Money in New York is counted in dollars and cents:
1 dollar = 100 cents
Money comes in four forms:
1. Coins made of cheap metal (with their rough value in metric pennies, which have 0.5 grams of silver):
- dollar (5)
- quarter (1.25)
- dime (0.5)
- nickel (0.25)
- penny (0.05)
2. Paper notes:
- 20-dollar note (100)
- 10-dollar note (50)
- 5-dollar note (25)
- 1-dollar note (5)
Paper money did not become common till the 1930s.
3. Cheques: a piece of paper issued by your bank where you write in how much to pay someone and then sign it. Not in common use till the 1890s.
4. Plastic bank cards: Most money exists as numbers in computers. Your card tells the computer at your bank to subtract money from your account and add it to another. Commonly used for amounts over $100 starting in the 1970s.
Yesterday on May 11th 2007 I gathered prices in New York. To make them easy to compare with those of Shakespeare and Leonardo, I have converted them to metric pennies.
To get the original dollars, divide by five; to get current British pounds, divide by ten and to get grams of silver divide by two.
What people get paid in New York (and the presidents, secretaries of state and senators who live in Washington) in metric pennies a day:
379000 Chuck Prince, head of the largest bank in New York 7600 president 6060 surgeon 3550 secretary of state (foreign minister) 3100 senator 3050 judge 2380 airline captain 1800 pastor 1750 computer programmer 1550 English professor 1150 undertaker 1120 teacher 1050 actor 1025 store manager 1015 secretary 860 fireman 655 taxi driver 630 watchman 500 cook 430 waiter 400 bus driver 400 maid 400 labourer 300 beggar
I assumed an 8-hour work day and a 250-day work year. Some get free food, like beggars and cooks. I do not figure that in.
Prices in metric pennies (those above 25 are rounded to the nearest 5):
65000 car 6720 Encyclopaedia Britannica 6100 MacBook computer 4800 washing machine and clothes dryer 1900 television 1665 eyeglasses (mine) 1665 computer 1500 bed for two 950 iPod Nano 800 man's suit 620 two-bedroom flat in Manhattan, daily cost 330 microwave oven 280 small DVD player 260 gold ring, 14k 240 two-bedroom flat in Queens, daily cost 190 boots 190 Complete works of Shakespeare (hardcover, Oxford) 165 see a play 145 shoes 130 hard-cover book 100 tea, kg (makes 400 cups of tea) 95 Webster's Unabridged dictionary 95 dress shirt 95 blue jeans 85 cheese, kg (Swiss) 85 belt 75 film on DVD - "Casino Royale" 75 butter, kg 70 chocolate, kg 70 pepper, kg 65 haircut 65 Bible 55 book (Iliad, Penguin paperback) 50 see a film 50 underwear 50 CD - Beyonce's "B'day" (10 songs) 50 Barbie doll 50 telephone 45 taxi (5 km) 40 beef, kg 40 lock 35 a meal 30 melon 30 magazine (The Economist) 24 scissors 24 knife 24 bread, kg 24 magazine (TIME) 24 Frosted Flakes, kg 22 strawberries, kg 20 magazine (Harper's Bazaar) 17 Big Mac 14 salad 14 beer, L 12 Coke, L 11 dozen eggs 10 subway 9 candle 9 yogurt, kg 8 sugar, kg 7 pair of socks 5 song on iTunes 5 newspaper (New York Times) 4 Internet service, daily cost 2 send a letter 1 4 cups of tea
See also:
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