Penny, Nickel, Dime, Quarter, Euro

The boys each have their own piggy bank.  Actually, they have Big Belly Banks to be exac...WAIT!  I am just now realizing I've never gotten Alastair a Big Belly Bank.  Not sure how I messed that one up.  After discovering them at a craft fair years ago, I've gotten one for almost every niece and nephew of ours, plus our two older boys, but somehow I left Alastair out.  Putting that on his Christmas list right now....sorry, Al.  Anyway, these banks have been a big hit - they're a fun way to learn to save.  We give them coins every now and then to "feed" to their banks and occasionally head to the bank to put them in their accounts.

Just a few weeks ago Loic found a change purse with a bunch of coins inside and was sure he'd hit the jackpot.  He asked if he could put them in his bank, but I took one look and realized they were not just any old coins.  "This isn't American money," I told him, "You can't spend it here."  He'd stumbled upon our stash of foreign coins we've collected from Bill's business trips & our time living in Europe.  He was disappointed, but he & Laurence kept busy for a little while checking out the differences between the foreign money and our own American coins.

Fast forward about 2 weeks and Loic & Laurence are in the basement playing with Legos when they come upstairs, pleased as punch that they'd found two coins (American ones this time).  "Can these be allowance?" Laurence asked.  I was taken aback for a moment, because we've never talked about allowance, but figured he read about it in a book or something, so I just replied, "Well, you can put them in your banks!"  Then he said, "They're quarters, but....this one's not like a normal quarter.  It doesn't have an eagle on the back."  I said, "Oh, it must be a state quarter - each state has it's own design.  Some people collect them to try to get ever state."  "Oh," he said rather flatly; strange from my boy who normally takes delight in anything that has anything to do with geography.  "Which state is it from?" I ask.  He looks at it closely and says, still with little emotion in his voice, "Rhode Island."  "Hey, neat!  That's where Uncle John and Aunt Aud--" "But mom," he interrupts, "Can we spend it in Wisconsin?"