Excel Formulas

[babylon5guy]

Hi,
I wanted to use the =countif but I don't know how to use it to single out a specific character in the data of a cell. Like I want to count the cells that have a monetary value in them and thought of using the $. How do you count just that and not the numbers and decimal points. Like if the cell contained $25.50 I just want to count the $. Can this be done? Also how do you count the number of cells in a range of cells and use that number to do a math function, like adding up a range of cells that contain money values then divide it by the number of cells to get an average.
TIA