# What's the smallest unit of money you care about? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 26, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663 "2014-06-26T01:58:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/1 "2014-06-26T01:58:12Z")
Or, to put it another way, what’s the smallest unit you’d be a bit bummed to see fall from your hand and disappear down a sewage grate? I’m going to say a five-dollar bill. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/2 "2014-06-26T02:25:09Z")
Using that definition, I guess a dollar. (In Canada, that’s a coin.) I’d probably stoop over to pick up a quarter if I dropped one. I probably wouldn’t bother if I dropped a nickel. ---
**Author:** ![Weeping\_Wyvern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@Weeping\_Wyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weeping_Wyvern)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/3 "2014-06-26T03:16:15Z")
I care about pennies. I pick them up off the ground all the time. And if we had farthings, I would pick those up too. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/4 "2014-06-26T03:21:47Z")
There’s a saying : Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves. If I lost a penny I’d be disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/5 "2014-06-26T03:26:17Z")
> [@Sal\_Ammoniac](#): > > Or, to put it another way, what’s the smallest unit you’d be a bit bummed to see fall from your hand and disappear down a sewage grate? > > I’m going to say a five-dollar bill. So hey, could I have four dollars? ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/6 "2014-06-26T03:51:24Z")
i’ll just mill around here and see what people say. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/7 "2014-06-26T04:38:57Z")
Our smallest denomination is the five cent piece. I certainly pick them up when I see them. ---
**Author:** ![Commander\_Fortune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Commander\_Fortune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Fortune)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/8 "2014-06-26T05:05:51Z")
I’d say a nickel. I routinely leave my pennies on the boxes of the grocery store horse-rides. I clean them all out of my change every time I go grocery shopping. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/9 "2014-06-26T05:59:31Z")
I would be a bit bummed to see even a penny fall down a grate. You could say I’m cheap, but I had an experience as a child collecting pennies around school and off of sidewalks - anywhere everyone else thought it wasn’t worth picking up. I went to the bank with about $90 worth of pennies (yes, something like 40 pounds worth - about the maximum weight I could carry at that age). I put it in my savings account… the same savings account that my parents raided a few years later to pay for their trip to Italy while my brothers and I stayed home. Hmmm… I guess I learned more than one lesson out of all that. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/10 "2014-06-26T07:59:39Z")
I’d pick up a shekel coin - about 30 cents. Nothing smaller. It’s not worth my time or, at my age, my back. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/11 "2014-06-26T08:15:50Z")
> [@Sal\_Ammoniac](#): > > Or, to put it another way, what’s the smallest unit you’d be a bit bummed to see fall from your hand and disappear down a sewage grate? > > I’m going to say a five-dollar bill. Agreed. That’s a lunch, or enough gas for where I’m going. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/12 "2014-06-26T09:47:32Z")
If I dropped a 20c or 50c coin or higher I’d pick it up if possible. A 5c or 10c I’d let run. The minimum amount I’d be bummed at to see fall down a drain would be a fiver. I can’t buy much with a fiver but I’d draw the line there. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/13 "2014-06-26T10:11:09Z")
To this day, I’ll pick up pennies if I see them or drop them. But I wouldn’t become despondent if I lost less than $5. I wouldn’t be happy, but I’d get over it. Lately, if I buy something in a convenience store and I get coins back in change, I toss them into whatever charity box is beside the register so I don’t jingle when I walk. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/14 "2014-06-26T11:26:23Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > You could say I’m cheap, but I had an experience as a child collecting pennies around school and off of sidewalks - anywhere everyone else thought it wasn’t worth picking up. I went to the bank with about $90 worth of pennies (yes, something like 40 pounds worth - about the maximum weight I could carry at that age). I suspect a good portion of that was actually change from purchases you had made and that it wasn’t purely 9,000 pennies that you picked up off the street (which would have required you to pick up something like 5 pennies a day, every single day, for 5 years straight with no breaks). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/15 "2014-06-26T12:28:55Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > i’ll just mill around here and see what people say. Nicely played. I’ve got a 1909 S VDB, so I guess I would say a penny. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/16 "2014-06-26T12:31:52Z")
I’d say a nickel. If I dropped a penny, I’d try to pick it back up but only because I’d feel like I was littering. Similarly, I pick up pennies on the ground because they’re less dirty than other trash and you don’t have to go to a recycling place to get value for them. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/17 "2014-06-26T13:06:15Z")
If I dropped a penny, I’d pick it up, but I think it would take at least a couple buck for me to actually be sad if it fell down a sewer grate or something. I’d say it would take over $10 for it to be more than mild annoyance, though. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/18 "2014-06-26T13:20:50Z")
A quarter. Not as useful as they once were, what with pay-by-phone parking meters and the disappearance of nearly all pay phones, but in my mind they still hold that extra utilitarian value. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/19 "2014-06-26T13:36:35Z")
A nickel or larger. I lost a 10 French Franc coin (about $1.80) in a vending machine in Paris in 1998 and I still think about it. In fact, I am thinking about it right now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663/20 "2014-06-26T13:56:25Z")
There’s this thing my wife and I have about pennies and luck, so I will take an extra step and bend over for a penny. Usually, I’ll pick up a nickel. The thing is that if I drop a penny or a nickel, only about half the time will I bother to pick it up, unless (as was said upthread) it’s a matter of littering. Any paper money is worth a stoop down. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-smallest-unit-of-money-you-care-about/691663.md?page=2)