#1-Countries Coins Hundredths

Countries with money that doesn’t break into hundredths.

If you already read Cheesie Mack Is Not a Genius or Anything, you know that a very special coin is an important part of the story. While I was writing about coins, I wondered whether any country breaks its money into anything other than 100 pieces?

So I wrote:

The word “cent” is almost the same as the word “century” (one hundred years, duh!) and means that there are one hundred of them in every dollar. I don’t know where the word “penny” comes from—and neither does anyone else. I looked it up. But there are pennies in England, and I’m guessing that there are one hundred of them to the pound or euro or whatever the people in England use for money. I wonder if every country uses money that breaks into one hundred smaller pieces. If you know of a country that doesn’t, please go to my website. I’m making a list.

Canadian_Penny_ReverseHere’s what I found out. In North America, money is split into hundredths:

1 dollar (USA) = 100 cents

1 dollar (Canadian) = 100 cents

1 peso (Mexican) = 100 centavos

The Canadian dollar and the US dollar are worth almost the same amount, so American and Canadian pennies (which is what people in both countries usually call their one-cent coins) are just about equal in value. The Mexican peso, however, is worth only about eight cents (or at least it was when I wrote this), so:

1.   It takes 12 or 13 centavos to be equal to just about one cent (US or Canadian).

mex5c199812.   And because one centavo is worth so little, the smallest Mexican coin is five centavos, which is equal to less than one cent! In fact, even the five- and ten-centavo coins are rarely used. I have heard that the 50-centavo coin is the smallest in regular circulation.

3.   Therefore, even though Mexico breaks its peso into 100 centavos, there’s really no such thing as one centavo.

So, Mexico sort of does count.

If you know of a country that does not break its currency into hundredths, please let me know by commenting below.

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Comments from my Readers & Friends

    • No way…100 pence to the pound. But 51 years ago, you would’ve been correct! Prior to 1971, the pound was divided into 20 shillings and each shilling into 12 pence, making 240 pence to the pound.

      Reply ↓

    • Nope.
      Not Armenia. I looked it up and the Armenian dram, which is their monetary unit is divided into 100 luma.
      And sort of not Lebanon. The Lebanese pound is their currency unit of Lebanon. It is divided into 100 piastres. BUT…no one uses the piastres anymore! So you’re kind of correct.

      Reply ↓

    • If you’re talking about Pangaea, that land existed 300 million years ago! Long before there were any humans anywhere!

      Reply ↓

    • Nope. First, Yugoslavia no longer exists. And when it did, its money was the dinar, which was divided into 100 para. (I looked it up.)

      Reply ↓

  12. The Japanese yen does sort of break into hundredths and even thousandths but the only bills and coins Japan makes are marked “yen” and not fractions of the yen.

    Coins. ¥1, ¥5, ¥10, ¥50, ¥100, ¥500
    Banknotes ¥1000, ¥2000, ¥5000, ¥10000

    The Japanese yen (円 or 圓 en) (sign: ¥; code: JPY) is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro.[1] It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling. As is common when counting in East Asia, large quantities of yen are often counted in multiples of 10,000 (man, 万) in the same way as values in Western countries are often quoted in thousands.

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    • Just like I replied about Taiwanese money, you’re sort of right about Japan. The yen officially divides into 100 sen, but sen coins haven’t been used since 1953. So really, one yen can’t be divided into anything. Good job!

      Reply ↓

    • Nope. I looked them up.
      The Turkish lira is divided into 100 kuruş. The Russian ruble is subdivided into 100 kopeks. And the Indian rupee is subdivided into 100 paise.

      Reply ↓

    • Really? I looked it up in Wikipedia and it says that Morroco breaks 1 Dirham in 100 SANTIMAT. Maybe you have other info?

      Reply ↓