On Wed, 2 Jul 2003, Iain Tatch wrote: > Pick up a handful of Merkin change and you get things that say "Nickel", > "Dime", "Quarter" with no other clue as to their monetary value.
You don't have any US change handy, do you? :) penny ($0.01): says "ONE CENT" nickel ($0.05): says "FIVE CENTS" dime ($0.10): says "ONE DIME" (okay, you got this one) quarter ($0.25): says "QUARTER DOLLAR" (close, but more descriptive) > For those of us not brought up in the USA, even if you're aware that > one's 5c and the other 10c, there's no obvious way to get from the names > nickel and dime to their monetary values. But nickel is a nickname, just like "quid" or "bob", and dime, while apparently official, does seem to imply 1/10 of a dollar -- if you're going to be that analytical about it, deducing the value of that coin based on the name isn't impossible. Interestingly, the values are all noted on what I assumed was the back of each coin, but I seem to recall a rule that the side with a value written *is* the side with value, i.e. if you could somehow slice the coin in half, the side without "dime" written on it (or whatever) would be without value as currency. This is vaguely relevant as the quarter has been having it's first redesign in 25 years or so, with the eagle "back" (which, like the others, has the value and so is probably actually the "front") being replaced by a logo for each of the 50 states, with 5 states a year being put into circulation for the next decade or so. Part of the redesign meant putting the words "quarter dollar" on the "front", by Washington's head, instead of the other side where it had been for decades. Apparently this was a big deal to the treasury & numismaniacs... -- Chris Devers [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://devers.homeip.net:8080/ nanotechnology, n. A quark with an outboard motor. -- from _The Computer Contradictionary_, Stan Kelly-Bootle, 1995
