Currency and Coinage values in Maycomb. (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Money is anything that is generally accepted in payment for goods and services and in repayment of debts, it also refers to the notes and coins used by a country. In Maycomb, they use the 1930s American Dollar. It is broken up into bank notes and coins; it goes by the decimal system.

Maycomb is a small town; it is recovering from The Great Depression,“I keep her because this depression’s on and she needs her dollar and a quarter every week she can get it.”- page 257.

It is not financially stable yet,“There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with.”- page 6.

The majority of its people have average wealth like The Finchs, Miss Stephanie or The Jacobs. There are more poor people around than rich like The Ewells or The Cunninghams,“He probably never seen three quarters together at the same time in his life.”-

Nickel

Image of a Capped Bust dime. Original images obtai...

Composite image of a Mercury dime

page 22.

Some people in Maycomb rather you give them, or they would rather give you, goods or products instead of currency like Dr. Reynolds:“He charges a bushel of potatoes for a delivery of a baby.”- page 23.

Or the Cunninghams:“Not in money [Atticus said] but before the year’s out I’ll have been paid. You watch”-page 23.

The money influences the plot in many ways. On influence being religious, Simon Finch is an ancestor of the Finch’s and he was a Methodist. He thought that buying and selling medicine would go against his religion so he bought three slaves and established a homestead, which he called: Finch’s Landing and that’s how that came about.

Coinage valuesAs mentioned before, Maycomb goes by the American Dollars ($) and cents (¢), and it works with the decimal system. Below you will find out what coins are used in Maycomb and how to use them. The coins are broken up into four different denominations: the Penny, the Nickel, the Dime, the Quarter and the Dollar comes in note form.

PENNY NICKEL DIME QUARTER DOLLARFirst, there are one hundred cents to one dollar:100¢ = $1.00Each cent can also be called a Penny:1¢ = 1 Penny, so 100 Pennies = $1.00X 100 =One Nickel is equal to five cents:5¢ = 1 Nickel, 5 Pennies = 1 Nickel, so 20 Nickels = $1.00X 5 = , X 20 =One Dime is equal to ten cents:10¢ = 1 Dime, 10 Pennies = 1 Dime, 2 Nickels = 1 Dime, so 10 Dimes = $1.00X 2 = , X 10 =X 10 = ,One Quarter is equal to twenty-five cents:25¢ = 1 Quarter, 25 Pennies = 1 Quarter, 5 nickels = 1 Quarter, 2 dimes and 1 Nickel = 1 Quarter, so 4 Quarters = $1.00X 25 = , X 5 = , X 2 AND =X 4 =Last but not least, the Dollar. This is the coin with the highest value in Maycomb:100¢ = 1 DollarNow you can us mix it up a little. You can use different coins to make different combinations of one Dollar.

SpendingNow that you know how the coinage values work, you can use your coins to buy things at the stores. Some places were money is used in Maycomb are: O.K. Café, The Drug Store, Tyndal’s Hardware, Jitney Jungle, V.J. Elmore’s, the bank and the Post Office, the jail.

Here is a list of some of the things you could potentially buy in Maycomb:5¢, or 1 Nickel, for a Negro to break up a chiffarobe. “Come here, nigger, and bust up this chiffarobe for me, I gotta nickel for you.”-page 199.

5¢, or 1 Nickel, to do one thing at the Halloween Pageant at the school. “Here’s thirty cents, you can do six things.”-page 2825¢, or a Nickel to infect oneself. “I went so far as to pay a nickel for the privilege of rubbing my head against the head of Miss Rachel’s cook’s son, who was affected with a tremendous ringworm.”-page 83.

17¢, or 1 Dime, 1 Nickel and 2 Pennies, for a twirling baton. “I had long had my eye on that baton: it was at V.J. Elmore’s, it was bedecked with sequins and tinsel, it cost seventeen cents.”-page 111.

25¢, or 1 Quarter, to go to the pictures. “Had entered his picture in a Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. She gave the money to Dill, who went to the picture show twenty times on it.”-page 8.

25¢, or 1 Quarter, to each lunch downtown. “Here’s a quarter,’ she said to Walter. ‘Go and eat downtown today.”-page 21.

$5.00 to call a doctor. “He had never called a doctor to any of his’n in his life, and if he had it would have cost him five dollars.”-page 193.

$10.00 for a brand new pocket watch with knife and chain. “It [Pocket watch] would be worth ten dollars, knife, chain and all, if it were new.”-page 67.

$13.00 for a train ticket from Meridian to Maycomb. “He had taken thirteen dollars from his mother’s purse, caught the nine o’clock from Meridian and got off at Maycomb Junction.”-page 154.

$100.00 for a penalty from the judge. “Mr.Whitley, do that again and it’ll cost you one hundred dollars.”-page 182.

That is all for this section of your Survival Guide to Maycomb; you have learned everything you need to know about Maycomb’s currency and coinage values. Now you will able to talk to particular people in the right way and avoid awkward situations like Miss. Caroline on page 21! Now you can go out and use your money with confidence!Bibliography:To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Leehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_United_States_dollarhttp://www.myschoolhouse.com/courses/O/1/11.asphttp://www.enchantedlearning.com/math/money/coins/

1843 Seated Liberty dime. Original images obtained...

Reverse of no cents Liberty Head nickel

Image of a Draped Bust dime. Obtained from worldco...