He'd rather have a quarter than a 20 dollar bill.

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Wow, I sure hope he gets over this soon. My oldest (9) tried to trade a twenty dollar bill to his brother (7) for a nice SHINY quarter. I can see this being a huge problem.

I am very glad that we qualify for free lunches and I don't have to send him in with lunch money.

He would rather have a quarter because they make a better noise when you clang them together.

Never give him paper money.

20 "Golden Dollars" are way cooler than a Quarter anyway.

Who knows, a Numismtic Obsession could lead to some really valuable Coin Collections...

get 20$ in shiny pennies and a shiny quarter. connect the 20$ bill with the multitude of shiny pennies.

if he likes the shiny silver other than the shiny copper, then that is a different issue!

Merle

I had a friend that gave me a LOT of lincoln wheat pennies. I was young, and thought he was nuts. Some are wort about $550! What of silver dollars? Some cost tens of THOUSANDS of dollars!

Have him trade for the RIGHT quarters!

Maybe you should explain to him that with a $20 bill, he could've taken that to the bank and exchanged it for 80 quarters. I'm personally into trading my paper currency for pennies and nickels.

I'm going to have to hypothesize a bit here...forgive me if I'm wrong.

He's 9. Chances are, he's had very little experience with bills that large. Some parents of 9 year olds allow them to purchase items on their own, some parents don't. So, it's entirely possible that he didn't care about the $20, simply because it's irrelevant to him.

Now, four or five quarters in his hand...THAT's something he can relate to. He can buy a candy bar with that. But what has he bought on his own that cost $20?

A lot of children that age don't understand the value of a dollar, simply because many of their items are purchased by their parents, in exchanges that are out of their field of vision.

Next time you go to a toy/game/cd store, try this out:

Tell him to bring the $20 (either the current bill, or a future one) with him. Once you get to the store, tell him to pick out something. The value doesn't matter. When he comes back with an item, ask him "Do you think you can afford that?"

This will kind of force him to look at the cost of the item. If he can afford it, then take it to the counter and have him pay for it. Then, he can see how much it costs, and how much he'll get back. If he can't afford it, then ask him "So, do you want to get something less expensive, or wait until next time?"

If you show him how much some of these items really cost, then all of a sudden, $20 seems a lot more relevant to him.

This thread reminds me of a Jewish joke.

Little Moishe is being teased in the schoolyard. A group of kids are offering him a nickel and a dime, then ask him to pick one. He always picks the nickel, saying "because it's bigger". The other kids laugh at him in response. One day, the teacher saw Moishe playing alone, walked up to him, and quietly said: "You know, the size of the coin is not the same as its value. I saw the kids laughing at you when you picked the nickel. It might be bigger, but the dime is worth more. Next time, pick the dime." Moishe responded: "But if I pick the dime, they'll stop giving me money."

He doesn't care about pennies, he wants the shiny quarter. I have had him use bills before at the store, last time he bought something it was a mix of them.

He just really likes to take them out and put them in his piggy bank. They make cool sounds and he likes to organize them by size (quarters nickles and dimes) the pennies get thrown aside until later and then he tries to trade them.

I explained to him that the 20 was worth more, and that he could have gotten a bunch of quarters for it. He asked if I had more quarters to trade for it, and when I told him I didn't right then he was still going to be happy with his "trade".

The 20 is now in my purse and going to be on it's way to the bank. Where he has 70 dollars saved up. well, 90 now I guess. Thing is, even if I remind him that he has money in the bank he forgets within about 5 minutes. I've made a rule where you have to think about what you want for a set amount of time, and if you STILL want it, you may buy it. For him though, with the ADD fueling it, out of sight it out of mind, and a shiny quarter in the hand is worth 80 in the bush, so to say.

I had a talk with the 7 year old about how it's not nice to make trades that aren't fair. haha.

if i was in a spaceship to nowhere, and a minute hole occurred in the hull, then i would prefer to have a quarter than a $20 bill.

slight overreaction

I emptied my son's piggy bank yesterday because he wants lego racers. I rolled all of the money except the pennies and told him he had $80 to spend however he wanted. We went on Amazon and looked them up, discussed what they cost and what he wanted. He expressed that he didn't want the one that cost almost that much, but others that were smaller and less expensive because he can get more, but not right now. He understands money somewhat....Later that evening we played with the rolls of money. They are now unrolled and in a small lunch box. He'd rather play with the money. He likes marbles too.

At this point coins are toys. They are fun. Ya, they're money, but their just as fun as the toy he wanted to buy with it, probably more even. He'll figure it out

I was like that too. When I started high school, my parents created a savings account for me, under my own name. Their logic was that it would help me save money in a secure place, as opposed to keeping it in my desk. But there was a catch: the account was such that I could deposit the money myself, but could withdraw it only with a parent's signature. So I essentially had to ask my parents' permission to spend money they didn't even give me. So when I'd get a paycheck, I'd stop at a check cashing place on the way home, and get cash. Sure, I got charged fees for doing that, but to me, it was far better than having my parents act as gatekeepers for my own money.

When my parents found out, they were angry, because I was going against what they thought was for my own good. But I much preferred to pay the cashing fee and have unrestricted access to my money, than get all of it but have my parents take control my access to it.

So the day after my 18th birthday, I went to the bank, and closed the account that's been causing me so much hassle. I moved whatever money was there to a regular checking account that I had full access to.

When I was in like first grade I took my entire piggy bank to school and threw around the money out in the playground.