What Is Money, Anyway?: Why Dollars and Coins Have Value (Lightning Bolt Books - Exploring Economics)

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Jennifer S. Larson

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Lerner Publications Company Minneapolis

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u h y m r Fo Mic hael, is h s e r a h s o . h e w m h it w y e n mo

Copyright

© 2010 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise —without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review. Lerner Publications Company A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc. 241 First Avenue North Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A. Website address: www.lernerbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Larson, Jennifer S., 1967– What is money, anyway? : why dollars and coins have value / by Jennifer S. Larson. p. cm. — (Lightning bolt booksTM—Exploring economics) Includes index. ISBN 978–0–7613–3915–1 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper) TO COME  1. Money—Juvenile literature. 2. Money—United States—Juvenile literature. I. Title. HG221.5.L37 2010 332.4—dc22 2009027469 Manufactured in the United States of America 1 — BP — 12/15/09 eISBN: 978-0-7613-5955-5

Contents Money

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4

Coins and Bills

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8

How Is Money Made? Let’s Trade

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12

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16

Money Makes It Easier Activity

Fun Facts

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29

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Glossary Further Reading Index page

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31

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Money Look! Someone dropped a piece of paper on the sidewalk.

4

That’s not just any paper.

That’s money!

5

Our money is made of metal and paper. In the past, people used stones, beads, and other things for money.

6

Native Americans used beads called wampum as money.

We use dollars and cents in the United States.

7

Coins and Bills These are U.S. coins. Each one is worth a certain amount.

8

How much is each of these coins worth? A penny is worth one cent.

A nickel is worth five cents.

A dime is worth ten cents.

A quarter is worth twenty-five cents.

9

Here is a dollar bill and some dollar coins. A dollar

equals one hundred cents.

10

Bills also come in five dollars and ten dollars. And they come in twenty dollars, fifty dollars, and one hundred dollars.

11

How Is Money Made? The U.S. government makes our money. Coins are made at a special factory. It’s called

the U.S. Mint.

12

Coins are made in this building.

U.S. bills are made at a place with a long name.

It’s the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

This worker is checking some newly printed dollar bills.

13

Most dollar bills wear out in about two years. The old bills are shredded. Workers make new bills to replace them.

14

Coins last longer than bills. But sometimes coins need to be replaced. Old coins are

melted down to make new ones.

These coin blanks will be stamped to make new coins.

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Let’s Trade What is so special about money? It’s just paper and metal, right? What makes money special is how we use it. We can trade money for things we want and need.

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Money can be traded for food at the grocery store.

People use money to buy goods and services. Goods are things we eat, wear, and use. Services are work that people do for others.

These groceries are goods.

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Sometimes people trade for what they want. They exchange one good or service for another good or service.

People trade goods at swap meets.

18

You might trade with a friend. Maybe you have a cookie. Your friend has an ice cream cone. You decide to swap.

Is that a fair trade?

These kids are trading toys.

19

Each person must have something the other person wants. What if you have a broccoli cookie?

Will you find someone who wants to trade? 20

Both people expect to be happy after they trade.

These boys are happy with the baseball cards they ended up with after a trade.

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Money Makes It Easier Most of the time, people trade money for goods and services. Money makes trading easier.

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This man did work on the other man’s house in exchange for money.

Let’s say your friend pays you for your cookie. Now you can buy the ice cream cone you want.

Or maybe you will buy a toy.

23

How much does this bread cost? The price is the amount of money we pay for something.

The person selling a good or service decides the price. If the price is too high, no one will buy it. 24

If the price is too low, the seller will not earn enough money. She will not be able to buy flour to make more bread.

A seller has to make enough money from her product to make more to sell.

25

A market is anyplace where people buy or sell goods and services. Several people might be selling cookies in a market. That gives people choices. Markets give people a choice of what to buy.

Which cookie tastes better? Which one costs less? 26

Wh a t w i ll yo ub uy with

m r on ey u o ? y

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Activity

Design a Coin Artists create the pictures we see on bills and coins. Pretend the U.S. president has asked you to design a new coin. Will you design a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar, or dollar coin? Draw your new coin on a sheet of paper.

