Wednesday, February 22, 2012

On Coins

The US Mint is trying to kill me. I'm sure it's nothing personal, but they are out to get me. Clearly. Anyone who spent an hour at the kitchen table with Issa and I could see it.

Issa innocently wanted to count her saved money yesterday. Sure! In the past, she dumps it out and counts the dollars while I count the change. We both decided she was big enough to start counting all of it herself with some help. Wrong-o!

Do you realize how insane our coin system is? First, try sorting the coins. I told Issa to sort all of the matching coins into piles because they are worth different amounts. I looked over and she had about twenty piles going. Of course she did...there are fifty freaking different quarters! I know she had some vague knowledge of this before, but for some reason she really noticed it yesterday and it was enough to make her crazy.Try explaining that although they don't look the same they are the same. Why? We wanted to recognize each state. So you can only use quarters in one state? No, you can use them anywhere they just have different pictures. Why? I have no idea. The US Mint is trying to kill me.

We finally got them all sorted, but the confusion did not end. The sizes make no sense. Please explain why a dime, worth ten cents, is smaller than a penny worth one cent? I told her how many of each coin she needed to make a dollar, and she dutifully made piles. She also looked at me like I must be crazy because this whole system makes no sense. She's right.

We finally got it all counted and I added it up for her on an index card, totally each type of coin and then the grand total. Then, bless her sweet heart, she very carefully got a ziplock for each kind of coin, transferred the amount from the index card onto the bag, and then sealed the bags before putting them back in her jar.

"If Evan opens these bags, I will scream. Just so you know Mom."

Honey, I don't blame you.

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