"I got back 55 cents in change." :)

[phreadom]

I was just thinking after seeing my cup of change sitting in the middle of my floor whether or not there was an equivalent word to "change" in that sense in Japanese? Do they have a word that is used the same way, or do they instead use a different way of thinking about it and thus a different word so that there is no direct equivalent translation?

So I decided to try to figure it out and I thought I'd share my random thoughts to see what other people thought.

I found these examples in the WWWJDIC:

釣り銭は取っておいてください。
Keep the change, please.

つり銭のいらないようにお願いします。
Exact change, please.

So if they have a word for it like that, I guess that they use it and think of it much the same way as we do in English?

[spin13]

つり銭 (alt. おつり) is the balance resulting from a financial transaction. Change as in small coins is 小銭（こぜに） or sometimes 細かいお金. The latter can also indicate small(er) bills.