Episode 0356

Hello everyone and welcome to English Pod. My name is Marco.

Hi everyone, my name is Catherine, 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 uh 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 did you do? Break the piggy bank?

Yeah, I'm gonna 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.

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 all won't add up to one pound.

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

Hopefully.

Alright, we're back, so let's take a look at some of this language on 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 uh it has a little hole at the top where you can put in coins and just basically save your money there.

Alright, 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 uh 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 their money.

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

Exactly, because they didn't really have a a little hole where you could take it out from. So when you wanted to take your money out, you literally had to, you know, break it.

Break it. All right, so that's a piggy bank, but what do we store inside a piggy bank? We don't store bills, do we?

That's right. No, we sort coins. So this is an interesting word, bill, you know, like the name Bill, Bill Clinton, for example. Uh bills are the paper money that we use.

All right, but not capitalized like a name because this is a normal, a common noun. Uh bills represent all paper money. So I could get, um 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.

And this also counts for other currencies. So if I'm in China, I might get my RMB, my Yuan in bills.

Mm-hm, that's right. 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 uh amounts that these represent, let's take a look at those more in detail.

Alright, so first up we've got quarters. Now, this should be pretty easy if you know your time. Because a quarter is 1/4 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 1/4 of a dollar, uh we just call it a quarter. So, you know, most machines or payphones, you need to insert quarters.

That's right. So you can 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 uh 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 1/10 of a dollar. And uh so you can say they're 10 cents or you can say dime. So do you have, I don't know, if you have a 10 dimes, that means you got a dollar.

That's right. 10 dimes equal $1. And the face on the dime is...

Oh, 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 um is like the metal, you know, nickel.

And uh yeah, so this one is a little bit bigger than the dime, but not as big as the quarter. It's I think it's a little bit thicker maybe.

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

A nickel is 5 cents.

5 cents.

So 1/20th of a dollar.

That's right. 1/20th of a dollar.

So, uh 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.

He's counting his nickels and dimes means he doesn't have very much money.

That's right. Um so yeah, and then on this uh coin you have the face of uh 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. 1 cent or one penny, uh is the smallest of the coins and actually you need 100 of these to make $1.

That's right. So this is very unique because it's a different color, it's the smallest uh 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.

Uh and actually I think Alexander Hamilton looks good, better than the rest. I don't know why.

He was a pretty handsome.

Um so actually the all of these coins, um you can 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, um as we saw later on uh for example, money in England or the United Kingdom.

Um but usually in the US, you know, if you say, hey, do you, you know, do you have any spare change or do you have any nickels and dimes, then...

Or can I borrow a penny? Can I borrow a penny?

Uh actually in the US, they have these little things called take a penny, leave a penny, right?

Uh or give a penny, take a penny, yeah.

Um you see these because pennies are not worth very much money.

And often times, um people will leave a penny and if you you have it, 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, you maybe you don't want to carry those pennies around or or all that change.

So you just leave that there and and you know, it's kind of a way of recycling this small amount of money, which is very interesting.

It is very interesting.

Um 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 did you do? Break the piggy bank?

Yeah, I'm gonna 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.

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 all won't add up to one pound.

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

Hopefully.

Alright, we're back. So let's take a look at these uh British words on language takeaway part two.

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 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.

Um 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 uh from from the British term pence.

I'm sure it does. They're very similar and the meaning is basically 1/100th of a pound.

Right, exactly. And a pound is uh basically what you would say in the US a dollar. A pound is 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 $100. Over there they say 100 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. Cents.

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, as you can see, uh 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 continent, so France, Italy. Uh and the euro is is the name of that currency.

Okay.

Alright, so a lot of great 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 uh 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. So.

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 can mean I want to change, um change a dollar for some quarters.

Right, right.

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

Right, right. And and I've heard also the the term is uh to break. So if if maybe you have a $10 bill and you need maybe um a $5 bill, but you don't have one, you ask the person to break that money. So you say, can 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?

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 did you do? Break the piggy bank?

Yeah, I'm gonna 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.

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 all won't add up to one pound.

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

Hopefully.

Alright, coming back to the topic. Now, uh you seem to know a lot about this stuff. Let's let's test your knowledge here.

On the $100 bill, who do we find? What president or what person?

Benjamin Franklin.

That's right. And 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, that's right. Uh 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.

Um but on the $1 bill, do you know who's on there? I think is George Washington also, right?

I think so, yeah.

Yeah.

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 he's they're actually on that's kind of unfair though.

Favorite presidents in the United States and so yeah.

But they haven't changed over time like in other countries, you see that uh that they change according to, you know, the important person that's in government or maybe.

You know, like uh for example in China, you know, you have uh Chairman Mao on there, which before you didn't, or um.

In England you have Queen Elizabeth, before was the previous uh ruler which I think was was King George VI.

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

Well, I think what's uh America likes to celebrate its creation. Uh 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.

Uh George Washington, um James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, uh all Benjamin Franklin. These people were 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.

16th President. That's right.

Yeah, he was, he was um 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 uh celebrate because you don't have uh I don't know, Franklin Delano Roosevelt or uh or you know, Bill Clinton or something like this.

Not yet.

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

But that's very interesting, the this history aspect of currencies is is actually very, very interesting.

It is.

And one thing I 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 often times these quarters with the 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, yeah, I I remember seeing these because usually on the other side of the quarter, well, one side you had George Washington and the other side you had the uh the eagle, the the emblem of of the flag, I guess.

Uh not the flag, but the and the Republic or the republic. And uh but now you have these states and it says, you know, Delaware and it has a little maybe uh I don't know, a 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, 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 uh you still see them uh in use.

So those are the state quarters and those generally are 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.

Bye.

The English audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

A small round piece of money, usually made from metal.

Coin.

A small container used to store coins.

Piggy bank.

Form of money that is made from paper.

Bill.

A coin worth 1/4 of a dollar.

Quarter.

A coin worth 1/10th of a dollar.

Dime.

A coin worth 1/20th of a dollar.

Nickel.

A coin that is worth one cent or 1/100th of a dollar.

Penny.

Let's try that faster.

A small round piece of money, usually made from metal.

Coin.

Form of money that is made from paper.

Bill.

A coin worth 1/4 of a dollar.

Quarter.

A coin worth 1/10th of a dollar.

Dime.

A coin that is worth one cent or 1/100th of a dollar.

Penny.

A coin worth 1/20th of a dollar.

Nickel.

A small container used to store coins.

Piggy bank.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Coin.

I don't like having coins in my pocket.

Coin.

Some rare or old coins are worth more than their face value now.

Coin.

I used to collect stamps and coins when I was younger.

Piggy bank.

I used to save a lot of money in my piggy bank.

Piggy bank.

I bought my son a piggy bank so he could learn how to save.

Piggy bank.

I don't want to break my piggy bank unless I have a very good reason to spend that money.

Penny.

I remember when gumballs used to cost a penny.

Penny.

The face of Abraham Lincoln is on the penny.

Penny.

Nowadays, there is nothing that costs a penny in the United States anymore.

Bill.

The $100 bill is the highest denomination in the American currency.

Bill.

Can you change this $50 bill for me?

Bill.

This machine only accepts one and $5 bills.

Nickel.

Bob is counting his dimes and nickels.

Nickel.

Gas prices will go up a nickel per liter tomorrow.

Nickel.

Do you have a nickel I could borrow?