Re: OT: coins and currency

Michael Potter wrote:
> As Roger Mills said, the last large-size silver dollar was the
> Eisenhower dollar
The Eisenhower dollar wasn't silver, just the size of a silver dollar.

>  and starting next
> year, Presidential dollars.
Yep.  I'm looking forward to those.  :-)

> Personally, I would like to see $5, $10, and even $20 coins.
I'd like those too.  :-)  Hence, my Kassi having a 3-khof (~$25) coin.

> The problem with pennies (or cents, as pedantic numismatists say) is
> that they cost *more* to produce than they are worth. Seriously. One
> penny costs on average something like 1.25 cents to actually mint.
The figures I've seen is that a penny still costs less than 1 cent to
make.  The US mint says it costs .81 cents to produce a penny
http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coins/index.cfm?action=faq_circulating_coin#cost

> As for sub-cent coins, the US minted a half-cent until right before the
> Civil War (1857, I think)
Local governments produced mil tokens, however, well into the 60's.

I find it odd that the half-cent was discontinued in 1857, when the
dollar was wroth about twice as much as in 1800.

I'd listed teh Kassi's earlier, but made a couple of small errors.
Corrected:
There's also ¼ and ½ zalh coins, originally intended to ease the
transition to duodecimal (as were ¼ and ½ khof coins, but those were
never popular), as 1 duodecimalized zalh would be equal to ¾ old zalh,
making those coins 1/3 and 2/3 of the planned duodecimal currency.

For a while, there were coins of 2¼, 4½, 9, 27, and 54 zalh (in
duodecimal notation, .03, .06, .10, .30, .60 kh), but those were
generally despised, and quickly abandoned (except for the 54-zalh - ½
khof - which remains to this day, though uncommon)

Corrected modern currency:
Coins
¼z
½z
1z
3z
6z
12z
36z
½kh (54z; uncommon)
1kh
3kh
6kh (uncommon)
12kh (rare)

Banknotes
3kh (uncommon)
6kh
12hk
36kh
72kh
144kh
432kh

The Fifth Empire survived for about 2 centuries, beginning at a
technology level roughly analogous to mid-20th century, and progressing
at a little slower than we did.  They managed their currency at zero
(average) inflation, until their collapse.

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