Counting Money

How much is each coin worth?

The tricky part for children is that size does not match value: the dime is smaller than the penny and the nickel but worth more than both. That is why our coins show the words printed on real coins (ONE CENT, FIVE CENTS, ONE DIME, QUARTER DOLLAR), and you can switch them to the value or to nothing once children know them by size and color. The coin values chart sheet puts all of this on one page for the wall.

How to count money

1. Sort first. Put the coins in order from the one worth the most to the one worth the least: bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, then pennies.
2. Count on. Start with the biggest value and skip count: 25, 50, then 60, 70 for two dimes, 75 for a nickel, 76, 77 for two pennies. Skip counting by 5 and 10 first makes this much easier; see our skip counting charts.
3. Write it with the right sign. Under a dollar use the cent sign (77¢). From a dollar up, use the dollar sign and a point: $1.35 means 1 dollar and 35 cents.
4. Making change: count up. If a pencil costs 35¢ and you pay $1, count up from 35: 40 (a nickel), 50 (a dime), 75, $1 (two quarters). The change is 65¢.

The practice box above works the same way: it shows a handful of coins (and bills at the higher levels), the child types the total, and a wrong first answer gets a hint. A second wrong answer shows the running count, such as 25¢, 50¢, 60¢, 65¢, so the child sees where the count went off. It keeps score of how many were right on the first try.

Counting money worksheets for each grade

For 2nd grade money worksheets, most classes start with the counting coins worksheets: each problem shows coins in a box and a line for the total. Choose Largest first while children learn to count on, then Mixed up so they practice sorting the coins themselves. Counting coins and bills worksheets start at the $5 level, and the $20 level mixes $1, $5 and $10 bills with coins.

Show the amount gives a price and an empty box: children draw coins to make it. The answer key shows one way with the fewest coins, but any correct mix is right. Making change worksheets work like adding money worksheets in reverse: an item costs 35¢ or $3.72, the child pays with a quarter, a $1 or a $5 bill, and writes the change. Identify coins is a coin identification worksheet with a picture, a name line and a value line, a good identifying money worksheets warm-up before counting.

Every sheet is new each time you press New worksheet, and no two problems on a page are the same. These free printable money worksheets print on one page of US Letter or A4, in color or black and white; save them as a counting money worksheets PDF to reuse. Children who are ready for bigger numbers can practice place value with the hundreds chart.

How we tested this tool

We checked the tool by script in Google Chrome on Windows across 2,892 sheets: every sheet type, all four levels, 6 to 12 problems, both orders, all three coin labels, with and without answers, in color and black and white, on Letter and A4. In 24,288 problems with 79,572 coins and bills drawn, every total equals the coins shown, stays inside its level, and no two problems on a page repeat; every change answer equals what was paid minus the price, and every Show the amount key adds up to the amount. No coin leaves its box, touches another coin or the answer line, and no words spill off a coin, a bill or the page. In the practice box we answered 160 problems at all four levels and tried wrong and empty answers. Testing caught four problems we fixed: Making change at 50¢ ran out of different prices, $5 and $20 pages with 12 problems shrank the bills too far (those levels now stop at 8), one item read “A crayons”, and ONE DOLLAR overlapped the oval on the bills. We printed sheets to PDF with Microsoft Edge (one US Letter portrait page) and tested the page at a 375 px phone width.

Frequently asked questions