Re: UK money, again (again)
On Mon, Jun 30, 2003 at 02:52:53PM +0100, Paul Mison wrote: Of course, the US has to give their coins cutesy names, just to LOL. You'll have to try harder than that. Shilling, bob, pony, monkey, quid, godiva, ton, large one, .. The US has nothing on the UK here. Paul -- Paul Makepeace ... http://paulm.com/ If my brain fell out, then blue would seem more like a bus-stop in Florida. -- http://paulm.com/toys/surrealism/
Re: UK money, again (again)
On 02/07/2003 at 14:48 +0100, Paul Makepeace wrote: On Mon, Jun 30, 2003 at 02:52:53PM +0100, Paul Mison wrote: Of course, the US has to give their coins cutesy names, just to LOL. You'll have to try harder than that. Shilling, bob, pony, monkey, quid, godiva, ton, large one, .. The US has nothing on the UK here. None of which would be found on the Royal Mint page, whereas dimes, nickels and quarters are official names (they're on the Treasury page I linked to in the previous email). As I said, we used to have nearly-official names (thrupenny bit) but we don't any more; a twenty pence piece is only known as, well, a twenty pence piece. Sure, there's lots of slang, but that's different. -- :: paul :: compiles with canadian cs1471 protocol
Re: UK money, again (again)
On Wednesday, July 2, 2003, 2:48:38 PM, Paul Makepeace wrote:
PM On Mon, Jun 30, 2003 at 02:52:53PM +0100, Paul Mison wrote:
Of course, the US has to give their coins cutesy names, just to
PM LOL. You'll have to try harder than that.
PM Shilling, bob, pony, monkey, quid, godiva, ton, large one, ..
Yeah but they're all nicknames. If you pick up a pound coin it says on it
(not unreasonably) One Pound. If you pick up a ten pence piece it's
nicely self-explanatory and says Ten Pence, and has a convenient 10 in
numerals, too.
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. 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.
--
Iain | PGP mail preferred: pubkey @ www.deepsea.f9.co.uk/misc/iain.asc
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Re: UK money, again (again)
On Wed, Jul 02, 2003 at 03:17:07PM +0100, 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. 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. The quarter says quarter dollar, which is no more slangy or less accurate than 25 cents. The nickle says very plainly just under the picture of Monticello five cents and nowhere on it does the word nickle appear. The dime says one dime and nowhere gives its value in cents. Of course those of you up on your middle english will know that dime means one tenth, and therefore isn't really a cutesy name. Hey, I don't have a Maine quarter yet. -- mike
Re: UK money, again (again)
On Wed, Jul 02, 2003 at 03:17:07PM +0100, 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. For those Quarter Dollar. Pretty obvious. The dime only says dime and I can't remember nickel. 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. Hi, can you tell me what these coins are worth? What is your point? That the US currency is failing somehow because it doesn't explicitly put its cents value on its coinage? I'm sure there's a million other vastly more complex culturally specific things you'd have to learn on arrival to any new country. Compared to learning a new language or dialect of a language criticizing a currency for the extra load of having to learn the value of two coins seems to me laughable. Imagine an employer reading this thread - this guy seems to struggle learning; not only finding the information out, but committing that trivial amount to memory. :-) Paul -- Paul Makepeace ... http://paulm.com/ What is a little trim? North by north west. -- http://paulm.com/toys/surrealism/
Re: UK money, again (again)
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
Re: UK money, again (again)
On Wednesday, July 2, 2003, 3:49:35 PM, Paul Makepeace wrote:
PM What is your point? That the US currency is failing somehow because it
PM doesn't explicitly put its cents value on its coinage?
No, the point was that although there are dozens of slang words for
various monetary amounts in British English, at least a tourist coming to
the country doesn't have to accost a local to find out what the coins in
his/her pocket actually are. Quarter Dollar is no more informative than
Flurglespotch unless your english is up to a level where you know what
the word quarter means -- even if they put 1/4 on it that would be an
improvement.
PM I'm sure there's a million other vastly more complex culturally specific
PM things you'd have to learn on arrival to any new country. Compared to
PM learning a new language or dialect of a language criticizing a currency
PM for the extra load of having to learn the value of two coins seems to me
PM laughable.
Indeed, and point taken. However seeing as iirc the thread all started
with a discussion about metrication and the lack thereof, there's also a
valid point to be made that you can go to almost any other country in the
world and quite happily work out the money by looking at the numbers
printed on the notes and coins. Of course, nobody really expects the USA
to give a monkeys about the rest of the world!
PM Imagine an employer reading this thread - this guy seems to struggle
PM learning; not only finding the information out, but committing that
PM trivial amount to memory. :-)
If a future employer searches me out on the net I strongly suspect that
would be one of the least of my concerns!
--
Iain | PGP mail preferred: pubkey @ www.deepsea.f9.co.uk/misc/iain.asc
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UK money, again (again)
On 26/06/2003 at 10:19 -0300, Luis Campos de Carvalho wrote: This is the first time I meet a monetary system that is not based on the relation 100 - 50 - 20 - 10 - 5 - 1 - 0.50 - 0.25 - 0.10 - 0.01 As other people have mentioned, although not explicitly, the British pound (and the Euro) have different sub-unit currency subdivisions, ie: 100 50 20 10 5 2 1 http://www.royalmint.com/talk/specifications.asp http://www.eurocoins.co.uk/ireland.html as opposed to the US model: 100 50 25 10 5 1 http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coins/index.cfm?action=faq_circulating_coin Of course, the US has to give their coins cutesy names, just to confuse people; a habit that's thankfully died out here (cf previous discussion of florins). I vaguely recall seeing a survey that recommended an 18/100 unit coin as the optimum for currencies, but the mental arithmetic would be horrific. I don't know if they pronounced on whether 20 is better than 25 or not, but it's interesting that the US doesn't issue 25 dollar bills. -- :: paul :: compiles with canadian cs1471 protocol
Re: UK money, again (again)
On Mon, Jun 30, 2003 at 02:52:53PM +0100, Paul Mison wrote: As other people have mentioned, although not explicitly, the British pound (and the Euro) have different sub-unit currency subdivisions, ie: 100 50 20 10 5 2 1 as opposed to the US model: 100 50 25 10 5 1 horrific. I don't know if they pronounced on whether 20 is better than 25 or not, but it's interesting that the US doesn't issue 25 dollar bills. My experience was that 25 sucks. When calculating amounts above 10 cents I had to keep track of both units and tens changing when I added/removed a 25 cent coin from an amount. Adding/removing 20 only changes the tens. Likewise I found the lack of a US 2 cent coin really really annoying, because I had to deal with up to 4 coins just to get the last few cents right. Nicholas Clark
