Using American Currency
A Quick Guide
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Currency
American currency is made up of bills and coins. The most common American currency you will use are pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and bills. Pennies are small copper coins that equal one cent. Nickels are silver coins that make five cents. Dimes are the smallest silver coins that make ten cents. Quarters are the large silver coins that make 25 cents. A single dollar is made up of 100 cents. From there, the number on the bill tells you how many dollars it is worth. You may occasionally run into rare coins such as 50 cent pieces and gold dollars, but these are not common. Every coin is marked with a number representing how many cents it is worth.
Exchange Rates
The easiest way to understand an exchange rate is to think of currency as a product you are purchasing. If you are changing your home currency for American dollars, you are buying American dollars. The exchange rate is how much those dollars cost in your home currency. Exchange rates are different for every country, and can change daily or even hourly. There are many reasons for different currency exchange rates, but the important thing to understand is how to figure up the exchange between your currency and American currency. Once you have looked up the currency exchange rate for your country, divide one by this number. That will tell you how many U.S. dollars you can get for one of your currency. The exchange rate from U.S. dollars back to your own currency will be a different number, so you will need to perform the same equation again to arrive at a new total when exchanging back.
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Understanding Tipping
In many other countries, tipping isn't customary. Many service sectors in America, especially restaurants, do not have a predetermined minimum wage for their workers. These workers are dependent on customer tips or gratuities. So although voluntary, this payment is quite needed after you have received a service. How much you should tip really depends on where you are, how the service was, how large your party is, as well as a variety of other factors. When dining out, irule of thumb is to give your waiter 20% of the total bill.
Pro Tip: Check the bill carefully before leaving a tip if you're dining with a big party because the gratuity might have been added to your check.
A helpful site for more details on the currency itself is InfoUSA