Exact Change

O.M.Gosh!  I just went through a fast food drive-thru and I gave the cashier exact change. I thought I was doing them a favor.  Plus, I was getting rid of some excess change. I even made it simple by giving her the least amount of coins possible. 

Unfortunately, the exact change contained a half-dollar. 

She started counting the change.  

When she said "what a pretty quarter," I thought the shiny quarter I had thrown into the mix was a new one with a pretty design. 

But then she started recounting. 

This time she started off saying "seventy-five" and I thought she was on her way. Until she stopped.  

And restarted counting. 

Around the third or fourth recount, I finally rescued her.  

I said, "there's a fifty cent piece, a quarter, a nickel, and three pennies--which makes $0.83."

She didn't believe me. 

So I started to walk her through the process of adding up the change. "The half-dollar plus the quarter is seventy-five, and the--"

"No it's not."

"Yes.  It is.  Fifty cents plus twenty-five is--"

"This is a seventy-five cent piece."

"No. We don't have a seventy-five cent piece. What I gave you is a half dollar."

"Half a dollar is seventy-five."

"No. Half a dollar is fifty cents."

I think the lightbulb finally went off at that point because she counted it my way and came up with $0.83.  facebook.com/marylou.robinson33