Money money money

I went to lunch with one of my co-workers this week. She is Australia born-and-raised, and we were talking about a trip she made to the States last year. She mentioned to me how confusing our money system is, which surprised me! But she said that she would look in her wallet and think she had a lot of money, when in reality, she only had about $11.

This made sense to me thinking about it in terms of Australia money, because there are several differences in the currency here. For one, the money is really colorful, and each denomination has a different color. I like this because 1) it's really pretty! and 2) you can tell with just a quick glance how much cash you have on hand.

 

The bills also have this pretty transparent window, with each denomination containing a different image in the window. For example, the $50 bill has the Southern Cross in the window.

There are also no bills smaller than $5 - after that, it's all coins. That has taken a while to get used to.

All the coins have Queen Elizabeth II on one side, and different pictures on the other. Of course one of them (the $1 coin) has kangaroos on it! They're all pretty cool, but that one is my favorite.

Since there is no change smaller than 5 cents, stores just round when calculating totals and giving change. That was really confusing at first! Sometimes this comes out in your favor, and sometimes it doesn't. But it all balances out, and really, saves a lot of hassle. I'm a fan!

 

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