Pres. & Sister Essig & Elder Knapp

Pres. & Sister Essig & Elders Knapp & Metcalf

From the Mission Blog that I found interesting:

Chilean Money
Chile has some beautiful money.  The numbers on the bills can be a little intimidating, but I was told you take off the last 3 zeros and then double the number.  That gives you the amount the bill is.  Bills are called “mil”, they also have pesos.   For example there is a 20000 mil bill.  Take off the last 3 zeros, which makes it  20 and multiple by 2 and you get a bill that is worth about $40 in American.  Here is a list from Sis. May, the former mission president’s wife to give you an idea of what you may see.

CHILEAN MONEY/Dinero using Bills and Coins/ Monedas

These are approximates, round off for averages
One mil means 1,000= $2.00
½ mil, or 500 coin= $1.00
100 peso coin= about 20 cents, less than quarter
50 peso coin= about 10 cents, like a dime

You do the math for the other tiny coins, less than 1cent!When you see prices, we usually just double them to get the idea of what they cost in dollars. For example:

Hot dog/completo= 1,200. or $2.40
Soda drink=750 or $1.50
Sandwich =1,600 or $3.20
Pancito/Little bread=200 or $.40
Bus ride=380 or $.76
Metro=420 or $.84
Meal Mamita/Comida 1.800=$3.60
Treat/candy=100 or $.20
Cone/Helado=600 or $1.20
Ruby Tuesday meal=6,400. or $12.80

Things are not cheap for Americans like in some countries. The largest paper bill is 20,000 and approx $40.00. Sometimes they look at it like you just handed them a $500 dollar bill, and they are not used to seeing those much and don’t like to make change!
No one is really used to tipping here, so you can just leave something VERY small and they still like that.