Money: Change and currency

In a nutshell

Any money value can be made from a combination of notes and coins. Coins can be used for small sums of money whereas notes are only useful for transactions greater than £5 as this is the smallest note denomination there is.

Change

Definition

Change is the money returned to a customer when they overpay for an item. Customers cannot always pay the exact price of an item and so if they overpay, change is returned so that they only pay for the item. It can be worked out using the following formula:

​$$\text{change} = \text{money paid} - \text{price}$$​​

Example 1

How much change should Isabelle receive if she pays $$£5$$ for a $$£2.90$$ magazine?

Using the formula, $$\text{change} = 5 - 2.90 = \underline{£2.10}$$

Currency

Currency is made up of coins and notes. The different values of these are as follows:

You can use the different variety of coins and notes to pay exact amounts of money in case no change is available.

Example 2

Mark can buy a $$£2.62$$ pastry without needing any change using the coins he has in his pocket. If he has $$4$$ coins, what coins are they?

​$$2.62 - 2 = 0.62$$

$$0.62 - 0.50 = 0.12$$​​

$$0.12 - 0.10 = 0.02$$

​​

Hence to allow Mark to spend $$£2.62$$ exactly, he has a $$\underline{2p, 10p, 50p \text{ and } £2}$$ coin.