How did some currencies come to operate in the hundreds or thousands?

Question

For instance the Japanese 100 yen converts to just 1 Australian dollar.

In: Economics

Answer 1

The yen does not have a fractional sub units like cents/pennies. So 1 yen is the smallest amount of currency. They use a system that the equivalent of it we only talked in terms of pennies/cents (a hamburger costs 800 cents, not 8 dollars). Comparing smallest unit to smallest unit, you get 1 yen = 1 Penny which sends about right