Meet the Coins

There are four coins to know: penny 1¢, nickel 5¢, dime 10¢, quarter 25¢.

Size is not value

A dime is smaller than a nickel, but it is worth twice as much.

One coin, many pennies

A dime is one object, but it stands for ten pennies. That is the tricky part.

Value is what a coin is worth, not how big it is.

Value is assigned, not physical

A dime is smaller than a nickel but worth twice as much. Nothing about the metal decides this — the value was decided by people and printed on the coin. This is the first time in maths that you cannot work out an amount by looking at how big something is.

The four to know

A penny is 1 cent, a nickel is 5 cents, a dime is 10 cents, and a quarter is 25 cents. These four have to be memorised, like the doubles. Once they are automatic, counting money becomes a skip-counting exercise rather than a puzzle.

Telling them apart

The dime is the smallest and has a smooth thin edge in your fingers; the quarter is the biggest of the four; the nickel is thick and dull-edged; the penny is the only copper-coloured one. Learn them by feel as well as sight — that is how you will actually use them.