Apparently, there are about 3900 denominations of coinage in this country. Some of it is worth quite a lot; well, 10 shekels. But some of it, just to throw you off, is worth almost nothing, like the ones that say "agorot" on them. Worthless. Here i am on the bus, trying to sort out how much i've paid and how much is left... Oy!
Think of the agorot as cents. And the rule is that if a coin is partly or completely silver-colored, it's shekels. If it's completely brass-colored, it's agorot. The smallest denomination coin is the 10 agorot -- worth about 3 cents. Prices in stores may be something like 4.99, but the final bill must be rounded -- according to the law -- to the closest 10 agorot.
ReplyDelete@Eliyahu: Thanks for this tip about the colour of the money!
ReplyDeleteI will also keep the rounding in mind... closest, up or down? Here, we're in the process of eliminating pennies, but I believe rounding must always be to the customer's advantage. Yesterday, I went to pay something and there were a couple of agorot that I stood stupidly trying to figure out how to pay until the cashier told me (body language) that we were done. Doh!