(MONEY Magazine) – $15 Amount you ought to tip the newspaper delivery guy at holiday time, according to Maryland-based etiquette consultant Cynthia Lett

$0 What you should tip the folks who deliver the U.S. mail, who are forbidden to accept tips

$16 billion Total tips paid in the U.S. in 1999, according to Cornell professor Michael Lynn

$4.45 Average tip on a restaurant meal in the U.S., according to Zagat

$1 Average tip on $20 meal in 1955, when 5% was a widely accepted standard

$3.60 Average tip on a $20 meal today, or 18%

$2 million The largest tip ever recorded, given by a Swiss banker to bartender Gwen Butler, 29, in Boston in February 2000

$29.95 Cost of Creative Tipping, a book on turning paper currency into origami animals--which, says author Jason May, gets you better service for your money

--GRACE JIDOUN