OT: Dollars and Cents(was the euro & 01.01.02)

John Cowan nevesht:
>
>Which were (and are, in the case of the cent) copper.  The other coins are
>copper-nickel alloy, with the outer surfaces having enough nickel to
>look silver; the dollar coin has some kind of veneer (brass?) that makes
>it look gold.
>
>Canadian coins look essentially the same, but with different markings
>on the faces, of course.  Nickel is ferromagnetic, and in the 60s
>(perhaps still?) one could tell a Canadian nickel from a U.S. one
>because the former, but not the latter, would stick to a permanent >magnet.
Today, new coins are made of nickel plated steel, the loonie of bronze
plated ("aureate") nickel, the toonie(2$) is bimettalic(aluminum-bronze core
nickel ring, and the penny of copper clad steel.
In the USA coins are coppernickel clad copper,the penny copperclad zinc

>
> > were silver, everything above was gold.  I'm not sure if there were
> > There's also the "bit", 1/8 dollar (i.e.,
> > 12.5 cents), but I don't think there was ever an actual US coin for
> > that, altho it was the exact equivalent of the Spanish real.
>
>I think not, but it used to be common to price articles at 1 bit,
>meaning you could pay for them with a dime and receive no change,
>or with a quarter and receive a dime in change -- it balances out.
>I remember being a child in the early 60s and not knowing what
>"two bits" (a quarter) meant.
It wasnt uncommon to distinguish short bits(10c) from long bits(15c)

Tristan Alexander McLeay nevesht:
>
>From the people,  of course!
>
>What we have now are:
>
>1c      penny, cent
>5c      nickel, five cent piece
>10c     dime, ten cent piece
>25c     quarter, twentyfive cent piece, two bits
>50c     half, fifty cent piece, four bits
>$1      dollar, brass buck, S.B. Agony, SBA, Ike, silver dollar
>
In Canada,
1c  penny,sou,1 cent piece
5c  nickel,cinq-sou,5 cent piece
10c dime, 10 cent piece
25c quarter, 25 cent piece
50c (rare) 50 cent piece
1$  loonie, piasse/piastre, one dollar coin
2$  toonie/twonie, un polar, two dollar coin
and in humour: doubloon, american dollar, two bits(early ones occasionally
broke in two)
>We have had:
>
>half cents, two cent pieces, three cent pieces (aka trimes
>and "nickels"), half dimes, 20c pieces (double dimes),
>$2.50 gold pieces (quarter eagles), $5 (half eagles), $10
>(eagles), $20 (double eagles). Someone proposed a $50 and
>$100 (half union, and union) in the 19th century; another
>proposal was the $4 piece (stella).
Actually, stellas were minted and saw some circulation.

>
Padraic Brown nevesht>
>Am 21.12.01, Matthew Kehrt yscrifef:
>
> > I seem to be the only one in the world in favor of keeping pennies.  It
> > seems silly to have the smallest coin be worth 5 units and have all
> > other denominations multiples of this.
>
>I wouldn't mind getting rid of the nickel either. It's just about
>as worthless and equally a nuisance.
>
> > It would make more sense to
> > redefine the value of pennies to be five times their face value and work
> > up from there.  (Easier said than done, of course.)
>
>Well,  yes. A complete revaluation of the currency would work.
>It's not that hard - just about every country in the world has
>done it; many have done it lots of times. Our current sutiation
>really doesn't warrant such a move though!
>
Well, since there has been a devaluation of about 20:1 since c1920
revalue the dollar by 25:1, and get rid of the 1c, 5c, and 10c :)
-Wayne Chevrier


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