Re: OT: coins and currency (was: [Theory] Types of numerals)

Hi Roger (Roger Mills), in <BAY102-DAV49C35FD3BA41F38D74CB3AC2E0@...> on Jan 5 you wrote:

> Nomad of Norad David C. Hall wrote:
> > There used to be a dollar coin that was way bigger.  Seems to me it was
> > the Kennedy dollar.  Seems to me there also used to be a half-dollar
> > coin or some such thing...
> >
> It was the Eisenhower dollar-- silver dollars of any sort were never exactly
> common, but nowadays they're downright rare. And it was the Kennedy half.
> (and 50c pieces used to be much more common; now I'm amazed when I get one).
>
> > Speaking of "dollar," what other common words could be used in place of
> > "dollar" as a word for the lowest non-change denomination in a given
> > culture's currency?
> >
> Well, on Cindu there's the taruna coin (slang truni); the Gwr call it tru
> ni; worth somewhat more than a dollar though I don't know the present
> exchange rate.....  The currency is decimal. "Cent" is kurok (slang kroki) <
> kurongo 'hundredth'. There 50kr, 25kr, 10kr, 5kr and 1kr coins called resp.
> mekunjo or kronjo (< 'divide'), kroka (< 4), kropot (<10), kronim (<5) and
> kromi~krombi (< -mik 'little') or prangi (< 'zinc'). There are also 1 and 2
> truni coins, everything above that is paper.
And then, of course, we've got the "euro."  Sometimes it's called the
"euro-dollar," even though it's not the same value as a US dollar.  I
guess they call it that, imformally, because it serves the same purpose
as the dollar, being the lowest denomination before you go to "small
change."

Another thing that seems a mite peculiar:  Most of the coins I've seen
pictured from all over the world tend to be round, or at least round-ISH.
I guess things just sort of evolved that way, where coins started out as
largely round-ish because that's what happens when you press a patterned
image, by hand, onto a glob of molten metal, as they used to do a long
time ago, and they just sorta stayed round over the ages due to inertia.
Now they like round coins because they roll easily once inserted into the
slots of a vending machine.

In fact, I gather the Susan B Anthony dollar was originally supposed to
be a polygonal-shaped thing, to make it obvious by feel in ones pocket,
but the vending-machine makers complained that if the coin was not
going to be truly round, they'd have to redesign their machines... so
the currency people relented, and just added a polygon design onto one
face a regular, round coin.

I *have* noticed that a few space-operas have shown us square and even
rectanguler coins.  The original Battlestar Galactica, for instance.
I've actually *got* a set of these "cubits" I bought years ago from a
sci-fi con...

I've also got few little rectangular metal things printed with an image
resembling a dollor bill, or US denominations in general, only without
a specific denomination number marked on them, which some big sweepstakes
outfit used to mail out with their "You might be a winner...!" letters.
You were supposed to use this thing on the included scratch-off to find
out if you'd won something.

Each time one of these letters arrived, I pulled out and kept the thing,
placing them into my "replica coins and made-up coins" collection, with
the thought that someday I might make a very-low-budget short sci-fi
movie and need them as props...

That, and they were neat to look at.  :-D

I kind of wish we'd already started moving away from round coins at some
point *before* vending machines became common...  Think of all the cool
shapes we coulda had for our coins!

I mean, I could well imagine us having dollor coins that were actually
*shaped* like a dollar bill...

But we're getting way off topic, aren't we...?  :-D

--
      Nomad of Norad (David C. Hall)  ---  *TeamAmiga*
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