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Money around the world
World coins for kids: what a coin from another country can teach.
World coins for kids begin with a simple surprise, which is that money is different everywhere. The coin in a child's hand has another country's name on it, words in another language and a number that means something other than cents. This guide is for the adult who wants to turn that surprise into a few good conversations.
Every country counts its money its own way
Start with the units. A United States dollar is 100 cents, a British pound is 100 pence and a Mexican peso is 100 centavos. The Japanese yen has no smaller unit in everyday use, so prices in Japan are whole numbers of yen.
Money has been counted in other ways too. Until 1971 a British pound was 20 shillings, and each shilling was 12 pence, which made 240 pence to the pound. An old British penny on the table is a good way to show a child that the rules of money are chosen by people and can be changed.
What the designs say
A coin is a small portrait of the place that made it. Canada's one-dollar coin shows a loon, and Canadians call the coin a loonie. Britain's 50 pence coin has seven sides. Japan's 5 yen and 50 yen coins have a hole through the middle.
Ask a child why a country would put a bird, a ruler or a plant on its money. The answer usually leads to what that country is proud of, and from there to a map.
One currency, many countries: the euro
The euro is shared by many countries in Europe, and its coins make a neat puzzle. One side is the same wherever the coin was made. The other side carries a design chosen by the country that issued it, and a euro coin from any of those countries can be spent in all the others.
A child with a handful of euro coins can sort them by the national side and name the countries. That is geography learned by sorting.
Exchange rates, explained for a child's adult
An exchange rate is the price of one country's money measured in another's. Here is an example with made-up round numbers. Suppose one unit of a foreign currency trades for half a dollar. A coin marked ten of those units then stands for five dollars.
Real rates are set in markets where currencies are traded, and they move every day. Central banks publish them, so this week's figure may differ from last week's. That is why an honest conversion always carries a date.
Children grasp this faster with a real coin than with a chart. Look up today's rate together, work out what the coin stands for in dollars and write the answer down with the date.
What the same money buys
Converting a coin to dollars is only half the story. The other half is what the coin buys at home. A sum that pays for a bus ride in one country may pay for a loaf of bread in another and for very little in a third.
Economists call this idea purchasing power, and a child can understand it long before learning the term. Ask what the coin would buy where it came from, and then what the same amount would buy at your own grocery.
Where world coins come from, and what a country sheet is
World coins for kids are easier to find than you might expect. Travelers bring them home in their pockets, because exchange counters generally take paper money and leave the coins. A relative who worked or served overseas often has a tin of them.
A coin teaches more when a page goes with it. A country sheet is a single page that sets down where the coin is from, how that country's money works, what it converts to and what it buys. You can make one at home with an atlas and an afternoon.
World coins in the mailbox: the Cambist Club
The country sheet is the heart of the Cambist Club, the Gold Guy's coin club for kids. A cambist is a person skilled in exchanging one country's money for another's, and that is the skill the club is named for. Each month a member receives one real coin from another country and the sheet that goes with it.
An adult signs up and chooses one of three levels of membership and one of the two age groups, ages 8 to 12 or ages 13 to 17. The age group chooses the lessons and never the price. The coins come from the foreign coins and paper money that people sell or donate to our shop.
Which Gift Would They Keep?
If you are choosing a present and are still deciding, the gift quiz asks who it is for and what the day is. It ends with one suggestion and a place to start looking.
Frequently asked questions
What can a child learn from world coins?
A child learns geography, arithmetic and a first idea of how money works. A foreign coin shows that each country names, divides and decorates its money in its own way.
How do I explain an exchange rate to a child?
Call it the price of one kind of money in another kind. Then look up today's rate for a coin you have, and work out together what it stands for in dollars.
Can foreign coins be spent or exchanged in the United States?
They cannot be spent here, and exchange counters generally take paper money only. That is why so many end up in drawers, and why they are good coins to collect.
Why do euro coins look different from each other?
Each country that uses the euro designs one side of its own coins. The other side is shared, and every euro coin is good in every country that uses the currency.
Where do the Cambist Club's coins come from?
They come from the foreign coins and paper money that people sell or donate to our shop in Grand Junction, Colorado. Each month one of them is mailed with its country sheet.
See the Cambist Club.
The club page shows what a member receives, a sample country sheet and the two age groups. An adult signs up, and the coin is the child's to keep.