Elite Four members don’t give correct reward money with Amulet Coin

I've been playing Pokemon Ruby as of late, and once I got past Victory Road, I noticed I was extremely low on money for potions and whatnot, so I looked around for ways to farm some.

I read on GameFAQs that defeating the Elite Four members repeatedly with the Amulet Coin was a viable way to earn some quick money, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

![Images of my Pokemon game before and after defeating an Elite Four member.][1]

The image above shows before, after defeating the Elite Four member (with the Amulet Coin), and after entirely. (After step 3 below.) The pictures were actually taken after the first attempt at this. I dumped my money on some potions and tried again, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.

This is my method:

1. Start battle with the first Elite Four member.
2. Defeat him.
3. Go on to the second member, get as far as I can until I die.
4. I die because I'm actually terribly under-leveled for how far I am in the game, so I'm getting EXP and money at the same time. Groudon is slightly higher than the rest due to being captured at level 45 and being used for the EXP Share.

After defeating the first Elite Four member, I'm only actually making $2367, not the $4900 it says I'm making…This is odd, as

1. I'm using the Amulet Coin.
2. $2367 != $2450 (What would be the normal reward money without the Amulet Coin.)

Does anyone know why this is happening? My only guess would be because I intentionally die on the second Elite Four member, thus it messes up the Amulet Coin because I can't leave once it's started. Is that the case?

–EDIT–

I was unaware that the Amulet Coin was supposed to be given to a Pokemon to hold! That being said:

1. Base reward money from this member is $4900.
2. With coin: $9800.
3. Upon death, I'm left with about half of what I had -> $4952 (I started with $105)

Is it normal to lose half of your money upon blacking out? I've never actually checked before.