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Coins often include pictures of buildings, people, and animals.

Fun Facts • The Chinese were the first people to use paper money. The Chinese government printed an early form of money more than one thousand years ago.

• In Ethiopia, people once used salt as money. They traded bars of hard salt called rock salt. The same salt was also used for cooking!

• Modern U.S. bills are printed on special paper. That paper contains cotton fibers. The cotton makes the bills last longer.

• Who was the first African American to be pictured on a U.S. coin? Booker T. Washington! A half dollar named for him was made from 1946 to 1951.

• In 1999, the U.S. Mint began making state quarters. Each new quarter is named for a U.S. state. The first was the Delaware state quarter. The last was the Hawaii state quarter. It was made in 2008.

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Glossary bill: a piece of paper money cent: a unit of U.S. money. One hundred cents equals one dollar.

coin: a piece of metal money dollar: the main unit of U.S. money. A dollar is worth one hundred cents.

good: a thing you can touch that can be bought and sold

market: a place where people buy or sell goods and services

price: the amount of money we pay for something service: work done by people for others trade: to exchange one thing for another

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Further Reading Doudna, Kelly. Let’s Add Coins. Edina, MN: Abdo, 2003. Enchanted Learning: Money and Coins http://www.enchantedlearning.com/themes/money .shtml H.I.P. Pocket Change http://www.usmint.gov/kids Larson, Jennifer S. What Can You Do with Money? : Earning, Spending, and Saving. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 2010. Roberson, Erin. All About Money. New York: Children’s Press, 2004.

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Index ancient money, 6, 29

services, 17–18, 22, 24, 26

Bureau of Engraving and trade, 16, 18–22 Printing, 13 U.S. bills, 10–11, 13–15, 28–29 goods, 17–18, 22, 24, 26 U.S. coins, 8–10, 12, 15, 28–29 market, 26 U.S. Mint, 12 price, 24–25

Photo Acknowledgments The images in this book are used with the permission of: © Todd Strand/Independent Picture Service, pp. 2, 4, 5, 9 (all), 10 (top), 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28; © MPI/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, p. 6; © Brie Cohen/Independent Picture Service, pp. 7, 11, 30; © iStockphoto.com/Philip Dyer, p. 8; © iStockphoto.com/Juanmonino, p. 10 (bottom); © iStockphoto.com/smithcjb, p. 12; © Rob Crandall/The Image Works, p. 13; © iStockphoto.com/Joe Cicak, p. 14; © Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, p. 15; © iStockphoto.com/monkeybusinessimages, p. 16; © iStockphoto.com/Edyta Pawlowska, p. 17; © Douglas Peebles Photography/Alamy, p. 18; © David Sacks/Lifesize/ Getty Images, p. 22; © Anderson Ross/Blend Images/Getty Images, p. 25; © Walter Bibikow/Photolibrary, p. 26; © iStockphoto.com/John Sfondilias, p. 28 (left); Smithsonian Institution, National Numismatic Collection, p. 29; © iStockphoto.com/ Skip O'Donnell, p.31. Front cover: © Tommy Flynn/Photonica/Gettyimages.com (top); © Matt Gray/ Photolibrary.com

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Have you ever received a birthday card with a $10 bill inside? Or found a quarter on the sidewalk? These bills and coins are made of paper and metal. But they’re far more valuable than what they’re made of. So what makes money so special? Where does it come from and how is it used? Read this book to find out.

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Learn all about how we earn, spend, and save in the Explorin g Economics series—part of the Lightning Bolt BooksTM collection. With high-energy designs, exciting photos, and fun text, Lightning Bolt BooksTM bring nonfiction topics to life!

Exploring Economics Do I Need It? Or Do I Want It?: Making Budget Choices What Can You Do with Money?: Earning, Spending, and Saving What Do We Buy?: A Look at Goods and Services What Is Money, Anyway?: Why Dollars and Coins Have Value Where Do We Keep Money?: How Banks Work Who’s Buying? Who’s Selling?: Understanding Consumers and Producers