Now that the dollar coin is a different color than the quarter, they don't
end up mixed. But, the replacement of the Washington quarter, that even
included when they were silver, with the commemorative quarters means they
are now all different designs, and the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins no
longer have more of a difference of appearance from quarters than a
Canadian quarter.
A "Dime" is one tenth of a dollar. Or ten cents. Or $10 worth of drugs.
The coin is 17.91mm diameter, and the smallest coin in circulation.
A "Nickel" is five cents. or $5 worth of drugs.
The coin is 21.21mm, and is between a penny and a quarter in size.
I'm broadly aware but I can never remember which is 5¢ and which is 10¢.
Think of the "dime" as a "deci"
"nickel and dime" is used to mean small and irrelevant.
"nickel" and "dime" are also slang for $5 and $10 respectively, except in
casinos, because while the casinos still had coin slot machines they had
nickel ones, and did NOT confuse those with $5 chips. But, without the
little paper-cup bucket of coins, what's the appeal of scanning a card,
and then, if the machine malfunctioned and you won, it prints out a piece
of paper to take to the cashier cage?
Yeah, but we reformed and decimalised it all about 50y ago, and now,
as an olde pharte, all the old units and multiples are arcane and
weird even to me. I have only the dimmest memories of seeing shillings
and things like that. I barely understand feet and inches and don't
really grasp pounds, ounces and so on at all. I have never used
Fahrenheit.
Oh, but we are proud of our unremembered heritage, and fiercely resist
change. We still use Fahrenheit. And efforts to "go metric" have made
little headway.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
