> > > On Tue, 18 Dec 2001 bjm10@CORNELL.EDU wrote:
> > > > In the USA, the currency unit has been
> > > > a "cent" for centuries, but the coin is still a "penny".
> On Tue, 18 Dec 2001, Anton Sherwood wrote:
> > But nobody calls a nickel "five pennies" (let alone "pence"!).
bjm10@CORNELL.EDU wrote:
> Exactly my point. Even though the value of the nickel is five cents,
> it is never called anything but a nickel.
Not true. We usually say "here's a nickel" but we may also say "here's
five cents"; the latter suggests the sort of person who hypercorrects.
*My* point, in case it was unclear (who me? usually!), was that we never
say "five pennies" unless we mean five distinct pieces of copper^Wzinc.
--
Anton Sherwood -- http://www.ogre.nu/