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

On Fri, 06 Jan 2006 08:11:15 -0500, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
wrote:

> In US currency, for instance, there are essentially 4 sub-dollar
> denominations (1, 5, 10, 25), since half dolalrs are very rare.  As a
> result, some values require up to 9 coins (e.g. 94¢ and 99¢).
> Reintroduction of a commonly-circulated half-dollar would cut that
> down by one coin; a two-cent piece would reduce it by two more.  That
> would yield six denominations and a maximum minimum (:)) of six coins
> per value.
I'm sure you're aware of the British system, which is partitioned 1, 2, 5,
10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, etc. I have a gut feeling that it's more
optimal than the US system of (essentially) 1, 5, 10, 25, 100, 500, 1000,
2000, which strikes me as more organic but less wieldy.

Of course, it shouldn't take much math to prove that the most optimal
system would have units of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc., provided of course
that the general populace could be made sufficiently familiar with the
concept.




Paul

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