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Bell (ベル, Beru?) is the main currency used in the Animal Crossing series. Although most frequently used to purchase items from stores and pay off the player's mortgage, Bell may also be used in several other respects, including trading with villagers and other services. To date, the smallest denomination of Bells is 100, which is depicted as a single golden coin.

Bells can be found in their item form by shaking trees, hitting money rocks, and digging at shining spots. Bells as items can then be manually added to the player's wallet, where they no longer occupy inventory slots. The wallet has a capacity that varies per game, and any further Bells that the player wishes to carry must be carried in item form either in inventory slots or inside letters.

Bells in their item form can be picked up and stacked as long as the combined value does not exceed 99,000 Bells. However, Bell denominations under 1,000 cannot be stacked on denominations over 1,000 (for instance, 500 cannot be combined with 2,000).

In Animal Crossing, the player could carry up to 849,999 Bells at any one time in their inventory. In Wild World and City Folk, this is substantially expanded upon, as the player can have 99,999 Bells in their wallet and fifteen 99,000 Bell bags in their pockets, bringing the grand total to a maximum of 1,584,999 Bells on hand at one time. As New Leaf has one slot in the pocket more than the previous games, the total is raised to 1,683,999 Bells. Although an additional 990,000 Bells can be held in letters, these cannot be accessed for spending. In New Horizons, the player can have a maximum of 40 inventory slots, and can carry a maximum 4,059,999 in their inventory.

Appearance[]

Quantities of Bells are most commonly represented by tan-colored sacks, which feature a dark star marking in City Folk and New Leaf. Sacks are used in all games to represent Bell values ranging from 1,000 to 99,000.

In GCN games Bell sacks also represent lower values from 100-900. In Wild World, the 100 Bell coin was introduced, depicted as a generic golden coin with a star printed in the middle. This coin graphic replaces the Bell sack for the aforementioned value range.

Obtaining Bells[]

Bells are most easily obtained by selling items to the store. Bells may also be received from villagers, struck from money rocks, dug up from shining spots (Switch, GCN and N64 versions of the game only), obtained through Bell Vouchers (which are sold to the store), and shaken from both regular and money trees.

During the summer, a popular strategy is to stock up on high-selling nocturnal beetles and fish. This tactic is available year-round in New Leaf, where players can visit Tortimer Island which features summer collectables at any time of the year. Another less profitable option confirmed for New Leaf is to save and exit the game, store all tools somewhere, collect all seashells and sell all the seashells, and repeat all of those steps again. This is possible because the seashells will be generated during the preparation of the town.

Specifically in New Horizons players create mass-collection of Tarantula and Scorpion on mystery tours through the Dodo Airlines in order to pay off their home loan. Money rock island is another way to earn Bells from each rock on that specific island.

The player can convert Pokis to Bells by using a ADB in the Happy Home Paradise.

Gifting[]

What?! A bunch of Bells!? Oh no, I can't accept this. I will feel this will make our friendship weird. Please, take it back.
― Villager refusing gifted Bells, New Leaf


Villagers will often ask for Bells, either as part of minigames, or trades. Bells can also be sent through the mail as a present. In New Leaf, villagers will refuse Bells as a gift during birthday parties, often commenting that "it would make our friendship weird". Villagers will always refuse Bells given to them as a gift with an excuse that varies on personality type.

Gallery[]

Wild World[]

City Folk[]

New Leaf[]

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New Horizons[]

Trivia[]

  • Bells may be based on Japanese yen. This is further supported by the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite item in New Horizons, because the Nintendo Switch costs 29,980 bells, and Nintendo Switch Lite costs 19,980 Bells. This is in reference to the Nintendo Switch's launch price of ¥29,980, and the Nintendo Switch Lite's launch price of ¥19,980 in Japan.
  • When "Bell bags" are hit out of a money rock, the sound of collecting a one-up mushroom in the Mario franchise is heard.
  • Isabelle has a head shaped similarly to a bag of Bells, with her bun appearing similar to the opening of the bag tied shut. She also has a pair of small bells on her hair tie, giving stronger support that this was an intentional design choice, hence her English name, Isabelle which sounds like "Is a bell".
    • Another reason for her naming might be because the French word for "beauty" is "belle", therefore she "is a beauty".
    • Ironically, in New Horizons, her services are for free.
  • An easy way to get Bells in New Horizons is to change the player's time settings. Deposit Bells in the ABD, and then save it. Close the game, and change the player's time settings to 2060 (max time on Nintendo Switch), and the player will receive interest. The max interest is 9,999 Bells. Set the time back to normal and open the game. Then just start again and do the same. This method might need some patience, but it's a good one if the player doesn't want to sell their stuff.
  • In Mario Kart 8, the coin item graphic is replaced by a Bell bag during the New Leaf stage. Up to 10 "Bells" can be collected per race, and function in the same way as a standard coin.

In other languages[]

Bell
Language Name Translation
Japan Japanese ベル Beru Bell
France French Clochette Bell
Spain Spanish Baya Berry
Germany German Sternis -
Italy Italian Stelline Little Stars
The Netherlands Dutch Klingels -
Russia Russian Дини Dini -
China Chinese 铃钱/鈴錢 líng qián Bell Money
South Korea Korean Bel Bell
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