,

on, the United States started to make state quarters.

So you'll see oftentimes these quarters with a picture of a state, New Hampshire, Maryland,

Illinois, California, and a special symbol of that state.

And so these are special quarters from the last maybe 10 years or so.

Yeah, I remember seeing these because usually on the other side of the quarter, on one side

you had George Washington, on the other side you had the eagle, the emblem of the flag,

I guess.

Well, not the flag, but the national bird or the republic.

But now you have these states, and it says Delaware, and it has a little maybe, I don't

know, flower or something that's representative of these states.

So that was actually very nice.

It was a collector's type thing as well, right?

People were collecting these.

That's right.

You can collect all 50.

Some people did that.

And you still see them in use.

So those are the state quarters.

And those generally are newer quarters.

Okay, interesting.

All right, guys.

So we're out of time, but if you guys have any questions or doubts, you could find us

at EnglishPod.com, and we'll see you guys there.

Bye.

Come on in, guys.