Fun stuff

[guanin]

Today I paid for something. In the paying process, I took some loose change out of my bag and stared at it for five full seconds. I figured out instantly that the big coins were 25 cents, but those little thing ones which I've known my entire life are dimes, which is equivalent to 10 cents? Ha! Now way. I didn't know if they were 5 or 10 cents. The thing is, the British 5 pence coin is about the same size and since that's what I go with I didn't know anymore. *head desk* I just handed it to the teller with this dubious look on my face, like, "Is this correct?" Oh god.

Though it's fun to have four different kinds of currency in your bag. I got US dollars, euros, pounds, Mexican pesos... Fun.

Comments

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

So do you want a discussion about dollarization and/or exchange rates, nominal and relative? Because I can provide one. Seriously. I can.

But basically it'll just come down to this. Money is weird.

[guanin.livejournal.com]

Uh, no thank you. That sounds a little intimidating. My problem was reserved to the physical aspect itself of the coin.

Money is weird, though I'm afraid I only know the physical side of this. Why the hell is a nickel bigger than a dime? And in England, too. Why is the 2 pence coin bigger than the 20p one? Is there no sense in the world?

[visiblemarket.livejournal.com]

I know that they are generally speaking different sizes so that blind people will be able to handle change (which is also why in some countries bills are different sizes, depending on denomination, so god knows why they don't do it in the US). Nickel (or more accurately, whatever nickel alloy they use to make nickels) is probably cheaper than whatever silver alloy they use to make dimes. That's presuming they still use silver to make dimes, which I don't think they do. Pennies are especially weird because these day's their basically worthless, cause more than a penny to make, therefore costing the US mint money. But it's got Lincoln on it, so the state of Illinois (among others) tends to put up a fight at the suggestion of eliminating them. True story.

[guanin.livejournal.com]

If they were all the same size, I'd be going nuts. But wouldn't it make more sense for them to increase the size of the coins with the denominations? Wouldn't that make it easier for everyone? And why does the dime say "One dime" versus "ten cents"? What do tourists do when they first come to the US and are figuring out the coins and see that? "What's this dime thing? I thought it was cents! Ah!"

Those darn Illinois people. *shifty eyes*
I wonder how much the two pence coins costs to make. Cause they're really big and hefty.