Re: OT: the euro & 01.01.02 (was NATLANG/FONT:)

At 06.05 p.m. 21.12.2001 -0500, you wrote:
>Am 21.12.01, Tristan Alexander McLeay yscrifef:
>
> > Eeks... you seem to have (had) a complicated currency structure...
>
>Complicated? English L/s/d is complicated!
Hey, I'm used to 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1 and $2 coins, all called that
(5c--50c coins collectively called silver money; one/two dollar coins
called gold money. Archaic 1c and 2c coins called bronze money), $5, $10,
$20, $50 and $100 notes, all called that. Collectively called notes or
plastic money. Archaic paper money called paper money.

Our weirdest thing is the shape of the 50c coins. They aren't
circular---when they were first made, they used more than 50c-worth of the
metal they're made out of, so the cut the edges off and now they're
octagonal. They're also our only non-reeded coins.

Twenty cent--coins are the ones traditionally used for flipping, probably
because they're the most convenient in size.

L/s/d ( ;) ) is complicated, I'll give you that, but yours is also complicated

> > but that
> > still doesn't explain where `dime' comes from... Apparently, it comes from
> > OF `disme' from `decima pars', a tenth part, but that doesn't explain how
> > it came to be used to mean 10c. Was the word once more common? Was a tenth
> > of a pound or a shilling called a dime?
>
>A dime is the tenth part of a dollar. Just like the cent is the
>hundredth part of a dollar. See, it's all metric.
Why did you metrify your money but not your measurements?

>There was no tenth part of a pound, until 1849 when the UK made
>the first tentative baby steps towards decimalisation. Note that
>the older (large sized) 10p coins are the same size and
>composition as the old florin.
Are these 10p coins or 10d coins?

Tristan

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