Money, money, money

In “Coffee and cats” (September 2014) there is this sentence: “more than £100,000 was raised in 60 days”. Isn’t £100,000 plural? Or maybe is it singular because of one hundred? And if it were £200,000, would it be ok to say “£200.000 were raised” …? Thank you. Carol

No. Money is singular in English, as is an amount of money. Even if you obviously count money, it is, like bread, an “uncountable” noun in English! And so we say “the money was sent yesterday” and not “the money were sent yesterday.” And, similarly, The Beatles sang “Give me money, that’s what I want” and not “Give me money, they are what I want.”
There isn’t really any logic, it’s just the way it is and different languages express things in different ways. If there is any logic, then it is that the use of the singular refers to “the money,” rather than the numbers that make up that amount of money. In your mind you need to picture a suitcase containing money, or maybe a cheque, or a bank transfer form, or a credit card receipt, rather than lots of bank notes.