History Main / HearMeTheMoney

* Canadian coins are the exact same size as their American counterparts, and are generally accepted by businesses in places close to the Canadian border like upstate New York and Michigan, though most vending machines will reject them. Because the Canadian coins are made of a different alloy (American coins are mostly copper, Canadian coins are mostly steel[[note]]Which is why vending machines reject them, most vending machines have a magnet in them to catch and reject slugs, which will also catch steel coins[[/note]]) they make very different sounds when dropped, so an easy way for the visually impaired to tell them apart is to simply drop them onto a hard surface from a height of a couple inches.

Could be {{justified|trope}}; since the paper they print money on is special paper, the sound it makes while flipping might be different than counterfeit bills printed on regular paper. And with coins, various densities and shapes could also make different sounds. Modern coin collectors can sometimes be tipped off that a dime or quarter is one of the pre-1965 varieties made of silver, if it sounds different than normal when landing on a tabletop -- silver will sound much more "bright" and vibrant compared to base metal alloys, and this sound has been referred to as the "ring of truth". This is also why many old mechanical cash registers had marble shelves above the cash drawer. Gave an easy place to test the sound of the coins.

See also: TastyGold.

* This trope undid a spy who used hollow coins to send messages. A newspaper boy noticed that one of his quarters sounded odd, and when he dropped it again, it broke open. The coin was traced back to the spy.

* In ''Series/TheManyLovesOfDobieGillis'' reunion movie ''Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis'', Dobie and Zelda now run the Gillis Grocery—now also a pharmacy—on their own. Dobie ear is especially finely tuned to sound of their son Georgie open the cash register to remove cash and he can hear it no mater where he is in the house. It is so finely that the sound of Georgie opening the till brings Dobie out of a coma at the end of the film.

* In ''Series/TheManyLoviesOfDobieGillis'' reunion movie ''Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis'', Dobie and Zelda now run the Gillis Grocery—now also a pharmacy—on their own. Dobie ear is especially finely tuned to sound of their son Georgie open the cash register to remove cash and he can hear it no mater where he is in the house. It is so finely that the sound of Georgie opening the till brings Dobie out of a coma at the end of the film.

* In one ''Scrooge [=McDuck=]'' comic, the Beagle Boys see a giant cash register being loaded into Scrooge's house, and assume that he's starting a home-business. All through the day, they hear sales being rung up, and conspire to pull a burglary. That night, they sneak into the basement, open the register and find...nothing! Scrooge just enjoys the sound of a sale so much that he's been making money melodies as a hobby.

* ''Film/AustinPowersInternationalManOfMystery'': During Austin Powers's final confrontation with Dr. Evil in the first film, in a deleted scene, Number 2 attempts to bribe Austin with [[BriefcaseFullOfMoney $1 billion in a Fendi briefcase]]. When Austin grabs just one stack of $100 bills, he notes that the money is short of a billion, to which Number 2 mentions the Fendi briefcase being part of it. They continue to argue until Dr. Evil presses the button to eliminate Number 2. Of course, Austin could have told that the money is short of a billion by the simple fact that you can't ''fit'' ten million $100 bills in a single briefcase.
* ''Film/TheScorpionKing'': After recovering his money pouch from a thief, Matthyus gives it a quick shake and immediately knows the thief took one of his stones.

* On ''Series/GoodTimes'', pimptastic crime lord Sweet Daddy does this to a stack of money he seized from his lieutenant, Bad News. This is because of a lack of trust in Bad News, who tried to bribe JJ into not giving Sweet Daddy a life-saving blood transfusion, so he could take over Sweet Daddy's operation.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Quark once professes that the sound of two bricks of gold-pressed latinum tapping make the most beautiful sound in the galaxy. When he attempts to do so, however, they make an unsatisfying "clunk" because [[WorthlessTreasureTwist all the latinum has been extracted from the bricks]], leaving only [[WorthlessYellowRocks "worthless gold"]].
* In the ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Payday", Hawkeye draws paymaster duty for the month. After giving everyone their pay, he laments to Radar that serving in Korea has caused him to miss out on at least $3,000 that he could have earned in private practice. Radar takes him seriously and arranges to have an extra $3,000 delivered to the camp. Hawkeye flips through a couple of bundles of scrip and says that one of them is a dollar short.
* Vera Louise Gorman in ''[[Series/{{Alice1976}} Alice]]'' could calculate any stack of currency to the exact dollar this way, as part of her CloudCuckooLander characterization.

* As noted in the trope description, bankers, cashiers, and others who physically deal with paper money gain the ability to spot counterfeits by ''feel,'' because legal money is usually printed on a special blend of paper. In the case of US Dollars, the paper contains a significant amount of linen, giving both fresh and heavily circulated bills a different sensation on the skin when touched. The designs are also printed onto the note in such a way that the details are raised from the bill, making them stand out when holding them.

Could be {{Justified|Trope}}: since the paper they print money on is special paper, the sound it makes while flipping might be different than counterfeit bills printed on regular paper. And with coins, various densities and shapes could also make different sounds. Modern coin collectors can sometimes be tipped off that a dime or quarter is one of the pre-1965 varieties made of silver, if it sounds different than normal when landing on a tabletop -- silver will sound much more "bright" and vibrant compared to base metal alloys, and this sound has been referred to as the "ring of truth." This is also why many old mechanical cash registers had marble shelves above the cash drawer. Gave an easy place to test the sound of the coins.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Theatre/AFunnyThingHappenedOnTheWayToTheForum'': Marcus Lycus can hear the sound of a coin purse being jingled across a noisy room. Pseudelous takes advantage of this to keep Lycus from asking too many questions.
-->'''Marcus Lycus:''' I know that sound... and I love it!

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Theatre/{{Cabaret}}'', "Money makes the world go around, that clinking, clanking sound."

-->'''Player King''': We can give you a tumble if that's your taste and times being what they are. Otherwise, for a jingle of coin we can do you a selection of gory romances, full of fine cadence and corpses, pirated from Italian; and it doesn't take much to make a jingle. Even a single coin has music in it.

-->'''Scrooge''' [''singing'']: Ringle, ringle, coins when they jingle, make such a lovely sound. Give them away and nobody can rob you.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' had this in ''The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne''. The thug thumbing the money to his ears was appropriately named "Numbers". In another scene in the same episode, Joker jingles his coin purse next to his ear, and knows he has 53 cents in it.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'', Mr Krabs has two songs about this, one is the sound of money, the other is if he could talk to money.

[[folder:Other/Real Life]]

** Gold – ''csengő'', "clinking"
** Silver – ''pengő'', "ringing"
** Copper – ''kongó'', "pealing"

-->-- '''Lucy,''' at her psych booth in ''WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas''