Re: OT currency (was Re: Quoting styles (was Re: Antipassive?))

>By the way, Finland abolished the 1 ct. and 2 ct. coins as
>far as I know.
Well, they're not circulated, and if you pay in cash your purchase will be
rounded to the closest multiple of 5 c€ (the official plain 'c' looks a bit
feeble for an abbreviation to me, so there's metric for ya :b), but they're
still supposed to be legal tender. Still, a very practical decision if you
ask me.


>Also it's kind of annyoing me that I often
>get back a 5 EUR bill and some small change at the
>supermarket, so would it be worth introducing a 5 EUR coin
>maybe? On the other hand, the 2 EUR coin has replaced the 5
>DM coin (5 DM = 2,56 EUR when the Euro was introduced),
>though *subjectively* I feel that you got back two 5 DM
>coins more often than one 10 DM bill (= 5.11 EUR). I hardly
>get back two 2 Euro coins however. Can anyone confirm that?
>Carsten
No idea about the 2x5 DM part, but yeah, it's not common to get 2x2 € of
change. Technically you should hit that area on a 20% probability, but
perhaps it's because this is the zone where your purchase is less than 1 €
over a multiple of 5 € (eg. 30.25), so you might be prone to rather paying
with some bills + the extra amount of change.

As for some other topics here:
- I've tried lerning to tell euro coins apart by just the size / edge
texture, but it's harder than it might seem (considering they're designed as
pretty distinct). In particular 2 € and 1 € are hard to tell apart, at least
without a 0.5 € for size comparision.

- I do change-optimization too - except not with 5 cent coins. Those go for
the, shall we say, hoard. I've almost reached one cubic centimeter by now
(in neat stacks inside a fitting cardboard box). Stores clerks over here,
BTW, may be of smarter stock since nobody's ever been puzzled over why I'm
giving hir, say, 20.70 € for a 13.70 € purchase.

- Picking change up is a no-brainer to me. Consider, if you take 10 seconds
to pick up a penny, you're erning money at a rate equaling about $ 2600 per
month. Someone who makes a lot more than that might skip one, but it would
certainly be good enuff for me; let alone 5 c€, which equals 13000 € / month. :)

- And what *is* the story about Isaac Newton & his cat flaps?!

John Vertical

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