Re: Types of numerals

Nik Taylor wrote:
> Tristan McLeay wrote:
>
>> I don't really think I'd call that remotely OCD. ("Just a minute, let
>> me see if I've got any change.") That's really a very common practice
>
>
> Not in Kansas at least.  I'm a cashier, and quite often, most people
> just give me one or two bills, just accumulating their coins and
> low-denomination bills.  And then I hear people complain about how they
> have so much change!  I regularly see people with several dollars worth
I'm also a cashier :) Interesting difference between here and there! I
suppose this makes your comment of 6.01.2006 "Like any other
denomination of coin, if you use them, they're not a problem" make more
sense.

> of coins (and keep in mind that $.25 is the largest common coin in the
> US).  Not to mention ridiculously large numbers of low-denomination
> bills like 1's and 5's.  I try to avoid having more than 4 pennies
> ($.01), 1 nickle ($.05), 2 dimes ($.10) or 3 quarters ($.25), likewise,
Does anyone know why American coins have names? It's always struck me as
very odd.

> I try to keep my paper at no more than four 1's, three $5's or one $10
> (it's not uncommon for registers to not have any $10's, so receiving
> back two or three $5's is fairly common).  I find it mildly annoying
> when I slip up and receive a nickel when I already have one ... :-)
I tend to spend my $1 and $2 coins shortly after I get them (assuming I
put them in the right place ... if I put my $2 coins in the coin pocket
of my wallet I'm likely to forget them! They're really quite small,
marginally bigger than an Australian 5c coin, but somewhat thicker). On
the other hand, I tend to let most of my 5c, 10c and 20c coins
accumulate (at home), in case I decide to take the tram and have to buy
a ticket from the coin-only vending machines on board. It means I jingle
when I'm walking to the tramstop, but it also means I've got 'em if I
need 'em. 50c coins are in between, keeping them, using them...

>> ---about the only people who don't do it are the people who want to
>> try and take certain coins out of circulation (I've met a few people
>> who try and collect all the 5c coins they can---they obviously hate
>> them as much as I do).
>
> If you hate them, why would you collect them?  Wouldn't you try to get
> rid of them, or simply leave them?
(I meant to say "hate them more than I do". That's what I was thinking
when I typed that, but my fingers sometimes have a life of their own.)

I think the idea is that they're trying to make it cost more to produce
them so the government's more likely to stop making them. I think part
of the rationale for getting rid of one and two dollar notes and one and
two cent coins is that they weren't in circulation much more than a
year. But I think it's a while before 5c coins would suffer that fate, I
tend to get a reasonable number from the 1970s and I've even had some
from 1966 (the year dollars and cents were introduced).

> But, yeah, it does seem like the US dollar and the Pound seem to be
 > the accepted "standard currency value".  Revalued currencies
 > generally seem to aim for the vicinity of those.

Makes concepts like "millionaire" more comprable :) Though I suppose
inflation does the opposite---a millionaire of today is less impressive
than a millionaire of the 19th century.

>> Notes are notes, rarely paper money because hereabouts they're polymer
>> (another thing I don't get is why euros notes are paper.
>
> Yeah, from what I've read of polymer notes, I wish the US would do that,
> too.  But, there's enough complaints about the minimal amount of color
> recently added that I'm not holding my breath on a rational currency any
> time soon ...
You're kidding me! What on earth can people have against having color in
notes?? Aren't your notes all about the same size, too? That must make
it very annoying being a cashier (at least before the added color),
you'd have to read every single note for its value. I barely glance at
them: pink=$5, blue=$10, red=$20, yellow=$50 and green=$100, growing in
size.

--
Tristan.

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