#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.

Comments from my Readers & Friends

  1. Iraq breaks it into 1,000, and so does Kosovo and Libya. But Madagascar’s Khoums break into fifths!

    • Great research, Ellieroo!

      You are RIGHT about the Iraqi dinar. It breaks into 1,000 fils…although nobody uses fils anymore.
      I don’t think you are right about Kosovo. They’ve been using the euro since 2002. Previously Kosovo used the Yugoslavia dinar, which broke into 100 para.
      But you are

        absolutely right

      about Madagascar. The Malagasy ariary (Madagascar) is the weirdest. It is subdivided into 5 iraimbilanja!

    • Nope. I looked it up. A yuan (not yan) is divided into 10 jiao. And one jiao is divided into 10 fen. So actually, there are 100 fen to a yuan.

  7. Hey Cheesie, I looked it up and I found that the country of Mauritania uses a base currency of ouguiya which divides into a sub-unit of only 5 khoums.

  8. the Rio in japan’s money does not split into 100 i do not know what it does split up into though sorry.

  9. Madagascar!

    I checked it on Wikipedia, too… this is what it said about it:
    The ariary is the currency of Madagascar. It is subdivided into 5 iraimbilanja and is one of only two non-decimal currencies currently circulating (the other is the Mauritanian ouguiya).

    So I guess that there’s one other, too… wherever uses that Mauritanian ouguiya thingy.

  11. Umm … well I’m kinda stuck here. I live in NZ and … well … we have dollars and then if you break it up into hundredths then you get into cents but the thing is … well … we don’t have 1 cents … 2 cents or … cents … so I’m stuck.

    • The won is the currency of South Korea. A single won is divided into 100 jeon (so you are sort of incorrect).
      BUT…the jeon is no longer used for everyday transactions (so you are sort of correct).
      MY CONCLUSION: I think you are more correct than incorrect.

      • I am south koren but i never heard about jeon so that is cool.
        나는한국인 인 대 나는 전 이라는 돈 은안 들어봣 어
        Korean won is spelled 원

    • Yep, I know. Then it’ll be one of a very few countries that do not divide into hundredths.

    • This is so cool! You are correct. I looked it up, and there are 1,000 baiza to each rial. Hooray! This is the first country (except for ancient Rome…which sort of doesn’t count).